What Are Fatal Exception Errors
Symptoms
When you attempt to shut down your computer, start Windows, or start a program in Windows, you may encounter error messages that are similar to:
A fatal exception XY has occurred at xxxx:xxxxxxxx Fatal exception errors are codes that are returned by a program in the following cases: Access to an illegal instruction has been encountered Invalid data or code has been accessed The privilege level of an operation is invalid When any of these cases occurs, the processor returns an exception to the operating system, which in turn is handled as a fatal exception error. In many cases the exception is non-recoverable and the system must either be restarted or shut down, depending upon the severity of the error.
In the sample error message that is listed above, XY represents the actual processor exception from 00 to 0F. (Note that the “h” that is listed after the 0E, 0F, and so on, in the explanations below is frequently omitted from the error message.) The xxxx:xxxxxxxx value represents the enhanced instruction pointer to the code segment; the 32-bit address is the actual address where the exception occurred.
Windows does not cause these errors, but has the exception-handling routine for that particular processor exception, which displays the error message.
NOTE: This article is primarily for informational use. Click the following link to go to the “Troubleshooting Fatal Exception Errors” section of this article: