Cool down a little bit...
Well, do as you wish... but i doubt it will solve the problem.
At least make sure the Config fuses are correctly transfered from MCS to your XYZ programmer software and that your XYZ software is set to program those fuses.
I'd never trusted ICPROG and ALL freebies one anyways, and guess what? I think it's the main problem here.
When you don't use the bootloader, how do you program your PIC, In-circuit?, on a ZIFF (or else) socket? Wich programmer/interface. Is PGM tied to GND (or at very least loaded to GND)?
Did you do a 'programming check' once it's programmed?
Any schematic of your stuff? ... just in case.
EDIT: i remind Malc-C already had problem programming this PIC with software like that... no coincidence at all :D
EDIT #2 : ICPROG don't have the 18F2550 in it's list... at least if their wonderful website is up-to-date...
Just a question about bootloaders code
To use a bootloader you add to code
Code:
define LOADER_USED 1
and if I understand what this does correctly, it moves everything down the stack, some fixed size (4 bits, or is it 4 bytes?) anyway, what happens if you forget to comment out this code when not using bootloader?
If as mister_e says ICPROG doesn't support 18F 2550 it's never going to program it properly.