Data Execution Prevention not working

[bxf]

Some time back I had enabled hardware DEP on my laptop, which runs XP
SP2 and has a Core2 Duo T7600 processor. This was working properly, as
confirmed by the Data Execution Prevention section of Performance
Options as well as by running NXTEST.

If I run NXTEST now, it tells me that DEP is not active. Also, if I
run some applications that used to crash unless they were in the DEP
exclude list, they no longer crash.

Windows, both in the Performance Options as well as in the procedure
outlined in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912923, tells me hardware-
enforced DEP is active. If, just for testing purposes, I disable DEP
in my BIOS, Windows appropriately tells me that my processor does not
support hardware DEP, so obviously, Windows recognizes that
"everything is OK" for hardware DEP to function properly. I have
NoExecute=optout in my BOOT.INI file, and "Turn on DEP for all
programs and services except those that I select" selected in
Performance Options.

Since we are told that we must have SP2 for hardware DEP to function,
we know that there is a software dependency in the picture, and hence
I must assume that something has been recently replaced in my system,
effectively causing a regression of some module(s) to pre-SP2 state.

Can anybody out there who has hardware DEP enabled try to run NXTEST
and see what it says, please?

Thanks.

 

[bxf]

Some time back I had enabled hardware DEP on my laptop, which runs XP
SP2 and has a Core2 Duo T7600 processor. This was working properly, as
confirmed by the Data Execution Prevention section of Performance
Options as well as by running NXTEST.

If I run NXTEST now, it tells me that DEP is not active. Also, if I
run some applications that used to crash unless they were in the DEP
exclude list, they no longer crash.

Windows, both in the Performance Options as well as in the procedure
outlined inhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/912923, tells me hardware-
enforced DEP is active. If, just for testing purposes, I disable DEP
in my BIOS, Windows appropriately tells me that my processor does not
support hardware DEP, so obviously, Windows recognizes that
"everything is OK" for hardware DEP to function properly. I have
NoExecute=optout in my BOOT.INI file, and "Turn on DEP for all
programs and services except those that I select" selected in
Performance Options.

Since we are told that we must have SP2 for hardware DEP to function,
we know that there is a software dependency in the picture, and hence
I must assume that something has been recently replaced in my system,
effectively causing a regression of some module(s) to pre-SP2 state.

Can anybody out there who has hardware DEP enabled try to run NXTEST
and see what it says, please?

Thanks.

I guess not too many of you are running with hardware DEP enabled.

For what it's worth, I narrowed down the change from DEP-working to
DEP-not-working to somewhere between June 3 and August 9, 2007. I've
restored my system to its June 3 state and then reinstalled all
applications that I had previously installed between the above
indicated period. DEP still works. My assumption is that the problem
is caused by some Windows or Office update, but I'm unable to reapply
all fixes in the sequence they were original installed.

I guess I'll have to wait till somebody at MS notices that this
problem exists and hopefully a solution will be forthcoming.