fatel exception

[Liquid_X_Trance]

i keep getting what i think is called the blue screen of death, it reads
windows
A fatal exception OE has occurred at 017F:BFF72830. The current application will be terminated.

* Press any key to terminate the current application.
* Press CTRL + ALT + DEL agian to restart your computer. You will lost any unsafed information in all applications.

Press any key to continue _

i dont understand why this keep happening? this is a new barebones kit computer that i built. its different than the one i have on my post but iam still using win98 operating system.

its a soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 motherboard
Pentium 4, 512MB PC3200 DDR 400 MHz memory

can anyone please help me, this blue screen is really making me angry.

[glc]

0E errors are usually bad ram.

[GaryRouth]

A good first step with this sort of error is to test the memory (http://www.simmtester.com works pretty well). If the P4 is faster than 2ghz, there's a patch you can try from Microsoft: unfortunately I don't have the link handy. If I can find it later on I'll post it (but I'd still test the system memory first, it's one of the most common causes).

Many other causes for these errors, too - but might as well start with the high-percentage try.
. . . Gary

[hi there, glc - you must have replied while I was over at Microsoft trying to find the >2ghz patch! ]

[glc]

The problem you get without the 2 GHz patch is a NDIS error, not a 0E if I'm not mistaken - and it comes up during Win98 installation, once its installed it's gonna work fine.

[Liquid_X_Trance]

thanks all for your help, iam going to try to test my ram, if i can get anything to work on www.simmtester.

[Liquid_X_Trance]

can anyone please tell me if any of this software is free on www.simmtester. and if so which one ?

[GaryRouth]

DocMemory is the one you want to test memory modules with. Looks like the site asks for a free registration first nowadays, before downloading. Once you register with them (I believe you can browse their privacy policies before joining), you should be able to find the free-for-personal-use version of DocMemory. The download creates a bootable floppy, from which you start the target machine & test the memory in DOS.

The DocMemory link is in the menus to the left of the homepage screen.
. . . Gary

[thanks glc, for remembering the NDIS part. . . I was fishing in my brain awhile for that (I might need a better hook) . . . ]

[p.s. ...Trance: I believe the last time I downloaded DocMemory (quite some time ago), it was a self-extracting ".exe" file. You just double-click on it after it has downloaded (and after your antivirus program has assured you that the download is virus-free), and it will extract the files you need right onto a floppy.]

[glc]

www.memtest.org is a better bet these days - it's open source. Download the Pre-Compiled package for Floppy (DOS - Win), unzip to an empty folder, and read the readme.

[GaryRouth]

[. . . nice link, glc. I added it to my favorites. I'm going to try it out sometime this week: they certainly have been updating that tool - it can handle the latest Athlon64s . . .]