PowerPoint, Word, and Excel won’t open (2000 SP-1)

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I first posted this problem in the PowerPoint forum, but it now seems to be a general Office problem. A user in my office (using a Windows 98 machine) couldn’t open PowerPoint. When I tried to open it, either with the start menu or by clicking on any powerpoint document icon, the splash screen showed for a second, then disappeared, the HD continued to spin for a while as if opening the app, but nothing appeared on the screen. However, Task Manager showed that powerpoint was running, although not visible. Following a suggestion, I deleted the Most Recently Used list from the Registry. This did not change the behavior at all.

I then discovered that Word and Excel do not open, either. But their behavior is different. They start to open, the windows are partly visible (some toolbars, etc.) but they never completely open and instead hang with the hourglass showing. They must be shut down from the taskbar. I found that I can open Word with the /a switch, but in no other way. I tried renaming normal.dot, but that didn’t help, nor did replacing it with a backup version of normal.dot. There is nothing in the Startup folder, so that isn’t it.

I also uninstalled Office and reinstalled it. The behavior of Powerpoint, Word, and Excel is still the same. I tried disabling Norton AV, and that didn’t help either.

Something else in the Registry, maybe? I’ll try anything.

By the way, Outlook and Access open normally.

Fafner

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This is just a shot in the dark, but try selecting Run from the Start menu and entering the line below and running it:

"C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeExcel.exe" /regserver

Nothing will display on the screen, but it should reset the registry settings, Then try running Excel normally again.

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Thanks, but unfortunately, it didn’t help. Still the same behavior. But it is good to know about this switch, though. It may come in handy some other time.

Fafner

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Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | “Microsoft Office 2000…” from the list | Add/Remove button | Repair Office button.

Does it fix the problem?

BTW, when you “uninstall” Office, does it mean you “removed it completely” as described in How to Completely Remove Microsoft Office CD1 (Q219423) ? If not, try to apply this procedure, otherwise all Registry settings remain intact.

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Repair Office didn’t work. Thank you very much, though, for the link to Q219423! I was looking for this on the KB but didn’t find it. (What keywords did you use in the search window to find it?) I will try this next and report back, probably not until tomorrow. Previously I uninstalled just using Add/Remove programs.

Fafner

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OK, I followed Q219423 and completely removed Office from the computer, following those instructions. I then reinstalled Office 2000. Word and Excel now work normally. However, PowerPoint is still broken, still the same behavior — Task Manager says it is open but it is invisible. I also reinstalled SR-1. Still no luck.

During the reinstallation, I had one error message: “Error 1904. Module C:WindowsSystemMSRCLR40.DLL failed to register. HResult -2147023739.”

Now what? It seems that the PowerPoint problem was unrelated to the Word and Excel problem.

Fafner

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Fafner,

Sorry I can

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Good question. I thought of that when I deleted the twain files, but since there is no scanner attached to this computer, it didn’t matter. But I kept the files in the recycle bin, and I imagine that restoring them after reinstalling Office would retain the scanner’s functionality. But I haven’t tested this. Otherwise, you would have to reinstall the scanner software.

I’m not sure why these files were on the delete list. They weren’t replaced by the reinstallation of Office.

Fafner

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Fafner,

I

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Check out mskb article Q224432 plus the ones linked to it.

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I really appreciate all these attempts to help solve my problem. Unfortunately, Q224432 and the associated links are not relevant to my problem. This is a Windows 98 machine using a valid, non-beta Office 2000. I checked out the registry keys mentioned, just to make sure, but these don’t seem to be the problem. I’m beginning to think the only solution is to wipe the hard drive and start over, but on a 5- or 6-year-old machine that was released with Windows 95, I wonder what kind of problems I’ll encounter, such as with old hardware drivers. I’d much rather get PowerPoint to start without having to do that.

Fafner

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Um, I can’t remember whether there was any way to check the processes running on 95. I seem to remember that the task manager was a pretty poor relation to the one in the later operating systems. Anyhow, one of the things I’ve seen happen in Office 2000 is that an abend to a program will cause the behavior you described by leaving the process running even though the app appears to have closed. Double clicking an icon or even trying to open it in other ways may cause little or no reaction. However, if you look at what’s running, there’s the executable, big as life. Have you checked to see if PowerPoint really has a process running even though you can’t see it? That would at least give you a better idea of the problem you’re trying to track down.

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Charlotte,

I have seen this along with Word

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I’m at a loss when it comes to Win 95. I run Win 2k Pro and there I’ve found that selecting Change from the Control Panel’s Add/Remove Programs dialog and telling it to repair the installation has worked for me repeatedly when Office 2000 had been upset by the installation of another program.

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Charlotte,

I’m sorry but I’m a little confused. What was the reference to Win 95. If your reply was to my question my OS is Win XP Pro running Office 2000 where I had the issues I questioned you about. In any event, I assume your reply about repairing would still be valid.

Thanks.

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Sorry, I didn’t mean to confuse you. Fafner had asked about a Win 98 machine and I misremembered it as Win 95 because of his reference to what his machine came with. You didn’t specify your OS, so I was trying to cover all the bases. You also didn’t specify the version of Office, and I’ve never tried this with XP, although it should work the same on a Win 2k machine.

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Charlotte,

Thanks very much. I appreciate your help and sorry I wasn’t clearer. As I said, I have seen Power Point in the Task Manager when it wasn’t supposed to be there. I haven’t noticed it since I removed all those other apps. that MS Money 2002 started. If I see it again, I’ll try your fix.

Again thanks.

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In my experience, any MS app with a 2002 in its name can cause some breakage in Office 2000 apps because it uses libraries with the same name but “updated” versions.

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Yes, the machine I am referring to is running Windows 98 and PowerPoint does in fact show as running in Task Manager, even though there is nothing on the screen.

In addition, there is nothing newer than Office 2000 running on this machine, with the possible exception of MSN Messenger. It’s an old machine used by a part-timer in this office, so it hasn’t been necessary or worthwhile to install anything new on it. Unfortunately, however, she does need Powerpoint.

Fafner

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Well, I can’t say I trust the latest versions of MSN Messenger and I only use it in the office under protest, but I don’t know whether it would cause problems with other applications. If you use Task Manager to shut down PowerPoint, can you then start PowerPoint properly or does it still wind up as a hidden process?

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No, I can’t start PowerPoint at all, ever, no way. If I shut it down with task manager and try to start it again, I get the same behavior — that is, the spash screen shows for a second, the hard drive spins, and then nothing shows, but powerpoint again shows in Task Manager.

Fafner

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Try:
OFF2000: Program Quits Immediately After Installing Project or Visio (Q270125)
OFF2000: Program Quits Immediately After Starting When SR-1/SR-1a Update Is Applied (Q255503)

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Is it possible that the PowerPoint Window has just been “moved” off-screen?

What happens if you Right Click on [empty space on] TaskBar and select one of the “Cascade” or “Tile” options.

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If I right-click on the task bar, the cascade and tile options are grayed out. If I open any program, so that something is showing on the task bar, and then right-click and select cascade, the one open program repositions itself, but no Powerpoint.

I also looked at Leif’s suggestions in the previous post, but they didn’t work.

Following another suggestion, I did a search for *.pcb, renamed it, and tried again, but still no luck. I am still where I started from.

Fafner

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I found the culprit, finally, thanks to someone on the microsoft message board. The culprit was an add-in called hpplink.ppa (from a scanner). I renamed it and everything works again.

Thanks to everyone who has pitched in your suggestions. You’re a great group.

Fafner

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Thanks for letting us know the solution.

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Fafner,

Thanks for the solution. I wish I could remember all that I’ve picked up here over the last few months. If I can remember enough to enter a good search criteria I guess I’ll be able to find what I want in the future.

Thanks.

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Charlotte,

I guess I lucked out. After checking Power Point and the Task Manager I have no problems remaining. I really do believe that the installation of MS Money 2002 was the cause of all my problems with “Power Point.exe “showing up in the task manager. Thanks to “msconfig” it no longer plagues me.

Thanks for your help.

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