The original error message is "Line too long". If you don't see a line that is too long, then you probably hit a Masm bug. There is a long-standing bug in Masm 6.11 which generates error A2039 for no reason. It's a bug in the parser that they cannot repro easily (but of course, we can repro it just fine). The workaround is to insert comments and/or blank lines before the line where the parser eventually chokes. This is the reason for all the comments you see in source code that read ; Add unnecessary comment for MASM bug. ; This comment line works around a masm bug. ; This is a bogus comment because MASM is stupid and currently will ; not assemble this file without it. ; comment for masm 6.11 cause its a butthead ; comment to make masm happy You can use one of the above, or make up one of your own. Be creative!