Bus error - Definition and Overview

In computing, a bus error is generally an attempt to access memory that the computer cannot address. Bus errors can also be caused by any general device fault that the computer detects.

To the programmer, it indicates that the data structures are corrupt, so that when the programmer thinks they're pointing to one address, they're actually pointing to another. This kind of problem is more likely to occur when the software is written in the C language than in Java. It normally involves writing to "non-existent" memory (the object has been deallocated); writing off the end of an array; or assigning an object of a larger size to an object of a smaller size.

Bus errors may also be generated by a wayward debugger.