Troubleshooting Steps






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How to fix a general protection fault:

Issue:

How to fix a general protection fault.

Additional Information:

Short for General Protection Fault, a GPF is a error message generated by Microsoft Windows indicating that a program being used attempted to call a portion of memory that is either invalid or already in use. This error often forces the user to exit the application and/or reboot.

The GPF message is often referred to as the BSOD, which is short for Blue Screen Of Death. This name comes from the full blue displayed when the error occurs.

Cause:

There are several possibilities and reasons a computer receives a General Protection Fault error, the following is a listing of some of the more common reasons.

The program being used is calling a section of memory that is already being used by another program or TSR.
The program has not been programmed properly or is still in testing and is calling an invalid portion of memory.

Solution:

The following are recommendations into finding the cause of a GPF and or resolving a GPF. It is important to know that GPFs are always likely to occur on the computer and if you are experiencing a GPF rarely such as once every few weeks to not worry about attempting to locate the root cause of that GPF. However if you are experiencing GPF error messages often it is recommended you follow the following recommendations to help resolve your issues.

Remove all TSRs:

Disable or unload any TSRs or programs currently running before running the program causing the GPF.

Delete all program temporary files:

Delete all temporary files that may still be residing on the hard disk drive from currently or previously running programs.

Run Scandisk / Defrag:

Attempt to run scandisk / defrag on the hard disk drive as it could be possible your hard disk drive may have an issue causing the swap file or data files to become corrupt or invalid

Verify your computer has more then 200 MB available:

If your computer is running low on hard disk space, your Windows swap file will be unable to increase in size when needing causing programs to be swapped between memory and the hard disk drive more frequently. When this occurs it is more likely that a GPF can occur.

Recently installed software / hardware:

If you have recently installed new software or hardware attempt to uninstall or reinstall that software / hardware to verify it is not causing your issue.

Operating System issue:

It is possible for Windows or an overwritten Windows related file to cause a General Protection fault. Most commonly the General Protection Fault with Explorer and KRNL386.EXE. Attempt to reinstall your operating system to resolve the issue.

Disable external cache:

If your CPU utilizes external cache attempt to disable it temporarily to verify if it is causing your GPF error messages. If available you will be able to disable your external cache through CMOS.

If this resolves your issue it is recommended that you contact your manufacture or motherboard / CPU manufacture for additional recommendations and or BIOS updates that may resolve your issue.

Disable Power Management / Screen savers:

If you are receiving GPFs when away from the computer or during durations when your computer is inactive attempt to disable power management and screen savers to ensure that they are not causing your issue.