Word problems

[StevenJW]

Hi all,

I'm having a bad problem with a windows 98 second edition pc. 5 pc's in the one office share a network drive. One of the pc's cannot open word documents from this drive. It will just give the 'illegal operation' message and close out. I can copy and paste this doc to the pc's c: and it opens ok. But when you go to close it down, it prompts you to save the changes to the normal.dot template (!?!). I've scanned it for virus' and found none. When I went on to the internet on that pc to check the microsoft website I got thrown out of that with an illegal operation error also. Other programs seem to be running ok. I'm currently running a scandisk in windows on that pc, which will take quite a while I guess. If anyone has come across this type of problem before or has any advice on what to do at all, I would greatly appreciate it.

So, thanks in advance

Steve

[enat66]

try reinstalling word. Also doe shtis happen with other files? Make sure file sharing is on.

[zipulrich]

Hey Steven, see if this Knowledge Base article sheds any light on the problem.

[StevenJW]

Hi guys,

thanks for the replies. I've tried re-installing word, which makes no difference. I've also re-named the normal.dot, which unfortunately made no difference either. The strange thing I feel is that I can open word docs from the C: on both pc's, but not from this network drive. I've checked and there are no permissions issues which may be affecting it either. I've done scandisk and defrag on both pc's. The users are getting pretty impatient now, and I'm not far off re-installing windows. Seems a shame though for such a problem, when everything else seems fine.

Thanks again.

Steve

[AnnMarie]

Hi StevenJW - because it seems to be a network only issue makes me wonder whether or not there is a problem with the default printer driver. Word queries the default driver when it opens and if it cant find it, it crashes. I would guess that these PC's are using a network printer. Is the printer driver installed on a server? If so, try re-installing it locally and see if it helps.

[enat66]

and alternative that is worth a shot is to install this offcie suite which is free and contains a program that can open and save word files.

[StevenJW]

Hi guys and thanks for the suggestions,

the glimmer of hope you gave me was most enjoyable while it lasted, however, no dice. I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown at this stage, having tried everything I can think of save a full format and windows re-install. I've tried to re-install office 2000 using our network version instead of the cd which they used. Guess what, it won't accept the proper cd-key of the network version, but will accept their cds version key (even when I'm running our network setup, registry issues???). I've even done a full clean win98 re-install, without deleting anything, took a long time, made no difference. I noticed the error message was a winword one, so copied every instance of winword from the pc beside it which has no problems, to it, made no difference. It's the strangest thing I've come across. A pc right next to it with the exact same word version, winword version, normal.dot, office version, windows version, has no problems opening docs from this drive. I can log on as network admin and open network docs no probs. I can copy a file from the offending network drive, to the c and open them no probs. Everything seems to contradict itself. I'm losing it here! (as George from Seinfeld might say), and I would love love love to just what is the *?%$€"! PROBLEM!!

Anyway, thanks again for all your help guys!!
I'm going home.....need to forget about this for a while.

Cheers.

Steve

[enat66]

Do you have any type of 3rd party secerity systems on the computers that restrict the user? I know some have strange effects such as not letting you mail merge correctly. This coul dbe similar.

[StevenJW]

Thanks for the reply enat66,

There's no security software on the pc. It's just a windows 98 pc on an NT network. I was thinking of trying a new network card, but just don't know if that will sort it out.

Steve

[enat66]

It can't hurt to try, if your worried bout money just swap network cards from anouther pc.

[jtdoom]

hi

all of them are wild guesses...

the default printer has been looked into, right?
it is just this one document, and not all documents?

is this a document that is shared for multiple users?

does it have a lot on NON-embedded files in it?
(meaning, graphics and fonts that are NOT on YOUR workstaion but on the server or workstation of the creator only... and that was not saved INSIDE the document but only link to the other files..)

is this document write protected by any chance?

how huge is it?
is there room for the temporary files on the server?

could it be that the file on the server is corrupt, or has illegal characters in its name?

or the name is a mile long?

====

if it is just this one file, the NIC should be okay
also, if it is just this one file, it would be hard to believe that this is a memory error issue

so, what is left to guess at?

can you copy the file to another place on the server, and then rename the original?
then try what happens when you open it from the server?

these are all guesses.

[StevenJW]

Hi jtdoom, thanks for your reply, and apologies for the delay in mine.

Well here are the answers to your questions. There are 5 windows 98 pc's all sharing one folder, which is on our NT4 server and mapped as their K: when they login.
Out of these 5, three of them are fine. 2 have the exact same problem. They can't open any word docs from this drive whatsoever, with a winword exe error. They can open excel files from this location no problem. I can copy the problem files to their c drives and open them no problem. Yet when I close down the doc on the c drive, it often starts giving errors about normal.dot being in use by another user, and also about changes having been made to the normal.dot template, and do I want to save the changes, etc? Regarding non embedded files, as far as I can see this doesn't seem to be an issue, as files which can't be opened don't have any graphics in them. Regarding write protection, do I need to check at the server? I was thinking the files on the server may be corrupt, but the sysadmin here doesn't think so and just keeps saying there has to be something wrong with the pc's. I'll try copy and rename the files to another place on the server as soon as I get a chance.

Thanks again it's much appreciated.

Steve

[jtdoom]

I have to tell you this is yet another wild guess...

do all five have the same version of Word running?

and maybe, just maybe, when this document was started, the creator selected new Dot ( template ) rather than new doc?
(i once made that mistake)

you should talk to the admin, and they permit it, you could try the following.
open a new document on your machine
cut and paste all the stuff from the one you have problems with in the new document, and save it on the server

close both
then try the new

have another of the five try it.
(or all 5)
if that works, you could be looking at a problem with templates.
and if that works, you could rename the old document, (you would want to save it as backup, so don't toss it) and then give the name it had to the new one ...

yes, I once made that mistake... some template that was...
where I work, the templates are on the server...
but, one can create a new one on the workstation nonetheless....

is it worth a shot?

[StevenJW]

Once again thanks for the reply jtdoom,

I haven't tried the above as yet but will when I get a chance.

I just wanted to post a few more details. Firstly, I've changed the network card and as I thought, it made no difference.
The pc next to one of the problem ones has the exact same instance of windows, word, even winword, and gives no such problems.

I copied the details from the winword.exe error which occurs when trying to open files from this drive and it is as follows:

WINWORD caused an invalid page fault in
module MSO9.DLL at 0177:3095fb03.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0177 EIP=3095fb03 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00000000 SS=017f ESP=0062cc8c EBP=0062cca4
ECX=00456698 DS=017f ESI=00000000 FS=11bf
EDX=004565e4 ES=017f EDI=0062ccbc GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 03 8d 4d f8 51 56 ff 75 fc 53 ff 50 50 3b c6
Stack dump:012d0ca0 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00456698 0062ccc0 3095fa84 02470010 02470a7e 00000000 00000000 00000000 0062dc3c 30136f55 012d0ca0

Also the template error message which occurs upon closing any instance of word on the machine is as follows:

File in use by another application or user
C:\windows\....\templates\normal.dot

I hope this may shed more light on this problem, although I just don't know, I've tried everything.

Thanks again,

Steve

[jtdoom]

hi again

shut outlook and all other msoffice applications on the client, and then rename normal.dot to normal.bad on the client machine.

I dunno wether it would be advisable to reboot the machine,
but I know that opening winword will create a new normal.dot if it cannot find the default template

then try the file from the server?

a damaged normal.dot causes errors.