TPPATCH does fix a bug appearing in all programs that have been written using Turbo Pascal when such a program is run on a Pentium Pro 200MHz or a faster computer. This bug causes a runtime error 200 when the startup code of Delay() is executed. The bug appears when a DIV instruction is executed and the result does not fit into the destination register. With this bugfix you can patch all files that have been compiled with Turbo Pascal, for example Crosspoint. This procedure does also work with applications compiled for the protected mode. To patch software without having the source of it, you can apply better methods, for example replacing Delay() if you have the runtime sources, and a unit has been posted in some newsgroups that will circumvent this with various low-level tricks. With this patch Delay() does run correctly on all slower machines, likewise on a Pentium Pro with 200MHz. But if there are even faster processors one day, Delay() will wait a bit to short on them. But the programs patched with TPPATCH will never hang again because of the bug. Here comes the explanation: >530B:0087 E83C02 call 02C6 >530B:008A F7D0 not ax >530B:008C F7D2 not dx >530B:008E B93700 mov cx,0037 >530B:0091 F7F1 div cx ^^^^^^^^^ >530B:0093 A35C00 mov [005C],ax This division on CS:0091 or CS:0099 causes exeption #0, and this causes a runtime error 200. The first procedure (here it is on CS:0087) detects how long the cpu can decrease a counter within a time of 55ms. The following two NOT instructions negate the value of the counter and divide it then by 55. (37h=55d) The result is saved in a variable (here [005C]) und is used by Delay() later to wait exactly one millisecond. I've changed it as follows: > cs:007E E88501 call .... > cs:0081 F7D0 not ax > cs:0083 F7D2 not dx > cs:0085 B93700 mov cx,0037 > cs:0088 3BD1 cmp dx,cx > cs:008A 7205 jb 0091 > cs:008C B8FFFF mov ax,FFFF > cs:008F EB02 jmp 0093 > cs:0091 F7F1 div cx > cs:0093 A35C00 mov [005C],ax This prevents the result to grow larger than a word. Of course I had to insert some instructions, so I optimized some laxities done by the programmers of BP/TP and circumvented the need to move the code completely. before the changes: > cs:0062 33C0 xor ax,ax > cs:0064 A25100 mov [0051],al > cs:0067 A26100 mov [0061],al > cs:006A A26200 mov [0062],al > cs:006D 40 inc ax > cs:006E A25000 mov [0050],al after the changes: > cs:0062 33C0 xor ax,ax > cs:0064 A36100 mov [0061],ax > cs:0067 40 inc ax > cs:0068 A35000 mov [0050],ax The program (TPPATCH.EXE) examines the file it is commanded to patch exactly, so no exe file will be "patched to death". The position of the variables are scanned automatically, so the patch should work with *all* versions of TP7/BP7. But I haven't tested it with TP6. Of course it is possible that it also can patch those files. Of course, the whole thing is only necessary if the unit CRT is used in the program. It is possible to make a batch run TPPATCH on all executables on the hard disk, because TPPATCH does a bunch of tests with every file, so not a single wrong file will be patched. Of course, compressed files have to be uncompressed before patching, for example with UNP (ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/execomp/unp411.zip). I'm not responsible for any action that is performed by TPPATCH, nor do I give any waranty about the function of it. Before you go and patch foreign software you should take a look into a LICENSE.DOC file or anything similar . Andreas Bauer