There are no Exceptions are defined for method createCompatibleSampleModel in class SampleModel.
However when w = Integer.MAX_VALUE, IllegalException is thrown.

import java.awt.color.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import java.awt.*;

public class Test {
    static int defaultWidth = 6;
    static int defaultHeight = 4;

    public static void test1() {
        SampleModel model = Raster.createBandedRaster(DataBuffer.TYPE_INT, defaultWidth,
                defaultHeight, 4, null).getSampleModel();
        SampleModel model2 = model.createCompatibleSampleModel(Integer.MAX_VALUE,1);
    }
    public static void main(String[] a) {
        test1();
    }
}
---------------------------------- output --------------------------------------------
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Dimensions (width=2147483647 height=1) are too large
        at java.awt.image.SampleModel.<init>(SampleModel.java:112)
        at java.awt.image.ComponentSampleModel.<init>(ComponentSampleModel.java:191)
        at java.awt.image.BandedSampleModel.<init>(BandedSampleModel.java:94)
        at java.awt.image.BandedSampleModel.createCompatibleSampleModel(BandedSampleModel.java:125)
        at Test.test1(Test.java:20)
        at Test.main(Test.java:23)
###@###.### 10/27/04 11:58 GMT
###@###.### 10/27/04 12:04 GMT