Date: 2009mar4 Language: C/C++ Q. What does a value of 0xCCCCCCCC mean in the Microsoft Visual C++ Debugger? A. 0xCCCCCCCC means stack memory your program did not initialize (and you used the /GZ option). Maybe you have a stray pointer. More details: http://www.google.com/search?q=%2FGZ+Catch+Release-Build+Errors+in+Debug+Build There are other possible values. They are described here: http://www.codeguru.com/Cpp/W-P/win32/tutorials/article.php/c9535/