Microsoft KB Archive/22575

INF: Fatal Exit 0x04FF: Unable to Load Code Segment Error ID Number: Q22575

2.00 2.30 2.10 3.00 WINDOWS

Summary:

A FatalExit error 0x04ff “INT 3F handler unable to load segment” can occur if the system is unable to load a code segment. 99 percent of the time, this error occurs in real mode. The problem is that there is a stack frame somewhere that has a fixed DS in it. This problem can occur if an application switches to a fixed data segment and makes a far call to the code segment, and the code segment cannot be subsequently discarded.

This error can also occur if an .EXE file cannot be read (for example, there is a bad disk sector on the disk).