An overflow error indicates that software attempted to write data beyond the limits of memory.

Each program has a section of memory allocated for a stack. The stack is used to store internal data for the program and is very fast and keep track of return addressing. A program may jump to an area that reads some data from the hard drive, then it returns from that routine to continue processing the data. The stack keeps track of the originating address, and the program uses that for the return. Kind of like leaving breadcrumbs to find your way back. The stack has a limited amount of storage space. If software attempts to access an area of the stack beyond its limits, an overflow error occurs.

The stack overflow problem is not as prevalent on the newer operating systems, however, because of the small footprint on mobile devices it can become challenging. If your operating system on your mobile device is giving you a stack overflow error, you may have too many apps running. You may have a virus using stack space. You could even have hardware damage that could cause a stack overflow error message. Check your app usage and virus protection and run a memory diagnostic app on your mobile device to see if this helps clear up your error.

An overflow error that is created by storage assignment is referenced as a data type overflow. What this means is that a certain data type used for storing a piece of data was not large enough to hold the data. For example, if you try to fit twelve cans of soup in a box designed to hold ten cans, two cans will “overflow” that space. By the same token certain data types can only store numbers of a certain size. If a data type is a single byte, and the data to be stored is greater than the unsigned value 256, an overflow error occurs.

This type of error usually only happens with older machines trying to run modern operating systems since the capacity of the operating system over shadows the capacity of the hardware. In other words, you may get overflow errors when an application requests 64 bits of storage when the program can only offer 32. The software developer is responsible for properly avoiding or handling this type of overflow error.

Error, Programming terms, Underflow

  • Why do computers get problems?
  • How to fix Stack overflow system halted error.
  • Commonly experienced computer errors and basic troubleshooting steps.
  • Memory (RAM) help and support.