GP Fault in MSSPELL.DLL

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c

SYMPTOMS

A general protection (GP) fault may occur in Word for Windows if you run the Soft-Art Dictionary spelling checker supplied with Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Publisher, or Microsoft Mail.

CAUSE

The Soft-Art shared spelling checker uses a different .DLL (MSSPELL.DLL) than the one used by the International CorrectSpell spelling checker (MSSPEL2.DLL) supplied with Word 6.0.

The Soft-Art .DLL uses MS-DOS file handles. When Word runs this .DLL, if the FILES setting in your CONFIG.SYS file is too low, a GP fault soon occurs. You can delay the occurrence of the GP fault by increasing the FILES setting, but the GP fault eventually occurs in Word, no matter how much you increase the FILES setting.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Word 6.0, 6.0a, and 6.0c for Windows.This problem was corrected in Word version 7.0 for Windows 95.

This problem was corrected in Microsoft Excel 5.0c for Windows. For more information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

    ARTICLE-ID: Q112027
    TITLE     : XL5: GP Fault Checking Spelling in Worksheet

WORKAROUNDS

Method 1: Change the Spelling setting in the [Microsoft Word] section of

          your WINWORD6.INI file (located in the Windows program
          directory) so it points to the location of the Word 6.0 spelling
          checker files. The following is a sample WINWORD6.INI entry that
          points to the Word 6.0 spelling checker files. (Note: For Word
          6.0 this setting takes precedence over any other spelling
          setting in other .INI files.)

             [Microsoft Word]

             Spelling 1033,0=C:\WINDOWS\MSAPPS\PROOF\MSSPEL2.DLL,
             C:\WINDOWS\MSAPPS\PROOF\MSSP2_EN.LEX

          the WIN.INI file (located in the Windows program directory) so
          it points to the location of the Word 6.0 spelling checker files
          The following is a sample WIN.INI entry that points to the
          Word 6.0 spelling checker files. (Note: This setting changes the
          location of the spelling checker for all applications that share
          the MS Proofing Tools, including Word, unless you set a
          different location in WINWORD6.INI, as described in Method 1
          above.)

             [MS Proofing Tools]

             Spelling 1033,0=C:\WINDOWS\MSAPPS\PROOF\MSSPEL2.DLL,
             C:\WINDOWS\MSAPPS\PROOF\MSSP2_EN.LEX

REFERENCES

Word Readme Help: Double-click the Help button on the Standard toolbar, and then type "readme" (without the quotation marks).