Why do I get the message "System has performed illegal operation," when shutting system down?
This question was answered on December 7, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.
You're not doing anything wrong or against the law, despite what the error message says
The message means that the program in question is having a problem The "illegal operation" designation covers a wide range of errors, and it may take some time, patience and troubleshooting to pinpoint the cause
The most common causes of an illegal operation include a problem between that program and a software driver in your operating system or a memory-management problems between the program and one open in the background
Problems and conflicts with different dynamic-link library files, or D.L.L.'s, that are added to your system when you install software programs can also cause illegal operation errors Hardware conflicts, defective RAM chips and program bugs can also cause the error
To pinpoint the cause, ask yourself some questions: Has this program always worked but is now crashing out of the blue? Has anything, like new hardware devices or software, been added lately? If you can trace the advent of the problem to a specific event, it may help narrow down the likely suspects
to resolve this problem use Drwatson and system file checker by typing in the run dialog box "sfc" and also "drwatson" for Dr Watson.
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Posted by Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on December 7, 2003
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