SAS 9.3 for Microsoft Windows operating systems terminates unexpectedly when you clear the Output window. The problem occurs after you run certain interactive procedures without a QUIT statement to terminate the procedure. Some common interactive procedures with which this issue occurs are PROC REG, PROC GLM, PROC ARIMA, PROC SQL, and PROC CATMOD. However, you might see the problem with other interactive procedures as well.

Note that SAS will terminate differently based on whether the SAS installation is for a 32-bit or 64-bit system:

• For 32-bit SAS installations, a window containing the following message appears:

SAS.EXE has stopped working.

• For 64-bit SAS installations, SAS terminates unexpectedly with no error or warning.

The problem occurs when the following option has been set under Preferences in SAS: On the Results tab (from Tools ► Options ►Preferences) the Create listing and View results as they are generated check boxes have been selected and the other items on the Results tab remain unchecked.

Workarounds

To circumvent the problem, do any of the following:

• Make sure that a QUIT; statement follows the procedure.
• Or change this preference on the Preferences tab: Deselect the Create listing check box and select the Create HTML check box instead.
• Or apply the hot fix for this issue.

Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.3_M2 is available at:

A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.3_M1 is available at: