It is "probably" not a hardware problem.  More likely it is a piece of
software with a bug in it, or two or more pieces of software that are not
working together correctly.  If it always happens when you are running the
same program, then that is a clue.  An "illegal operation" may be trying to
divide by zero or writing to a part of memory that is reserved by the
operating system; this is easy to do in a program written in a language that
uses memory pointers, such as C.  If it actually is a hardware problem, it
might be very difficult to track down and fix because of its intermittent
nature.

Normally, I would say that you should try to get the latest updates for your
drivers.  Since you are still using 98, this may not be easy or practical.
If it frequently bothers you, then you might also consider an upgrade to XP.
XP is supposed to be more robust, especially at trapping this kind of
problem gracefully.

All this advice is just a shot in the dark, however, because you haven't
given any information of how often you get this error message, what programs
you are running when you get it, and what hardware you have - all
information that would be helpful in determining the problem.

BTW, we all have seen this message, often accompanied by the blue screen of
death, BSOD.   ;)

Dean Kukral


----- Original Message -----
From: "ike isenhour" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2004 4:13 AM
Subject: [PCSOFT] Computer Glitches


I am using a tradional desktop with win 98.  I sometimes get a message "this
computer has performed an illegal operation and will shut down".  I hit the
enter key and everything turns to normal.  I was wondering if this was the
computer's way of telling me that the video card may be going south.  Or is
it an indication of something else wrong?  Tanx.

Fairways and Greens

Ike

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