XL97: Error Opening Workbook That Contains Very Long Strings

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to open a workbook in Microsoft Excel 97, you may 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.

   EXCEL caused an invalid page fault in module EXCEL.EXE at
   <address>.

   0137:300fd7c7
   0137:300d2d0a

CAUSE

This problem may occur if any cells in worksheets in the workbook contain more than 2,000 characters.

WORKAROUND

If this problem occurs, you cannot open the workbook. However, it may be possible to recover the data in the workbook. For additional information about how to do this, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q142117
   TITLE     : Excel: Summary of Methods to Recover Data from Corrupted
               Files

   ARTICLE-ID: Q147216
   TITLE     : XL: Linking to Data in a Damaged File (5.0 and Later)

• For any cells in the new workbook that contain more than 2,000 characters, clear the cells. To do this, select the cells and either press DELETE or point to Clear on the Edit menu, and then click Contents.

      -or-
  

• For any cells in the new workbook that contain more than 2,000 characters, split the contents of the cells into two or more cells, so that each of the cells contains less than 2,000 characters.

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.