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Troubleshooting "Type 11" Errors

> Back in the old days when the Macintosh Bible folks included error
> numbers & meanings, a type 11 trap was written as, "the Mac was
> looking something up in a special instruction table but didn't find
> what it was looking for. A buggy or corrupted application causes this
> one." (Fortunately, I've updated each new Macintosh Bible with with those
> old, torn-out pages with error ID descriptions that are excluded from
> recent years' bibles.) But now I'm confused -- what is a Type 11 Error?
 
A "Type 11" error is defined as a "miscellaneous hardware exception," leading many people to think it is always a hardware problem. (And indeed, bad SIMMs and Level 2 caches are common culprits.) But people fail to consider that Power Macs spend half their time EMULATING 68lc040 chips ... and often that is the problem. While technically the cause is usually a bad call to the FPU (missing in the 64lc040 but present on the PowerPC) the usual culprit is bad or corrupted software.
 
Before proceeding, you should think about upgrading your system software. Many people have reported that System 7.5.3 (and, for certain models, Revision 2) have virtually eliminated Type 11 errors. You should also contact the vendor of your application to ensure that you are using the correct version. However, neither of these solutions will solve all problems. In some cases you will need to troubleshoot your system.
 
The usual fixes:
 
  1. Delete the preferences file of the offending application (because it's so simple)
  2. Reinstall the offending application (if that's the only place you get the error)
  3. Reinstall system software (do a clean install if necessary)
  4. Zap parameter RAM (Command-Option-P-R at startup)
  5. Search for extension conflict
 
I list #5 last because it's often so time consuming, although it's often the cause. If you've recently installed extension X and start getting crashes, though, you can safely assume the problem is X and move #5 to #1. Zapping the parameter RAM sometimes solves the problem because it "resets" the emulator in some way (the emulator's use of PRAM is not documented as far as I know).
 
For more information consult the Apple Tech Info Library at
 
http://til.info.apple.com/til/til.html
 
or go directly to the Type 11 tech note:
 
http://cgi.info.apple.com/cgi-bin/read.wais.doc.pl?/wais/TIL/Macintosh!Hardware/Pwr!Mac!Including!Perf/Pwr!Mac!Type11!NoFPU!Errs!TchNt
 
(Yes, that's the real URL!! Thank goodness for copy & paste!!)
 
Following is a list of tips from the MACPPC-L mailing list.
 
Type 11 and other crashes
 
Frequent Type 11, FPU and other crashes associated with System 7.5 and 7.5.1 are still something of a mystery, but several things may help: