thanks James and Bert.
As far as I know the defender is not fake and came with the original OS.
I had already added AC to the MSE exceptions list but the error happened nevertheless and I went thru all the steps they outlined. AC tech support remoted in and found the exceptions were correctly set. I understand that defender uses the same files as MSE.
They had no other explanation but felt that some other program may be interfering.
so will keep any eye on this
thanks
bala
