Fatal error
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Not to be confused with fatal system error.
In computing, a fatal error or fatal exception error is an error that causes a program to abort and may therefore return the user to the operating system. When this happens, data that the program was processing may be lost. A fatal error is usually distinguished from a fatal system error[1][2] (colloquially referred to by the error message it produces as a "blue screen of death"). A fatal error occurs typically in any of the following cases:
- An illegal instruction has been attempted
- Invalid data or code has been accessed
- An operation is not allowed in the current ring or CPU mode
- A program attempts to divide by zero. (Only for integers; with the IEEE floating point standard, this creates an infinity instead)
In some systems, such as Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, a fatal error causes the operating system to create a log entry or to save an image (core dump) of the process.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Fatal exception error - Webopedia
- What Are Fatal Exception Errors - Microsoft Knowledge Base
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