fatal exc.error during windows shutdown

[Andras]

What do you think when you get the blue screen with "fatal exc.error" message during the windows(98se) shutdown process?
You hit a key and screen changes to a striped pattern with cursor blinking and nothing happens for a few minutes. Then you just cut power off, and turn the system on again and everything functions properly.
Could it be a random memory failure or something else?

[mjc]

It is possible that one of the background programs that is running on your system is not terminating properly.

Try shouting down in Safe Mode. It it shuts down properly there then try teminating background programs before shutting down. You can try soing all of them and if it works properly keep repeating with one program at a time until the one that hangs is found.