I've had some luck w/ the tait programmer and winpic when programming a 16f84a. I'm assuming your using an lpt1 or lpt2 cable? First connect the programmer with the PC, then turn the PC on, start the programmer, and insert the PIC into the socket (or connect the ICSP cable) shortly before programming. Is the configuration word set inside your hex file? or are you setting it manually from winpic?