diff --git a/configure b/configure
index a1ed18cfa8..6d48c3f9a8 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -7114,23 +7114,24 @@ else
   _def_charset="#undef MSG_CHARSET"
 fi
 
+if test "$_charset" = `cat ${_mp_help}.charset` ; then
+  # hack to disable conversion in the Makefile
+  _charset=""
+fi
+
+if test "$_charset" ; then
 echocheck "iconv program"
 iconv -f `cat ${_mp_help}.charset` -t $_charset ${_mp_help} > /dev/null 2>> "$TMPLOG"
 if test "$?" -ne 0 ; then
   echores "no"
-  if test "$_charset" != `cat ${_mp_help}.charset` ; then
     echo "No working iconv program found, use "
     echo "--charset=`cat ${_mp_help}.charset` to continue anyway."
+    echo "If you also have problems with iconv library functions use --charset=noconv."
     echo "Messages in the GTK-2 interface will be broken then."
     exit 1
-  fi
 else
   echores "yes"
 fi
-
-if test "$_charset" = `cat ${_mp_help}.charset` ; then
-  # hack to disable conversion in the Makefile
-  _charset=""
 fi
 
 #############################################################################