windows'll crash because ya sneezed on the monitor.
seriously though...

1) yes, windows is horrible w/memory management and often fails to refresh its virtual memory pages very well. (Which, will cause the system to crash eventually.)

2) that error tells us about as much as it tells you. Symptoms, more information, and error code #'s - and as arden said... the perl code - would be helpful. (it might have nothing to do w/the code... but it would help to know, what it is - so at least, we could rule that out)

~something to check: go to CONTROL PANEL -> ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS -> EVENT VIEWER and browse thru there. XP will usually record little notes there about successes and failures... maybe some hint will be there.

(You could always try reinstalling your perl port too.)

...anyone know if perl has its own error-log?