Error when opening word document

[emeraldk]

When I open certain word documents with embedded excel graphs in work 2008 that are from an older unconfirmed version of word I get the error
There is an unrecoverable disk error on blah.doc

this happens no matter where the document resides and has happened on multiple documents so far all containing excel graphs.

in the console the below is also posted.

Microsoft Word(4883,0xa000ed88) malloc: *** vm_allocate(size=2516652032) failed (error code=3)
Microsoft Word(4883,0xa000ed88) malloc: *** error: can't allocate region
Microsoft Word(4883,0xa000ed88) malloc: *** set a breakpoint in szone_error to debug

 

[CyberTaz]

I'm not certain, but the message & log suggest to me that Word is attempting
to obtain virtual memory needed to open the file but the space isn't being
allocated by the OS. Until someone comes along with a more astute
interpretation it might help if you supply some additional information:

What specific version of OS X?
What type of Mac? How much RAM? How much free space on the HD?
Do the docs open before the error occurs or are you not able to open them at
all? IOW, does the error generate immediately on attempting to Open or later
on in the process?
Can you at least confirm whether the docs were created by a Mac or PC
version of Word? How old is "old"?

A couple of suggestions which may not help but can't hurt:

Run Disk Utility - Repair Disk Permissions as well as Verify Disk. Include
the results when you post back.

 

[emeraldk]

I cannot confirm the original document at all as I am troubleshooting this issue for another worker in the office. However 95% sure the document is 2004 mac or 2003 windows.
However the problem happens on my 10.4.11 computer and his 10.5.2 in office 2008. Ran the disk repair utility. No change. the error occurs whenever the computer loads the graphs ex on a larger document you can see the page count rise at the bottom and the document will error when it arrives at the page with the graph.

 

[CyberTaz]

OK - that helps - although I don't want to give you false hopes

It sounds like there is corruption within the document, most likely
involving the chart object.

It would be best if you can get a copy of the file to Word 2003 or 2007.
They have a better chance of being able to open the file, which will then
make it possible to take steps to correct the problem. It may be as simple
as a Save As to create a "fresh" version in 97-2004 format or there may be a
bit more involved. If you need further assistance post back for more info.

If that isn't possible you can try the Recover Text from Any File choice in
the Open dialog, but even if successful the formatting & graphic content
will not survive.