XL97: Page Fault Printing to Generic / Text Only Printer

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel 97, if you print a worksheet using the Generic / Text Only printer driver, you may experience either of the following problems:

• Microsoft Excel 97 stops responding (hangs). To quit the program, you must press CTRL+ALT+Del, and then shut down the instance of Microsoft Excel 97.

      -or-
  

• You receive the following error message:

        This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut
        down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.
  

  If you click Details, you receive an error message similar to the following:

        EXCEL caused an invalid page fault in module MSO97.DLL at
        0137:307333ca.
  

  When you click Close, Microsoft Excel 97 closes.

CAUSE

These problems occur if the following conditions are true:

• In the Print dialog box in Microsoft Excel 97, you click Properties.

      -and-
  

• In the Generic / Text Only Properties dialog box, you click the Device Options tab, and then click any of the three character mapping options (TTY Custom, Code Page 437, or Code Page 850).

      -and-
  

• You then click Apply or OK.

WORKAROUND

If it is necessary to use the Generic / Text Only printer driver, avoid selecting a character mapping option from within Microsoft Excel 97. Instead, use the Printers dialog box in Windows 95 to select a Character Mapping option. To do this, use the following steps:

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

2. In the Printers window, right-click the Generic / Text Only printer driver. On the shortcut menu, click Properties.

3. Click the Device Options tab.

4. Click the character mapping option that you want to use.

5. Click OK.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

The Generic / Text Only printer driver is designed for use with older dot matrix and "daisy-wheel" printers that do not have a dedicated printer driver in Windows 95. You can also use the Generic / Text Only printer to print to text files.