Stack Failure

[rot_link]

My dad come home today and posed the question 'my computer at work had two stack failures today, can you do anything about this'. Now my problem is, until today I hadn't even heard of a stack, much less a stack failure. So I Googled the problem and the only thing I got was a definition of 'stack' which is as follows:

stack
A common data structure in computing. Data items are "popped" and "pushed" (stored and retrieved) from the top of the stack. Stacks normally have a maximum size. It is an error to push items onto a full stack, or pop items off an empty stack.
In TrueType *hinting, all *instructions pop their arguments from the stack, although this aspect of the language is hidden in many TrueType hinting editors - and in *TypeMan Talk. For efficiency, hint assemblers and compilers typically push all the arguments for a glyph's instructions onto the stack at the beginning. The stack's maximum size is stored in the *'maxp' table of a TrueType font.

Now I'm not even sure this is the correct definition for the problem I am looking at. So could you help me by telling me what a stack failure is, or point me in the direction of a website that would? Perhaps if I know what a failure is, then I can see if the problem is solveable. (Frankly, I don't know if it is a problem that *is* solveable)
Thanks,

[Voltage Spike]

I would be surprised if you got more of an answer based on the given information, but stranger things have happened. We don't know anything. OS? Programs? Exact error message? I realize you don't have this information handy, but that doesn't help us.

On the off chance that he is running an old version of MS-DOS, perhaps the STACKS setting could be adjusted.

[rot_link]

I'll get the information

Ok, I'll talk to my dad and I'll get the specifics on it, and then I'll post more information. I apologize, I thought of saying something along this line in my first post, but didn't. Guess I should have.

[rusty]

the solution

Maybe I'm missing the point here.......

defcon forums............
...........hacker convention forum...............
.......... where do I see tech support implied here?


Next time I reccomend you get all the details up front.............. things such as operating system, any applications that may have been running when the said error occured, along with any actions that were being performed at the time and tell your dad to call his IT support group or help desk.

If that isn't the case, say it's a really small shop maybe you can help him to search google along with the microsoft knowledge base for an answer.

If that doesn't work try a operating system / hardware support forum, not the defcon forums.