Error 10H while printing

* Contact your printer manufacturer to see if an updated printer driver is available!

Also see: Microsoft Support Article

If you receive an "Illegal Operation" or Exception error 10H message from Windows when performing routine printing tasks in our products, there are several things that you can do to try to eliminate this error:

If you receive the "Illegal Operation" error click on the DETAILS button. If you get a message similar to the following:

        "ExpWin" caused an exception 10H in module ExpWin.exe at XXXX:00######"

You may have an incompatibility between our program and your printer driver.

We have found this particularly to be the case the following printer drivers:

• Canon BubbleJet BJC-70 
• Canon BubbleJet BJ-210
• Canon BJC-610
• Canon BJC-4000 Windows 3.1 driver version 1.0d/3.1
• Canon BJ-200EX
• Canon BJC-4100
• Canon BJC-4200
• Eclipse Fax driver
• Hewlett-Packard (HP) DeskJet 660
• Hewlett-Packard (HP) DeskJet 660c driver versions prior to 8.0
• Hewlett-Packard (HP) LaserJet 5L
• Hewlett-Packard (HP) LaserJet 5P/5MP
• Generic/Text Only
• MidiComm Fax Driver by MidiSoft
• Cheyenne Bit-Fax
• Epson Color Stylus, especially the 600/700 series printers.

If you are getting this error message, the printer driver you are using should not be set as the default printer when the application is printing. Setting another printer as the default printer and then switching to your specific driver using PRINT SETUP may get you around the problem, but it may not help. 

Your best option is to print to another printer or use a compatible printer driver such as the LaserJet 5P driver or download the updated driver from HP, in the case of the HP LaserJet 5L. For Cannon BubbleJet Printers try the IBM ProPrinter drivers. Often times compatible drivers will be listed in the printer manual.

Additional information about this issue can be found at http://www.microsoft.com by searching the support knowledge base. The 10H error is a floating point processor (math processor) exception. Faulty printer drivers are now infamous for mistakenly causing this error.

AS A LAST RESORT (NOT recommended) . . . if changing the printer driver to a compatible driver does not stop the crashing problem, you may try turning off the Math coprocessor. To do this follow these directions:

1. With your right mouse button, click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. On the Device Manager tab, click View devices by type.
3. Double-click System Devices.
4. Click Numeric Data processor, and then click Properties.
   NOTE: With a Plug and Play bios, the Numeric Data Processor option will be under a Plug and Play branch in the Device Manager rather than at the top level.
5. On the Settings tab, click Never Use The Numeric Data Processor.
6. Click OK.
7. Restart your computer.