Growstub Caused General Protection Fault in Pointer.dll

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Office 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Office for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft PowerPoint 97 for Windows
• Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Word for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft Works version 4.0 for Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

When you start any of the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article, you may receive the following error message:

   GROWSTUB
   An error has occurred in your program.

   This program performed an illegal operation

   GROWSTUB caused a General Protection Fault in module POINTER.DLL at
   0001:00000f64.

CAUSE

When you installed Microsoft Windows 95, the Setup program did not correctly update an older version of the Pointer.dll file.

RESOLUTION

1. To resolve this problem, rename the Pointer.dll file on your computer, and then reinstall the file.

       To locate the Pointer.dll file on your computer
       -----------------------------------------------
   

       1. On the Start menu, point to Find, and then click Files And Folders.
   

          The Find: All Files dialog box appears.
   

       2. On the Name & Location tab, do the following:
   

           a. In the Named box, type the following:
   
                Pointer.dll
   
           b. In the Look In box, select the name of the hard disk or
              connected resource that you want to search. If you want to
              search all connected resources, including your hard disk, select
              My Computer.
   
           c. Select the Include Subfolders check box.
   
           d. Click Find Now.
   
       3. Note the folder name that appears in the In Folder column of the
          Find window. The folder name is typically the name of the folder
          that contains Windows 95.
   
       To rename the Pointer.dll file
       ------------------------------
   
       NOTE: This procedure assumes you are still looking at your results in
       the Find window that you received from performing the above steps.
   
       1. Using the right mouse button, click Pointer.dll, and then
          click Rename.
   
       2. Rename the file to Pointer.old and close the Find window.
   
           -or-
   
       If you are unable to rename the file because it is in use by Windows,
       exit Windows and rename the file at the MS-DOS prompt. To do this, use
       the following steps:
   
       1. Close any open programs and on the Start menu, click Shutdown.
   
       2. Click Restart, and then click Yes.
   
       3. When you see Starting Microsoft Windows on the screen, press F8.
   
       4. Click Safe Mode Command Prompt Only.
   
       5. At the MS-DOS prompt, type the following, and then press ENTER:
   
             cd\<folder>
   
          where <folder> is the name of the folder that contains the
          Pointer.dll.
   
       6. At the MS-DOS prompt, type the following and then press ENTER:
   
             ren pointer.dll pointer.old
   
       7. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart Windows.
   
       To reinstall the Pointer.dll file to your computer
       --------------------------------------------------
   
       1. Insert the Windows 95 compact disc into the CD-ROM drive. Or, if you
          installed Windows 95 from a floppy disk, insert Disk 9 in the disk
          drive.
   
       2. On the Start menu, point to Programs, and then click MS-DOS Prompt.
   
       3. If the name of the folder containing the Pointer.dll does not appear
          at the MS-DOS prompt, type the following and press ENTER
   
            cd\<folder>
   
          where <folder> is the name of the folder containing the Pointer.dll.
   
       4. If you installed Windows 95 from a compact disc, type the following
          at the MS-DOS prompt:
   
            extract <drive>:\win95\win95_08.cab Pointer.dll
   
          where <drive> is the letter of the CD-ROM drive.
   
            -or-
   
          If you installed Windows 95 from floppy disk, type the following at
          the MS-DOS prompt:
   
            extract <drive>:\win95_09.cab Pointer.dll
   
          where <drive> is the letter of the floppy drive.
   
       5. When you finish extracting the file, type the following at the MS-
          DOS prompt, and then press ENTER:
   
            exit
   
       6. On the Start menu, click Shutdown, and then click Restart The
          Computer.
   
           -and-
   
   

2. Using semicolons (;), comment out the LOAD= and RUN= lines in your Win.ini file, located in the Windows folder. Then, restart Windows.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information on this Growstub error in Microsoft Works, see the following article:

   ARTICLE ID: Q142971
   TITLE     : Works: "Growstub An error has occurred in your program"
               Error