I have not seen this reported before(a), and I wonder if some of you
could attempt to duplicate my findings:

If a workbook in the startup directory is hidden, which it normally is,
and it contains a reference to Solver, it will crash Excel 2003 when it
starts. Replacing the SOLVER.XLA that comes with MSOF11 with either its
equivalent from MSOF9 or the one referred to in KB821430(b) will fix
this.

Detailed steps to reproduce this behaviour:
You need Excel-11, in my case it's 11.6113.5703. If you positively want
to identify SOLVER.XLA as the cause, you also need SOLVER.XLA from
version 9 or the one issued through KB821430. Contact me if you want me
to send you either/both.

FileSize FileDate
Excel-9 638,976 16-Oct-2000
KB821430(c) 588,288 24-Jan-2002
Excel-11 485,888 today (!)

In Excel-11, create/edit a Personal Macro Workbook, usually
PERSONAL.XLS. The code you add doesn't matter, in fact, you don't have
to have any code at all. All that's needed to produce the bug is to
create a reference to SOLVER. If SOLVER does not appear in your list of
"Available References", you have to "Browse..." for SOLVER.XLA which can
usually be found as
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\Library\Solver\SOLVER.XLA

Once the reference to SOLVER is ticked, exit the VBA Editor and unhide
PERSONAL.XLS; this way you can test my assertion that it will only fail
with hidden workbooks. Exit Excel, saving the just modified
PERSONAL.XLS, and start Excel again: no problem.

Now hide PERSONAL.XLS, exit Excel while saving Personal Macro Workbook
when prompted, start Excel again, and it will fail. You will have to
disable the PERSONAL.XLS so Excel can start at all.

If you have any of the alternative SOLVER.XLA files I mentioned, you can
now start Excel and re-enable PERSONAL.XLS (Help/About/Disabled
Items...), exit Excel, and rename the V-11 SOLVER.XLA to something else,
and use the replacement SOLVER.XLA instead. Starting Excel will now
work.

Again, I would greatly appreciate it if someone could take the time to
reproduce this -it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. You don't
necessarily need the alternative SOLVER.XLA files; contact me if you
want them.

(a) The thread started by Frederick Waithe on 2004-06-25 11:48:12 PST in
this newsgroup may have referred to this bug; see:
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=f9b1265f.0406251048.114362ca%40post ing.google.com

(b) <http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;821430

(c) Unexplicably, this is different to what KB821430 says.

--
Michael Bednarek http://mbednarek.com/ "POST NO BILLS"

According to Microsoft's web site, posts to newsgroups (microsoft.*) are
one of the official methods of submitting bug reports.

I haven't seen any reaction to my earlier post, so I submit it again. I
would be grateful if someone, especially someone from Microsoft, would
comment on the behaviour described below.

On Fri, 09 Jul 2004 02:09:53 GMT, Michael Bednarek )
wrote in microsoft.public.excel.programming:

I have not seen this reported before(a), and I wonder if some of you
could attempt to duplicate my findings:

If a workbook in the startup directory is hidden, which it normally is,
and it contains a reference to Solver, it will crash Excel 2003 when it
starts. Replacing the SOLVER.XLA that comes with MSOF11 with either its
equivalent from MSOF9 or the one referred to in KB821430(b) will fix
this.

Detailed steps to reproduce this behaviour:
You need Excel-11, in my case it's 11.6113.5703. If you positively want
to identify SOLVER.XLA as the cause, you also need SOLVER.XLA from
version 9 or the one issued through KB821430. Contact me if you want me
to send you either/both.

FileSize FileDate
Excel-9 638,976 16-Oct-2000
KB821430(c) 588,288 24-Jan-2002
Excel-11 485,888 today (!)

In Excel-11, create/edit a Personal Macro Workbook, usually
PERSONAL.XLS. The code you add doesn't matter, in fact, you don't have
to have any code at all. All that's needed to produce the bug is to
create a reference to SOLVER. If SOLVER does not appear in your list of
"Available References", you have to "Browse..." for SOLVER.XLA which can
usually be found as
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\Library\Solver\SOLVER.XLA

Once the reference to SOLVER is ticked, exit the VBA Editor and unhide
PERSONAL.XLS; this way you can test my assertion that it will only fail
with hidden workbooks. Exit Excel, saving the just modified
PERSONAL.XLS, and start Excel again: no problem.

Now hide PERSONAL.XLS, exit Excel while saving Personal Macro Workbook
when prompted, start Excel again, and it will fail. You will have to
disable the PERSONAL.XLS so Excel can start at all.

If you have any of the alternative SOLVER.XLA files I mentioned, you can
now start Excel and re-enable PERSONAL.XLS (Help/About/Disabled
Items...), exit Excel, and rename the V-11 SOLVER.XLA to something else,
and use the replacement SOLVER.XLA instead. Starting Excel will now
work.

Again, I would greatly appreciate it if someone could take the time to
reproduce this -it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. You don't
necessarily need the alternative SOLVER.XLA files; contact me if you
want them.

(a) The thread started by Frederick Waithe on 2004-06-25 11:48:12 PST in
this newsgroup may have referred to this bug; see:
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=f9b1265f.0406251048.114362ca%40post ing.google.com

(b) <http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;821430

(c) Unexplicably, this is different to what KB821430 says.

--
Michael Bednarek http://mbednarek.com/ "POST NO BILLS"