My experience is that when you can't find dict.spl, it's gotten out of the path listing somehow. In such a case, when I don't want to change the path, I find that logging XyWrite into the directory in which dict.spl is present, will enable it to find it and run. If that neither of these things works, then something more grievous must be the matter. I fear I'm not explaining this very well; no doubt one of the true gurus will be able to make it clearer if necessary.