XL: File Is Damaged After It Is Cleaned by Antivirus Software

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c

SYMPTOMS

When you try to open, close, or save a workbook, the following error message may appear:

   This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.
   If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.

   EXCEL caused an invalid page fault in module EXCEL.EXE at 0137:3001b963.

   -or-

   EXCEL caused an invalid page fault in module KERNEL32.DLL at
   0137:3001b693.

In addition, if you can open the workbook, it contains two worksheets named ***** (five asterisks) for which the visible property is set to xlveryhidden.

CAUSE

This problem occurs after you scan and clean Microsoft Excel workbooks with an antivirus software program. The problem occurs when the file becomes damaged while you are cleaning the workbook.

WORKAROUND

If you cannot open the workbook, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   Article-ID: Q142117
   TITLE     : Excel: Summary of Methods to Recover Data from Corrupted
               Files

Method 1: Copy Data to a New Workbook

Open the damaged workbook and follow these steps to recover the data:

1. Open a new workbook.

2. In the first worksheet in the damaged workbook, select the cells that contain data and click Copy.

3. In the new workbook, paste the data into a worksheet.

   Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each worksheet in the damaged workbook.

4. Save the new workbook as a new file.

Method 2: Remove the Damaged Worksheets

You can remove the problematic worksheets from your workbook by running the following Visual Basic for Applications procedure. The damaged sheets are hidden and named *****. Note that you cannot unhide and delete these manually without causing an invalid page fault.

IMPORTANT: Because Excel 97 cannot remove the corrupt files, you must run this procedure in either Excel version 5.0 or 7.0.

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

   http://www.microsoft.com/supportnet/refguide/

1. Start Excel 5.0 or 7.0 and open the damaged workbook. Point to Macro on the Insert menu, and click Module. Type the following macro:

         Sub CleanBook()
         Dim iCtr As Integer
         iCtr = 0
         For Each Sh In ActiveWorkbook.Sheets
             If Sh.Visible = xlVeryHidden Then
                 Sh.Visible = True
                 If InStr(Sh.Name, "*") > 0 Then
                     iCtr = iCtr + 1
                     Sh.Name = "NewSheet" & iCtr
                 End If
             End If
         Next Sh
         Call BadSheet
         MsgBox "Number of damaged sheets = " & iCtr
         Application.Dialogs(xlDialogSaveAs).Show
         End Sub
      
         Sub BadSheet()
         Application.DisplayAlerts = False
         For Each Sh In ActiveWorkbook.Sheets
             If InStr(Sh.Name, "NewSheet") > 0 Then
                 Sh.Delete
             End If
         Next Sh
         End Sub
   
   

2. To run the macro, click Macro on the Tools menu. Click CleanBook and click Run.

3. Save the recovered workbook as a new file.