Fatal Errors

An error message, which reads, “fatal” can seem drastic. However, if you experience a fatal error or fatal exception, don't worry. This does not mean your computer is dead, it just means there has been an error in an application, from which the program is unable to recover from. The application has to shut down. Obviously, this is very annoying if you lose unsaved work.

To recover the system, you normally need to click the reset button in the error pop-up. If this is not possible or does not work, you may have to reset the computer.

With regards to the cause of fatal error messages, there are a few possibilities. They usually come about when the system has been led to attempt some impossible task, such as dividing by zero. Other examples are attempting to perform an illegal instruction or accessing invalid data or code. This happens if the program gets confused and accesses the wrong part of memory, thinking it is retrieving an instruction or data but it has really retrieved garbage that the processor, with its finite instruction set, will not understand.

Sometimes, a fatal error will occur when the application reaches a point in RAM, which is physically defective so that it is unable to properly excecute 32-bit instructions. Typically, this kind of RAM error will return a message something like, "Fatal Exception 0x has occurred at xxxx:xxxxxxx". Similarly, a program can get lost in RAM and may try to access a point out-with the pre-determined block it is meant to be using or a location, which doesn't exist. In these cases, the Windows operating system intervenes to save the RAM from becoming more corrupted, and the program is aborted.

Fatal exceptions are normally the result of a deficiency in the program. Since programs are now so complex, it is not realistic to expect that programmers will always be able to account for every single eventuality. A fatal exception usually happens when the program reaches a point under certain circumstances, which the programmer did not anticipate. It is unable to cope and has to abort.

The error could be due to a physical occurrence in hardware. Examples include, a shock or jolt of the computer, a current surge, or a static discharge onto a component in the PC. In rare cases, there is permanent damage to some part of hardware, which needs to be replaced to solve the fatal errors. Alternatively, the fatal error may be the result of a software problem, such as a conflict. If you have recently installed a new program and now another application keeps crashing in this way, it may be that the two are conflicting and the errors would cease if you uninstall the new one. It could also be the result of a registry error. If there are problems with the registry, the best way to fix them is by using a registry cleaner.