General Protection Fault When Starting Excel under Windows

 Last reviewed: November 23, 1994
Article ID: Q86760
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.0, 3.0a, 3.1, 3.11
  • Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 4.0

SUMMARY

If you have a corrupted EXCEL.XLB file, you may receive the following general protection (GP) fault while starting Microsoft Excel version 4.0 under Windows 3.1: 

   Application Error

   EXCEL caused a General Protection Fault in module EXCEL.EXE at
   0015:XXXX.
NOTE: This error may also occur at 0059:XXXX.

If the EXCEL.XLB file is corrupted and you start Microsoft Excel version 4.0 under Windows version 3.0, you receive the following error message: 

   UNRECOVERABLE APPLICATION ERROR
   Terminating current application.
The EXCEL.XLB file holds information about the toolbar. To resolve the problem, delete or rename EXCEL.XLB. Excel will re-create this file if it cannot be found at startup time.

MORE INFORMATION

The layout of the toolbar in Microsoft Excel version 4.0 is saved in the EXCEL.XLB file, which is located in the WINDOWS directory. If this file becomes corrupted, damaged, or file size is 0, one of the above error messages may be displayed.

To delete or rename the file, do the following:

  1. Quit Windows.

  2. Rename or delete the EXCEL.XLB file in the WINDOWS directory.

    NOTE: All custom settings for the Microsoft Excel toolbar will be lost.

  3. Restart Windows, then restart Microsoft Excel.

  4. Quit Microsoft Excel. The EXCEL.XLB file will be re-created with the default settings.

KBCategory: kbother kberrmsg kbinterop
KBSubcategory: win30 win31
Additional reference words: gpf 3.00 3.00a 3.10 3.11 4.00 GP UAE err msg

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Last reviewed: November 23, 1994
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