ACC97: Pressing F1 for Help May Cause an IPF in WINHLP32

• Microsoft Access 97 on the following platform: Win95

SYMPTOMS

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

If you select a Help topic by pressing F1, you may receive the following error message:

   The program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.

   Winhlp32 caused an Invalid Page fault in Module Kernel32.DLL at 0137:xxx

CAUSE

You may experience this problem if you have multiple keyboard layouts installed on your computer.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, do one of the following:

• Open the Help topic by clicking Contents And Index on the Help menu, and then selecting the topic from the Help Topics Index list.

      -or-
  

• Disable the multiple keyboard layouts.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Access 97. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Problem

WARNING: Following these steps will cause a general protection fault on your computer. Make sure you save and close any open work on your computer before following these steps.

1. On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2. Double-click the Keyboard icon.

3. In the Keyboard Properties box, click the Language tab.

4. In the Add Language box, click Add. Add the language that has the focus (Afrikaans) by clicking OK.

5. Start Microsoft Access 97 and open the sample database Northwind.mdb.

6. Open the Customers form in Design view.

7. Double-click on the Company Name text box to bring up the Properties dialog box.

8. In the Properties dialog box, set the focus to the Input Mask property row. Press F1.

   Note that part of the first line of the Help topic is blank.

9. Close the Help Topic window. Note that you receive an invalid page fault with the following message:

          WINHLP32 caused an IPF in KERNEL32.DLL or Winhlp32.exe.
   

   NOTE: This happens with various languages selected in the Keyboard settings.

REFERENCES

For more information about other issues involving WINHLP32, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q172435
   TITLE     : Err Msg: Winhlp32 Caused an Invalid Page Fault in Module...

   ARTICLE-ID: Q148117
   TITLE     : Winhlp32 Causes Invalid Page Fault Running Help

   ARTICLE-ID: Q162398
   TITLE     : OFF97: First Aid 97 Causes invalid Page fault