.pyc crashes, .py doesn't

[cbrand at operamail.com]

I am building a CGI application with Python (2.0) for Win32 that uses an
Access97 database via Mark Hammond's odbc module.

The program is comprised of a .cgi file and a number of Python modules.  One
core module (whizdb.py) is the source of the problem.  It is imported into a
much smaller 'scripting' module to provide database functionality.

The application runs just fine if I change the source file (whizdb.py) or delete
the bytecode file (whizdb.pyc), but crashes with an invalid page fault in
MSVCRT.DLL (MS VC++ runtime, I think) if whizdb.pyc is accessed for the import.

I expect there is a problem in my code that is causing this, but, as a
work-around, is there a way to force Python to import from the source file (.py)
instead of the bytecode file?  Is there a way to prevent Python from writing the
pyc file when importing in the first place?

This has just about driven me nuts, I would appreciate any help I can get.
Thanks.