diff --git a/lib/cppcheck.cpp b/lib/cppcheck.cpp
index f2dabc3a6..e29d5d79f 100644
--- a/lib/cppcheck.cpp
+++ b/lib/cppcheck.cpp
@@ -160,6 +160,10 @@ unsigned int CppCheck::processFile(const std::string& filename, const std::strin
             preprocessor.preprocess(fin, filedata, configurations, filename, _settings._includePaths);
         }
 
+        // Unhandled chars found during preprocessing => abort checking this file
+        if (preprocessor.foundUnhandledChars())
+            return 0;
+
         if (_settings.checkConfiguration) {
             return 0;
         }
diff --git a/lib/preprocessor.cpp b/lib/preprocessor.cpp
index f91be3d17..1a4d37055 100644
--- a/lib/preprocessor.cpp
+++ b/lib/preprocessor.cpp
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ bool Preprocessor::missingSystemIncludeFlag;
 
 char Preprocessor::macroChar = char(1);
 
-Preprocessor::Preprocessor(Settings *settings, ErrorLogger *errorLogger) : _settings(settings), _errorLogger(errorLogger)
+Preprocessor::Preprocessor(Settings *settings, ErrorLogger *errorLogger) : _settings(settings), _errorLogger(errorLogger), _foundUnhandledChars(false)
 {
 
 }
@@ -486,6 +486,7 @@ std::string Preprocessor::removeComments(const std::string &str, const std::stri
                    << "Neither unicode nor extended ASCII are supported. "
                    << "(line=" << lineno << ", character code=" << std::hex << (int(ch) & 0xff) << ")";
             writeError(filename, lineno, _errorLogger, "syntaxError", errmsg.str());
+            _foundUnhandledChars = true;
         }
 
         if (_settings && _settings->terminated())
diff --git a/lib/preprocessor.h b/lib/preprocessor.h
index e75ab2460..9796ef18c 100644
--- a/lib/preprocessor.h
+++ b/lib/preprocessor.h
@@ -251,6 +251,10 @@ public:
         file0 = f;
     }
 
+    bool foundUnhandledChars() const {
+        return _foundUnhandledChars;
+    }
+
 private:
     void missingInclude(const std::string &filename, unsigned int linenr, const std::string &header, HeaderTypes headerType);
 
@@ -274,6 +278,11 @@ private:
 
     /** filename for cpp/c file - useful when reporting errors */
     std::string file0;
+
+    /** set to true if unhandled chars are found in code. any char is ok
+     *  in comments and string literals, but variable/type names must
+     *  have plain ascii characters. */
+    bool _foundUnhandledChars;
 };
 
 /// @}