MXL: Type 1 Error or Hang Starting Excel

ID: Q126664

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, versions 4.0, 5.0

SYMPTOMS

When you start Microsoft Excel, one of the following may occur:

• You receive the following error message:

        The application "unknown" has unexpectedly quit, because an error of
        type 1 occurred.
  

      -or-
  

• Your computer stops responding (hangs).

CAUSE

This problem may occur if your hard disk drive does not have a name, or if your hard disk drive name contains a special character such as an apostrophe character ('), a quotation mark ("), a semicolon (;), a comma (,), or a period (.).

Note that this problem may not occur until after you start Microsoft Excel successfully, close it, and then start it a second time.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, do the following to rename your hard disk drive:

1. Select your hard disk drive icon on the Desktop.

2. Select the entire text of the hard disk drive name. Be sure to select

   the entire text of the hard drive name so that every character in the
   hard drive name is replaced.

4. Start Microsoft Excel again.

If Microsoft Excel starts successfully, the problem was caused by the special character in the hard disk drive name. You can then rename the hard drive to any name that does not contain one of these special characters.

STATUS

We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about the "unexpectedly quit" error message, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q82980
   TITLE     : Excel: Unexpected Quit Under Macintosh System 7.0.x

   ARTICLE-ID: Q82979
   TITLE     : Excel: Unexpected Quit Under Macintosh System 6.x

Keywords          : kbenv kbtshoot xlmac 
Version           : MACINTOSH:4.0,5.0
Platform          : MACINTOSH
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: July 9, 1999