Incompatible and Indeterminate Cases
A system of equations is said to be incompatible when there are no solutions and it is called indeterminate when there is more than one solution. For linear equations, an indeterminate system will have infinitely many solutions (if it is over an infinite field), since the solutions can be expressed in terms of one or more parameters that can take arbitrary values.
Cramer's rule applies to the case where the coefficient determinant is nonzero. In the contrary case the system is either incompatible or indeterminate, based on the values of the determinants only for 2x2 systems.
For 3x3 or higher systems, the only thing one can say when the coefficient determinant equals zero is: if any of the "numerator" determinants are nonzero, then the system must be incompatible. However, the converse is false: having all determinants zero does not imply that the system is indeterminate. A simple example where all determinants vanish but the system is still incompatible is the 3x3 system x+y+z=1, x+y+z=2, x+y+z=3.
Read more about this topic: Cramer's Rule
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