hp0p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Hokkun Pang) (01/18/91)
are there any usual causes of the 'unrecoverable error'? I ecounter this thing so many times, what operation should I be cautious of?
brandis@inf.ethz.ch (Marc Brandis) (01/18/91)
In article <UbZZ8Ny00WB4M20V8m@andrew.cmu.edu> hp0p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Hokkun Pang) writes: >are there any usual causes of the 'unrecoverable error'? I ecounter this thing >so many times, what operation should I be cautious of? "Unrecoverable application error" is nothing but the general protection fault of the i286, i386 and i486. It is raised if a program does something that may hurt system integrity, like accessing memory outside of the blocks it has allocated, branching to invalid addresses, doing wrong pointer arithmetic or accessing devices directly that it is not allowed to access. There are lots of possible reasons, but all of them are program bugs. The bugs may occur both in real and in protected mode, but they are only detected in protected mode. Interesting how many professional programs have lots of such bugs in them. You can imagine that they were also there in the real mode times of Windows (1.0 - 2.13), but there they were not detected but rather modified the data or code belonging to other programs, causing all kind of mysterious problems later. -:) Marc-Michael Brandis Computer Systems Laboratory, ETH-Zentrum (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland email: brandis@inf.ethz.ch
risto@tuura.UUCP (Risto Lankinen) (01/23/91)
brandis@inf.ethz.ch (Marc Brandis) writes: >In article <UbZZ8Ny00WB4M20V8m@andrew.cmu.edu> hp0p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Hokkun Pang) writes: >>are there any usual causes of the 'unrecoverable error'? I ... >{explanation of UAE deleted} >Interesting how many professional programs have lots of such bugs in them. >You can imagine that they were also there in the real mode times of Windows >(1.0 - 2.13), but there they were not detected but rather modified the data >or code belonging to other programs, causing all kind of mysterious problems >later. -:) Hi! Sometimes so, indeed. But given that the applications often work just about right in older Windows, the bugs that pass (more or less dense) debug-phase sieve could almost always be considered 'harmless'. For example: - Writing the NULL character (required for C string) one past the end of the buffer reserved for it - Initializing arrays with wrong index range (1..N instead of 0..N-1) - having private class/window data without proper extra space reserved from the end of the structure - Deliberately accessing devices directly to boost performance or to use non-supported hardware In many cases, the 'off-by-one' errors either hit the program's own data or the otherwise unused 'granulation gaps' between memory blocks, that normally are allocated only at certain even boundaries. Windows 3.0 traps these, but the older versions don't. I'm *not* writing to encourage bad coding manners, but to suggest that even though some programs seem to behave badly in Windows 3.0 doesn't necessarily cast doubt to their reliability using with earlier versions of Windows. Terveisin: Risto Lankinen -- Risto Lankinen / product specialist *************************************** Nokia Data Systems, Technology Dept * 2 2 * THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK * 2 -1 is PRIME! Now working on 2 +1 * replies: risto@yj.data.nokia.fi ***************************************
DLB@psuvm.psu.edu (Dan Bernitt) (01/23/91)
It can also be caused by a perfectly good program that accesses expanded and/or extended memory if the PIF contains incorrect information.
gts@megatest.UUCP (Tom Stephenson) (01/24/91)
From article <21616@neptune.inf.ethz.ch>, by brandis@inf.ethz.ch (Marc Brandis): > In article <UbZZ8Ny00WB4M20V8m@andrew.cmu.edu> hp0p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Hokkun Pang) writes: >>are there any usual causes of the 'unrecoverable error'? I ecounter this thing >>so many times, what operation should I be cautious of? One thing that happens to many un-wary users is running out of DISK SPACE in the C:\WINDOWS\TEMP area. When the system is trying to print a file, the print manager will open temporary files. The swapper is also a file using temporary space. When you run the system out of swap space, BAD THINGS HAPPEN. Expect crash or lock up etc. I recommend that you follow the procedure recommended in the back of the windows manual to first use Norton Util to compact the hard disk then bring windows up in real mode and run swapdisk to create a permanent swap space. The effect is improved performance (cause the swap space is all in the same disk area) and protection against crashing when you print. You may lose the printout but won't crash the system. One m,ore thing... When shutting the system down, be sure to exit windows FIRST. Any 3 key reboot or power down while inside windows may leave part of a print file in the TEMP directory. You can end up with MANY temporary files in the TEMP directory... Just a little housekeeping would be to add something to clean that area in the autoexec.bat G. Tom Stephenson; Megatest Corp. (gts@megatest.UUCP) 880 Fox Ln.; San Jose, CA 95031 (408) 437-9700 {pyramid|sun|decwrl}!megatest!gts
hp0p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Hokkun Pang) (01/24/91)
this program "WINQVT 4.51" never fails to introduce a "unrecoverable error" when you hit control-tab twice (consecutively). Next thing you know, you have have reboot the computer, but supposedly, this bug *was corrected*.
my@dtg.nsc.com (Michael Yip) (01/24/91)
In article (Tom Stephenson) writes: >From article (Marc Brandis): >> In article (Hokkun Pang) writes: > >>>are there any usual causes of the 'unrecoverable error'? I ecounter this thing >>>so many times, what operation should I be cautious of? >One thing that happens to many un-wary users is running out of DISK SPACE in >the C:\WINDOWS\TEMP area. When the system is trying to print a file, the Well, I think that you can get that error when WIN3 runs out of memory too. I am not sure, but a few times I had a few excel woorking at the same time, and everything worked fine but I exited all the programs and started them again and I get the 'unrecoverable error' when I opened a few windows. [I have a 386 w/ 4MRAM and a lot of disk space.] [And I was using the standard mode then. ] -- Mike
weiman@jargon.whoi.edu (Bob Weiman) (01/25/91)
I have found the solution to my "unrecoverable error"
messages on my system. The problem was apparently caused
by DOSEDIT. I had been loading it prior to Windows. Now
I only load it in a DOS window from within Windows and the
problems have gone away.
--
Bob Weiman Internet: bweiman@whoi.edu
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Deep Submergence Lab
Woods Hole, MA