error 2908 Office XP (and Adobe Reader)

[cnelson]

When I try to open an Office XP program (Office, Excel), a message pops up
saying "...preparing to install..." then "...configuring..." then
"...settings..." then "internal error 2908 ..." then "...fatal error...". No
luck opening Word or Excel on this system by several different methods.

I just discovered that I also get internal error 2908 (actually several),
then fatal error, when attempting to open Adobe Reader 6.

Office XP worked fine for several months. I'm running Windows ME (4 or 5
years), without profiles. MS Works can be used normally. Office files can
be opened with Open Office files transferred to another system can be opened
there. I tried "repair" with the Office XP CD, with no luck.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[cnelson]

Got frustrated, so tried this (and other worthless things I won't mention),
and it worked:

Found a ghost ~$*** Word doc reportedly not accessed in months, so deleted
it. (The real doc, without the ~$ prefix, had been recently accessed.)
Tried to open Word, but got a 25504 error. Looked it up, and found that 25504
is a known issue with Win ME and Office XP. Tried the fix (scanreg /fix),
rebooted, and voila! Office and Adobe now seem to work properly. I hope
this helps someone else.