Windows Error Messages
Windows Error Messages
The Skinny on Blue Screen Blues
Do crypyic error messages from Windows get you down or cause panic? Does all the blue screen of death hype make you stop in your tracks? Well sometimes knowledge is power so here is a brief not so tecky explanation of what your Windows Operating System may be whispering to you. If you listen to the whispers then you may avoid the crash. It's not always about your system getting a virus, Trojan Horse, Worm etc. There are other reasons that your PC may be unstable. Windows gets lots of flack for being less secure than other Operating Systems but you have to look at it this way. The truth is that all Operating Systems have their flaws, bugs and holes but Windows gets the most press because it is by far the most widely used Operating System (OS) worldwide. Just do the math, more Windows users equal more hackers using this particular OS. So what about those error messages? Let's explain briefly what exception, fatal and illegal operation errors are when using Windows.
Exception Errors
An exception error means that something unexpected has happened within the Windows GUI (Graphical User Interface) environment. The GUI is necessary for users of all skill levels to interact with an electrical device such as your PC without having to know all the code to make a command work. These errors usually happen due to improper memory access by either the Windows applications or the operating system itself. The blue screen would appear in the case of an application overwriting the program code itself corrupting the program during the process of reading and writing new data to memory. Yes, it happens.
Fatal Errors
A fatal errors occurs when an application accesses an illegal instruction, invalid data, code or privilege levels.The processor sends an exception to the operating system when these errors occur. Many times these errors are recoverable just by pressing the Esc key or by rebooting your system.
Illegal Operation Errors or Kernel Errors
Have you ever seen this message? "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor." If you have ever experienced a system crash then you have probably experienced an Illegal Operation Error. These errors are caused by invalid page faults or IPF's. These page fault errors occur when a Windows application or program reads or writes to a memory address or location that is not allocated to it. You can diagnose the problem by bringing up the details button which will tell you which application created the error. Then the best remedy would be to uninstall the application and reinstall it. If the error message lists more than one application then there could be a problem with a Windows component and not the mentioned applications. Be a detective, notice when you get these errors. The time and/ or file that may be causing the IPF.
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