Errors can be for a number of reasons but off the top of my head i'm wondering if you UVmapped the geometry you are painting the fur on (doesn't apply if it's a nurbs object).
If you haven't mapped the geo then I could see that straining the system enough to crash it.
As a side note if you are painting fur or attributes then polgon geometry has to be UV mapped to fit the 0 - 1 UV space or Maya will have no idea where the painted attribute needs to appear on the geo.