OFF97: Invalid Page Fault When Using Office Assistant (161141)

SYMPTOMS

When you use any of the programs listed at the beginning of this article, if you click OK or Cancel in the Office Assistant dialog box, 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.

If you click Details, an error message similar to the following appears:

<PROGRAM> caused an invalid page fault in module MSO97.DLL at 014f:307be43e.

-or-

<PROGRAM> caused an invalid page fault in module MSO97.DLL at 0137:307be43e.

where <PROGRAM> is either EXCEL, WINWORD, MSACCESS, POWERPNT, or OUTLOOK. NOTE: In Windows 2000, the program unexpectedly quits.

CAUSE

This problem occurs only when all of the following conditions are true:

You quickly click, and then right-click the Office Assistant window, so that both the "What would you like to do?" balloon and the shortcut menu are visible at the same time.

-and-
You click Options on the shortcut menu.

-and-
While the Office Assistant dialog box is displayed, you display the "What would you like to do?" balloon by clicking the Office Assistant once or twice.

-and-
In the Office Assistant dialog box, you click OK or Cancel.

RESOLUTION

To prevent this problem from occurring, do not click Options on the Office Assistant shortcut menu when the "What would you like to do?" balloon is visible. If both the balloon and the shortcut menu are visible at the same time, click elsewhere to dismiss both items, and then click or right-click the Office Assistant.

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.