>I have a fair sized vfp 5.0 app that crashes with the illegal operation message at frequent but unpredictable intervals. Details button shows exception 10h in vfp.exe. The Microsoft knowledge base has a document that seems to apply (q183/5/22) but the fix suggested is bizarre (disabling the numeric co=processor).
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>Microsoft calims this results from an interaction with thrid party printer drivers, but this sounds like a cop=out.
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>Anyone have a similar experience or a solution.


it isn't a cop-out; at least one vendor (HP) has a long and detailed history of writing lousy drivers that don't reliably restore the state of the numeric coprocessor and MMX registers, and using fpreset() or otherwise disabling the FPU is needed to keep things from breaking. It isn't a blind stab.

A simpler solution if you are using HP's drivers would be to use the Microsoft-provided drivers from an operating system distribution instead of the problematic HP drivers. i fall back to reliable, tested drivers for many HP printers; one example is that I use the Microsoft-distributed HP IIIsi drivers rather than the HP-delivered 5si drivers; other recent drivers delivered by HP have a long and jaded history of breaking LOTS of things, not just VFP.

Rather than badmouthing Microsoft, why not try fixing the problem?