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Blue screen of death?

16 years ago

What is this? I sometimes get a blue screen says "fatal exception has occured", more info, and finally, "press any key to continue".

Is this something I should be concerned with? I seem to be going downhill here, even after taking maintenance precautions.

Using Windows98, and OE6.

Thanks for any info, you people are so patient with me!

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Comments (7)

Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana
16 years ago
Yikes!

Did you maybe do a search on BSOD here? Below is a link to the results...until someone else comes along.

I have been plagued by it in the past. When it persists, the only fix I have found is to completely empty out the computer and reload everything (reformatting I'm told that is called) with Dell's help. It is certainly nothing I could do on my own.

I have been told that sometimes the BSOD itself holds a clue as to what the problem might be....but who wants to copy down all that stuff, and I have yet to learn how to copy the screen.

Best of luck to you.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: BSOD search results.
zep516
16 years ago
Here is a link from Microsoft, I get the error once in a while on my old 98se machine, In xp BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH means windows has simply stopped working and can relate to almost anything, hardware, ram, driver,& software ect--In 98 and I have never read the link closely but maybe a memory issue(Ram). I have always been able to recover by a reboot on mine, next time you get the error I would write it down because if it is hardware related, re-installing would be a waste of time, as I said I did not read the link so perhaps it also could be software related, a software related error as in xp would most likely indicate a 3ed party program something that was downloaded. Google these key words 'copy screen in 98' Or print screen key.

Here is a link that might be useful: FATAL ERROR
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zep516
16 years ago
I continue to see folks using these operating systems here windows 98SE and ME, 98SE probably one of the better written softwares from Microsoft, ME was the start of 2000/ xp and in fact has some features that xp has like system restore. But these systems are at risk on the Internet now, there is a certain group that target these systems because they can get at them eaisly...Never do any banking, E-bay, or any financial things on these systems. I think we all know this just wanted to get it out there.
DA_Mccoy
16 years ago
#1 cause of BSOD is RAM overload. Trying to do too much with too little RAM available.

DA
zep516
16 years ago
That's right, but they don't have a true BSOD, They have a fatal exception error as in windows 98, 95, so to look into this error you would need to examine "Fatal Exception Errors", BSOD errors are unique to xp, 2000, & vista where they give an error code like - 0c00000xe 000000a1 0000000ff, it is these errors that define the most probable cause and problem.
DA_Mccoy
16 years ago
I never argue a point I am not informed on, but I do have to report my old WIN98OE would BSOD when I tried to create a blivey sp? (Dutch for 10 lbs of **** in a five pound bag) on it. The screen would present the Fatal Exception Error alert with error code. I never did look it up as I knew what I was doing at the time was pushing the old codger to its limits.

DA
zep516
16 years ago
I stand corrected after looking around here is what I found my point was it is a different type of error, but your right still called a blue screen:

The blue screen of death frequently occurs in Microsoft's home desktop operating systems Windows 95, 98, and Me. Here it is usually less serious, but much more common. In these operating systems, the BSOD is the main way for virtual device drivers to report errors to the user. It is internally referred to by the name of "_VWIN32_FaultPopup". A Windows 9x/Me BSOD gives the user the option either to restart or continue. However, VxDs do not display BSODs frivolously Â they usually indicate a problem which cannot be fixed without restarting the computer, and hence after a BSOD is displayed the system is usually unstable or unresponsive.

Two of the most common reasons for BSODs are:

Problems that occur with incompatible versions of DLLs. This cause is sometimes referred to as DLL hell. Windows loads these DLLs into memory when they are needed by application programs; if versions are changed, the next time an application loads the DLL it may be different from what the application expects. These incompatibilities increase over time as more new software is installed, and is one of the main reasons why a freshly-installed copy of Windows is more stable than an "old" one.
Faulty or poorly written device drivers, hardware incompatibilities, or damaged hardware may also cause a BSOD. If you have just installed a new piece of hardware, updated a driver, or installed an Operating System update shortly before you see the BSOD, be sure to investigate these causes also.
In Windows 95 and 98, a BSOD occurred when the system attempted to access the file "c:\con\con" on the hard drive. This was often inserted on websites to crash users' machines. Microsoft has released a patch for this.[4]

The BSOD can appear if a user ejects a removable medium while it is being read on 9x/ME. This is particularly common while using Microsoft Office: if a user simply wants to view a document, he might eject a floppy disk before exiting the program. Since Microsoft Office always creates a temporary file in the same directory, it will trigger a BSOD upon exiting because it will attempt to delete the file on the disk that is no longer in the drive.

This type of blue screen is no longer seen in Windows NT, 2000, and XP. In the case of these less serious software errors, the program may still crash, but it will not take down the entire operating system with it due to better memory management and decreased legacy support. In these systems, the "true" BSOD is seen only in cases where the entire operating system crashes.

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