Office 97 Filter OffFilt.dll Causes Index Server to Loop Infinitely When Parsing an Excel Spreadsheet (244386)

SYMPTOMS

An application thread may stop responding and CPU utilization may approach 100 percent for the Microsoft Index Server running on the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0, as observed in Task Manager or in Performance Monitor. This problem can occur when the Index Server is attempting to index an Excel spreadsheet (.xls extension) that contains Japanese characters.

CAUSE

When the Index Server parses an Excel spreadsheet, it loads the Offfilt.dll file to parse the spreadsheet. There are times when the buffer used in the Offfilt.dll file is too small for certain Japanese characters, and this causes Index Server to go into an infinite loop.

RESOLUTION

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

   Date      Time    Version      Size     File name    Platform
   -------------------------------------------------------------
   10/6/99   7:59p   98.9.23.0    184,320  Offfilt.dll  x86

Office 97 Filter OffFilt.dll Causes Index Server to Loop Infinitely When Parsing an Excel Spreadsheet (244386)

SYMPTOMS

CAUSE

RESOLUTION

STATUS