Data Execution Prevention, How Does a Hit Manifest Itself On a Computer?

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My hardware and software supports DEP or Data Execution Prevention and I
have verified that it is enabled. I'm playing a recent game, Oblivion, and
have experienced two "crashes" where it appeared the entire system shut
down suddenly during the gameplay. I am aware that this might be a heat
issue with either the CPU or GPU BUT, for some programming reason(s) it
might also be DEP detecting something it doesn't like about Oblivion too?

What I have not learned yet is when DEP does discover a problem how does
this manifest itself? Does it shut everything off in a split second like I
am seeing in these two instances OR does it just terminate that
program/game that is in question and then give you some explanation on a
Desktop window?

Ref: KB article 875352 and 912923. I verified the checks in the later
article--that DEP is running and enabled on my system; and from the first
article have excluded Oblivion (added its .exe to its exclusion list).

Thank you.
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote in
My hardware and software supports DEP or Data Execution Prevention and
I have verified that it is enabled. I'm playing a recent game,
Oblivion, and have experienced two "crashes" where it appeared the
entire system shut down suddenly during the gameplay. I am aware that
this might be a heat issue with either the CPU or GPU BUT, for some
programming reason(s) it might also be DEP detecting something it
doesn't like about Oblivion too?

What I have not learned yet is when DEP does discover a problem how
does this manifest itself? Does it shut everything off in a split
second like I am seeing in these two instances OR does it just
terminate that program/game that is in question and then give you some
explanation on a Desktop window?

Ref: KB article 875352 and 912923. I verified the checks in the later
article--that DEP is running and enabled on my system; and from the
first article have excluded Oblivion (added its .exe to its exclusion
list).

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Do you have 'Reboot automatically on system errors' set in My Comp-
Advanced, Error-Reporting ?

Maybe it's just a regular error, not anything malicious.
 
Hi,

DEP simply does not allow execution of a routine or process from protected
memory, it would not crash the program (unless the program specifically
relied on that process). It doesn't halt the process, it never even gets to
start. A programming error that causes a DEP fault would have to be
corrected by the software writers, but I doubt that this is the issue. To
confirm that, simply turn off DEP for a while and see if the problem still
occurs.

It's more likely that this is heat related. Additional cooling may be needed
if so. If the damage is significant, the only solution would be to replace
the faulty component (they don't get better once physically damaged by
heat). Could also be a faulty memory problem, in which case you can use one
of the below programs to try to confirm it:

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
http://www.memtest86.com/
http://www.simmtester.com/page/products/doc/download.asp

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
DanS said:
Do you have 'Reboot automatically on system errors' set in My Comp-
Advanced, Error-Reporting ?

Maybe it's just a regular error, not anything malicious.
Click to expand...

I suspect it is software program related now because after many more hours
of gameplay I have had other kinds of crashes.

I have turned DEP back to its default ON condition because, from another
replier, it does not cause the system to freeze.

I have also turned off error reporting completely--it was on but would
notify me if I was on the Desktop.

Thanks. We'll see how it goes. I'm working the game, Oblivion, in their
forums but this DEP idea sort of fell more here then there.
 
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