glsl- activetexture(TEXTURE0) crashes

hi all
iam trying out a simple texture sampling.

libraries iam using glew, soil (image loader)

in my application
i load the image, which is not a problem
then i call
glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);
glActiveTexture(TEXTURE0);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D,tex_id);

the program crases, and the problem is with glactivetexture call.

os:windows vista
opengl 2.1
card: geforce 8400mgs

could anyone tell me why the prog crases, and if there are any other ways to bind the texture to texture 0 or texture 1...

thanks