can't open microsoft Word docs, HELP !!!

pennymakespounds

running laptop with windows 2000.... and microsoft office Word 2000.... all of a sudden no Word documents will open .
Get a blue rectangle warning .....

Program error WINWORD.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program.
An error log is being created.


??????? HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!

lellie

have you tried reinstalling word? sounds like there could be a missing DLL file or similar although the error doesn't ask for a missing file?

pennymakespounds

haven't tried re-installing ... don't think i've the disks anyway .

scheming_gypsy

make sure you've not got msblaster either.. we've been having the same problems at work but mainly with Excel and it's down to Blaster

pennymakespounds

my norton antivirus and spybot and ad-aware haven't reported anything unusual.... does that confirm i haven't caught anything ?? !!

scheming_gypsy

download and run fixblaster http://www.puntocr.it/index.php?module=downloads_riz&func=display&pid=5&lid=177

just to be on the safe side. It'll check and delete any infected files and then give you the link for the protection patch

pennymakespounds

scheming gypsy... i ran that program and it said "nothing found" ... and the problems still there.

Thanks for trying though. Much appreciated.

steeev

you could try updating your office installation
to do this goto http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com
then click on the link at the top of the page that says "office update". This will install lots of bug fixes and security patches for the office suite.

only problem with this is i think theres a possibility you might need the original office disks and also the serial number.

MisterT2

Just wrote a huge reply to this and then it didn't post.

Questions (assuming this doesn't resolve the problem):

What does the blue box say?

Do you have space on the disk that houses the swap file? MSWord doesn't like not having a swap file (or access to enough space) regardless of how much memory you have. Strange things will happen such as pictures render using a red X in a box where the picture should be.

Have you any addons within Word? e.g. Dragon dictate, Via voice, add on thesarus.....?

1) Basically, if normal.dot is corrupted you can get this type of problem. Find it and rename it as a test.

2) Check the alert log and drill down on any Applications errors. This should give you some more information if Windows was able to handle the program exception.

3) Check to see if there is a Dr. Watson dump file. These can be difficult to read, but scan down and look for errors in particular modules. Once you can see the error, you will need to scroll back up to find the module that was the problem. However, this approach is not easy if you have a missing DLL file.

4. As you are on Windows 2000
  a) Install the tweakUI untility from the MS web site
  b) In the paranioa screen click the "Log Application Errors to Faultlog.txt"
  c) Open MSWord
  d) Open the Faultlog.txt file

Have a look at the file. You should see some error references that point to a very specific error. For example:

NETSCAPE caused an invalid page fault in
module RPCRT4.DLL at 014f:70101052.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=014f EIP=70101052 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=818ed32c SS=0157 ESP=013cfd80 EBP=013cfdb4

Its easy to see the exact DLL that was a problem. Searching via google should show if its is known issue. This should help figure out the exact issue.

If not, then can you relay the exact circumstances that cause the problem .... can you reproduce the problem by following a specific set of events?

There are some other ideas I have such as changing the prefetch files but this is something I would rather avoid at the moment.

pennymakespounds

following some advice i have now bought and installed microsoft office 2003
excel and powerpoint lookinf fine

BUT !!!!!.... not happy with "Word" ... it is taking 2 to 5 minutes to open ... and the same to close

Any ideas ???????

MisterT2

That could be due to disk fragmentation or perhaps as whacky as a "prefetch" issue.