A fatal exception 0D has occured error installing Avast free Windows 98se

I installed Avast free on about four identical Windows 98SE systems.

Two of them work flawlessly. The other two systems worked perfectly, until installing Avast. One of those machines I swapped hard drives with another identical drive with Windows already installed. Avast worked fine after doing that.

I installed Avast on yet another identical machine. Machine worked perfectly prior to Avast. Now that machine keeps crashing. I pulled out the drive and replaced it with the drive from the first machine that Avast crashed as I had put a different drive in that one. I reformatted the hard drive, loaded Windows 98 and all drivers as I have reformatted these machines many times before. I updated it to the latest IE 6 available with all security updates that are out for Win98se. I also installed Firefox, latest 2.0.18 that works with Windows 98. Everything worked perfectly. I powered down, installed Avast free, and now it’s crashing just as the other drive / machine did.

After powering up, it will usually boot to the desktop, but if I wait very long, try to update Avast Windows will crash. Here’s the error I get:

                     Windows
                     --------

A fatal exception 0D has occurred at 00:28:C00015E1.

No errors until installed and configuring Avast (just set to pick permanent Internet connection). Also attempted to update definitions.

I will also mention after the crashes on the 2nd machine that crashed, I did notice the hard drive was a bit noisy when it ran Scandisk after the machine wasn’t powered down correctly. Reformatting the drive and reinstalling Windows did not reveal and physical hard drive problems. I also find it odd the both machines with these drive worked perfectly, for a long time, prior to Avast so i’m not thinking it’s cause for the hard drives being worn out.

Thanks for any help.

Honestly, it’s hard to suggest anything helpful, when it comes to Win9x and this kind of errors.
So, you don’t have any other low-level software installed, right?

Win98SE commonly called the Silly Edition is very prone to these types of failures.

Please see:
Fatal Exception 0D
http://www.aumha.org/win4/kbefe.php