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What's a 'Stack Overflow'?

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What is a 'stack overflow'? I keep getting stack overflow warnings after installing new 2006 version of Norton Internet Security. I had no such problems before. Should I go back to my 2005 problem-free version of Norton?

I've now received a couple of reports of stack overflow problems after people have upgraded to Norton Internet Security 2006. Here's what I know so far.

One reader ran into this problem after upgrading Norton Internet Security to the 2006 version. After a lot of effort and patience on his part, apparently Symantec admitted there was an issue, and advised him to revert to the 2005 version until the issue was addressed.

Unfortunately, I've been unable to confirm any of this independently - I don't doubt my reader at all, but I do like to independently corroborate if at all possible. Unfortunately I've found nothing on the Symantec website. Yet.

I'm hopeful that it will eventually be addressed there. Keep track of the comments to this article as readers report in, and I'll also update it as soon as I find out anything.

As to your original question, "what's a stack overflow?" - well, for a simple phrase, it's a fairly deeply technical answer. It has to do with how the computer itself manages data, and how the programs running on it utilize it.

Conceptually, a stack is just that ... a stack of information. You can put things on the stack, and take things off of the stack. It sounds kinda useless, but you'll have to trust me that it's fundamental and incredibly useful on microprocessors.

Each program running has it's own stack somewhere in the computer's memory. But because there's so much else going on in memory, each stack is only allocated so much room. Hopefully each program will a) allocate enough room to begin with, and b) not have a bug that would cause it to keep putting things onto the stack without taking them off. If you put too much on the stack ... it overflows. What happens when you overflow a stack varies based on how the software is written.

What causes a stack overflow? Again, it varies a lot. It all depends on how the software in question was written. Ultimately, any stack overflow that you see is a bug, somewhere.

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Article 9522 | Posted December 14, 2005

Recent Comments

I have the Norton Systemworks 2003 (EN) program and I am having "Stack Overflow" problems. My
carrier Toast.Net advised me to lower my security
screening which I did to no avail. Any other
recommeded solutions?

Posted by: Daniel L. Grimsley at August 8, 2007 11:49 AM

Hi. I just copied a free scrolling text applet from one site on the web called JPowered. I incorporated the applet on our website and now for some reason, everytime I would load up the website using Internet Explorer, it gives me the following error:

"stack overflow on line 2".

What does this mean and how can I fix it? Help!

Posted by: Darlene Custodio at September 18, 2007 11:19 AM

I just ran into this error while adding rollover images to a web page. I located the source of the problem being in the Java Script for the rollovers, though it's not exactly the Java Script because the same rollover images and Java Script work fine on other web pages that I made (in IE). So I'm now looking at my script closer to see if I missed something. I'm guessing it's something as simple as a piece of script that needs to be rewritten, or moved. If I fix it, I'll post again explaining what it was.

Posted by: Selective Music Inc at October 1, 2007 03:17 AM

Yeahhhhhhh I fixed it! It was just a matter of moving the Java Script and placing in somewhere else! On all browsers, you can put the Java Script just about anywhere on a page or on just about any page that affects the files you want to be affected within it's subdirectory. However IE is being a pain and will only let the java script appear in one place for it to work. So you just have to go through all the pages and all the scripts in you subdirectory till you find the right place for it. For me I only had 4 pages of script to go through and took me about 1 to 2 hours! I hope this helps for those of you still trying to fix your problems.

Posted by: Selective Music Inc at October 1, 2007 05:06 AM

I am getting a stack overflow error: line 34
What is line 34 associated with, and how do I fix it? This happened when I was streamlining IE (7.0) a few days ago. It happens each time open up IE.

Thanks Greg

Posted by: Greg Iski at November 23, 2007 06:53 AM

i keep having stack overflow 4140. it will not let me open a.i.m. unless i shut down and reboot whole comp. whats with this 4140? thanks

Posted by: frank at December 1, 2007 10:45 AM

My CEO is getting "Stack Overflow on line 78" when he opens or refreshes the main page of the USA Today website. Unfortunately, I cannot duplicate the error on any other machine, including his laptop. All of our desktops use the same applications. Any idea's on where to start looking would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Mike

Posted by: Michael Ingram at January 30, 2008 09:37 AM

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

My first guess would be spyware or other malware. Make sure
to run up-to-date anti-spyware and anti-virus scans.

Leo


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iD8DBQFHpMc9CMEe9B/8oqERAqpuAJwIIPJVWccy9x06+8ofaw8sHpccTACcC4OD
6buBy92r9jJkQafR+dOORyI=
=R0kX
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Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at February 2, 2008 11:40 AM

We are having the same problem on the USA Today page but our error is line 94. Bizarre. If I discover anything, I'll come back and post what I found.

Posted by: Melanie Aldridge at July 31, 2008 10:37 PM

it keeps popping out overflow at line:255 what do i do???

Posted by: Bob at August 3, 2008 09:46 PM

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