Entourage 2004 constantly crashes

[Philip]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC
Email Client: pop

I had a new (larger) hard drive installed in my Mac by my local Authorised Apple Service Centre. They also migrated all my data and programs from the old drive to the new one. Everything appears to work okay except Entourage 2004. It crashes when I do any of the following:
1) Select a message which has an attachment (however, not all messages with an attachment cause a crash).
2)Select Entourage Help from the Help pull down menu.

In either case, I get a message that Entourage has unexpectedly quit (no error number).

I have rebuilt my database, deleted preferences, deleted the "com.microsoft.Entourage.plist" file and repaired permissions with Disk Utility, all with no result. I have also created a new user account in System Preferences and tested Entourage in the new user account but Entourage still crashes when I select Help or select a message with an attachment.

Any ideas to solve this problem would be appreciated.

 

[Philip]

Since the above post, I have tried the following:

Used Auto-update to download the latest version (11.4). The update downloads okay, but when Auto update is installing it unexpectedly quits. I repeated this a few times with same result. I then downloaded the update from Mactopia - When I click on the disk image to install the update the screen blanks momentarily but nothing happens.

I then followed the next suggestion which is to uninstall Office and reinstall the original software plus all updates. (I used the Remove Office program in the Additional tools folder to uninstall). However, when I insert the original Office 2004 program CD it's icon appears on the desktop but nothing happens when I double click on it - i.e. the same as with the update disk image - the screen blinks but nothing opens.
If I open a finder window the program CD appears in the menu but if I select it, the finder window shuts and I am back to the desktop.

Now I am in a real mess!! Not only do I not have my email, I don't have access to any of my word or excel documents either.

Please help!! Thanks.

 

[William Smith]

Since the above post, I have tried the following:

Used Auto-update to download the latest version (11.4). The update
downloads okay, but when Auto update is installing it unexpectedly
quits. I repeated this a few times with same result. I then
downloaded the update from Mactopia - When I click on the disk image
to install the update the screen blanks momentarily but nothing
happens.

I then followed the next suggestion which is to uninstall Office and
reinstall the original software plus all updates. (I used the Remove
Office program in the Additional tools folder to uninstall). However,
when I insert the original Office 2004 program CD it's icon appears
on the desktop but nothing happens when I double click on it - i.e.
the same as with the update disk image - the screen blinks but
nothing opens. If I open a finder window the program CD appears in
the menu but if I select it, the finder window shuts and I am back to
the desktop.

Hi Philip!

After reading your first post and this one I'd speculate that the
migration did not go well. Possibly what happened is that the Apple
folks used their migration assistant to move your data onto a fresh
install of Mac OS X.

Also, because you're seeing problems outside of Office (the Finder is
quitting) your problems are more likely to be Mac OS related rather than
Office related.

I suggest in investing in Alsoft DiskWarrior, which has a great track
record for me for problems like this. If you're near an Apple Store or
computer store then purchase it there so that you don't have to create
your own bootable disk. If this work was recently done then you could
probably get your Apple Service Center to look into this for you instead.

Hope this helps!

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[Philip]

Hi Bill and thank you!

I have managed to get everything installed and up and running again. - Overnight I downloaded and installed every Software Update available from Apple. I then ran Disk Utility/ repair permissions again and, what do you know, the Office install CD worked. I installed all the programs and have since run all microsoft office auto updates. On opening Entourage for the first time a dialogue box asked me to select my identity - all my messages, etc. are now restored. Thankfully, no unexpected quits when I select messages with attachments or use the help menu.

I have heard about DiskWarrior and will invest in a copy just in case I have problems again in future.

Thanks again
Philip

 

[Diane Ross]

I have managed to get everything installed and up and running again. -
Overnight I downloaded and installed every Software Update available from
Apple. I then ran Disk Utility/ repair permissions again and, what do you
know, the Office install CD worked. I installed all the programs and have
since run all microsoft office auto updates. On opening Entourage for the
first time a dialogue box asked me to select my identity - all my messages,
etc. are now restored. Thankfully, no unexpected quits when I select messages
with attachments or use the help menu.

I suspect getting your base OS files in good working order did the trick. In
the future download the standalone updaters from Apple rather than use
Software update. The combo updater are especially good at overwriting files
that might be corrupt.

More info on why applying the combo updater helps:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/combo.html>

Explains the types of updaters and what they do.

 

[Philip]

Hi Dianne, Thanks for the advice and the link. Will follow this procedure next update.
Regards,
Philip

 

[Dave]

I suspect getting your base OS files in good working order did the trick. In
the future download the standalone updaters from Apple rather than use
Software update. The combo updater are especially good at overwriting files
that might be corrupt.

More info on why applying the combo updater helps:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/combo.html>

Explains the types of updaters and what they do.

Diane,

How fail safe is the archive and install? I have lots of Unix tools like
Ruby, Perl, imapd, spamassassin installed and I want to make sure they work
when I am finished without lots of trouble.

Thanks,
David

 

[Diane Ross]

How fail safe is the archive and install? I have lots of Unix tools like
Ruby, Perl, imapd, spamassassin installed and I want to make sure they work
when I am finished without lots of trouble.

If anything is not moved over during the "Archive & Install" you can drag
them over from the "previous system." this is a pretty painless procedure.

Archive and Install installation automatically moves existing system files
to a folder named Previous System, then installs Mac OS X again.

You can choose to preserve your user and network settings before installing.
This option automatically moves existing users, Home directories, and
network settings. This also skips the Setup Assistant after installation.

More info: <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120>

Archive and Install

1) Insert the Mac OS X Install Disc and double-click the Install Mac OS X
icon.

2) Follow the onscreen instructions. In the pane where you select the
destination disk, select your current Mac OS X disk (in most cases, it will
be the only one available).

3) Click Options. If you want to save your existing files, users, and
network settings, select ³Archive and Install,² and then select ³Preserve
Users and Network Settings.² If you want to erase everything on your
computer and reinstall Mac OS X, select ³Erase and Install.² You can¹t
recover erased data.

4) Click Continue.

5) Click Customize to select which parts of Mac OS X you¹d like to install,
or click Install to perform a basic installation (recommended).


Once the install has finished, your system will be at whatever level the
disk you have is. So if your Install DVD/CD disk is 10.5.0, that's what
version of OS will be on your Mac. You will need to download the appropriate
Combo Updater from Apple's site to restore the system to a higher version.
After you run the combo, allow Software Update to download and install any
additional updates.