Microsoft Office problems

[sighthound]

I have Mocrosoft Office 2003 and for some reason Word, Access, Excell and PowerPoint open only in safe mode or not at all. Regarding the latter, a message box states: "A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." InfoPath, Outlook and Publisher all fine. It is Word that is the real issue as without this I am stuffed. Above is not trial software but from a disk I bought years back. All worked fine until last week when I was trying to sought out a seperate issue with the computer and no doubt did something that has created this problem. Have uninstalled and reinstalled from from disk and that was done successfully but not fixed the problem. Any suggestions?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

You don't have a trial version of Office 2007 on the machine do you Hound?

[sighthound]

Don't think so. Have just uninstalled and reinstalled again and still not working (message said installation was successful). Carried out an automatic check and fix on hard disk (if that has no relation to the problem excuse my ignorance). Would downloading Office 2003 Service Pack 3 likely cure the problem? This needs soughting by next week even it means buying a new computer!

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Well it wouldn't hurt Hound.

 

Do so and let us know how you go on.

[samuria]

Two things what about a rollback to when it was working as a quick fix?

 

With word try searching the hard drive for normal.dot and then delete them all. A lot of problems are caused by this file and it survives a reinstall. It will be recreated when word starts up.

 

Another thing to try is logging in as another user or creating a new user and then logging in as them if it work ok with that then its you profile corrupt

[sighthound]

Samuria

 

1. I assume by 'rollback' you mean what is referred to in my manual as System Restore that will revert settings to a previously created restore point. This I tired but the computer was not able to complete the task for unknown reasons.

 

2. Have no idea how to search hard drive (but do have a very small torch I keep for emergencies).

 

3. No idea how to create a new account either. Likely could figure this out but fear it would further complicate and exacerbate an already very strained relationship I have with my PC and we have only been together about 18 months.

 

Whilst not solving the problem, but rather negating it, I have at least in the short term come up with a solution. Or should I say, Wolfey did:

 

Wolfey

 

I did have a trial version of Office 2007. Have downloaded this and it works fine (would sooner stick with Office 2003, however, as it is what I am familiar with). What I shall do in 60 days when this trial expires is anyone’s guess.

 

Thanks for help

Edited July 18, 2009 by sighthound

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Sighthound, Samuria meant a search of your computer for the normal.dot files.

 

Click "start" then "Search". Click all files and folders, type, or copy and paste in the box "normal.dot" (without the " " )

Click more advanced options and put a tick in each of the boxes- "Search system folders", "search hidden files and folders", "search sub folders".

Then click "search". It may take a while but should find those "normal.dot files. Once you know where they are, highlite and delete them.

If those files are the problem and quite often is, then a reboot and open Office 2003, it should be working again.

[sighthound]

Search found:

 

'Normal' (type: Microsoft Word Template), 'Normal.dotm' (type: DOTM File) and 'Normal11' (type: Microsoft Word Template) but no 'normal.dot' file.

 

Thinking I will have to get a compter 'expert' to look at it and charge me a large sum of money wthout correcting the problem (I have in the past ended up wasting hundreds of pounds due to 'experts' who are anything but). I noticed today the problem is affecting also Microsoft Works files but these I do not use. Deleted Office 7 as I wish to solve the problem rather than work round it.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi again, I feel there is maybe something being left behind during the uninstall that is messing up the later new install.

If you can't find that normal.dot file it will be something similar.

If you don't already have "Revo Uninstaller" download it from here-

Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download

Then use it to totally remove all of your Office 2003. first.

It is a good program that will search for all asociated files for you, and saves having to find them manually.

 

Then try to reinstall your copy of Office 2003. See if that cures the problem.

In the mean time in case that doesn't work. (which it should) I am searching for other answers.

Nev.

[sighthound]

Used Revo to uninstall three files that had Office 2003 in title. There was an option to delete left over registry items (haven't a clue what they are) and so deleted bold items marked for two of above files but not the third as there was over 16,000 to check!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Same problem occuring with Office and Works!

 

The more I pursue this the more I feel I am making my computer worse (getting various message boxes appearing that never happened before). I think its time to give up.

[Plastic Nev]

OK. There is another option, and that is a free program called "Open Office" it does everything that MS Office does, it can handle all MS Office documents including word.

 

However I am not sure about Power Point as I haven't used Open Office myself, but many who have reckon they find it better than MS Office. Have a look here and see what you think,

OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

There are several links to tutorials and explanations about what Open Office does, so you can look round before downloading and installing it.

 

For the short term it may be an answer for you till someone with more knowledge of the original Office software can offer more advice.

Nev.

[sighthound]

Have soughted it by doing system recovery. The only issue I am now trying to resolve is getting sound. Sound is on but no sound is comng out of the speakers? I just need to click on somethiung but do not know what? Any ideas?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Do you have the speaker icon showing in the system tray Hound and if so what are the settings as listed in this pic?

[sighthound]

Hi Wolfey. The lead was plugged in the wrong hole!

After performing a system recovery I have a PC that now runs perfectly. I have got rid of all junk, restored original settings and installed only the software I need – would recommend to any novice who, like me, inadvertently messes up their PC.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Lol Hound, sometimes it's the smallest and most obvious things that are overlooked.

 

Glad to hear all is ok again.