fix OFFLB.EXE freezing computer

[Stephanie]

When running my Office programs, especially Outlook or Word, the programs
will freeze and I have to use ctrl+Alt+del to open task manager. OFFLB.EXE
will be on the list. Once I stop the service of it, the programs will return
to normal. Sometimes it lasts only a few minutes before it shows up again.

This is very frustrating!!! I have reinstalled my Office software, done the
service pack upload...

How can I fix this so it wont do it any more?

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Stephanie,

The Office Lifeboat (OffLB.exe) is what launches when one of the Office apps appears to be hung, to try to close the apps, save
your work to disk then try to restart the app.

There may be a 3rd party add-in, a corrupted template or document, a damaged registry or another factor, such as HP PhotoSmart
Printer driver, or other issue going on. To start, use Start=>Search to cleanup and recycle any left over files from crashes by
searching for file names found using
~$*.*;*.tmp

===================When running my Office programs, especially Outlook or Word, the programs
will freeze and I have to use ctrl+Alt+del to open task manager. OFFLB.EXE
will be on the list. Once I stop the service of it, the programs will return
to normal. Sometimes it lasts only a few minutes before it shows up again.

This is very frustrating!!! I have reinstalled my Office software, done the
service pack upload...

How can I fix this so it wont do it any more?>>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Stephanie]

I tried what you suggested and of course I had a whole lot of those
files..... BUT it did not help the OFFLB problem...it actually has gotten
worse... any other ideas?

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Stephanie,

Sometimes you have to wait out the Lifeboat cycle to completion (it can take over 5 minutes for things to time out in Windows).


Do you have any add-ins running in Word? Do you get the same problem if you start Word while holding the ctrl key?

If you're using an HP Photosmart printer, at present, the common 'fix' is to choose another printer as the 'default' and then use
Office Button=>Print=>Print
to chooose the Photosmart printer to print.

Are you saving locally or using a network location for files, or printer drivers?

===========
I tried what you suggested and of course I had a whole lot of those
files..... BUT it did not help the OFFLB problem...it actually has gotten
worse... any other ideas? >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Stephanie]

Well, from the last message you sent me, I am lost! I save locally. But the
OFFLB does this on all of the computers that I have MSOffice 2007 on......

Could you explain to me on searching for the file names exactly how to
search for them to make sure I got them all? Do I search for "~$*.*;*.tmp "
all together? I am assuming that they are to be separated but was not sure
what went with what.... I did the "$" one and found 2405 items with it....
deleted those. This error mainly happens in Outlook and occasionally in word.

I have never started word with the ctrl key... what does that do?

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Stephanie,

Yes you search for the single file name string of
~$*.*;*.tmp
you can copy it from the message and paste it into search. If you did separate searches and deleted files it's possible you
recycled something you will need later, so you may want to open the recycle bin and restore the entries, then do the search.

Starting Word (or any Office core app) puts it into 'safe mode' (i.e. basic mode without loading the add-ins that may affect way
Word operates). It's one of the tools for troubleshooting.


===============
Well, from the last message you sent me, I am lost! I save locally. But the
OFFLB does this on all of the computers that I have MSOffice 2007 on......

Could you explain to me on searching for the file names exactly how to
search for them to make sure I got them all? Do I search for "~$*.*;*.tmp "
all together? I am assuming that they are to be separated but was not sure
what went with what.... I did the "$" one and found 2405 items with it....
deleted those. This error mainly happens in Outlook and occasionally in word.

I have never started word with the ctrl key... what does that do? >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Stephanie]

Ok.... I am still getting the OFFLB crap, even with removing the files as
suggested. It is now showing up anywhere from 1-4 at a time on my task
manager.

Could there something wrong with the disk I bought that I installed the
programs from?

Is there anything else I can do?

 

[AllSystemsDown]

Hello All, I am seeing the same problem with this OFFLB.EXE also. I have a
Access database that serveral people use with Access2000 and just upgraded 1
user to Access2007 and she constantly will lock up, the program shows not
responding for about 30 to 60 seconds and then it will start running again on
it's own. This process OFFLB.EXE will pop up sometimes more than once. I too
notice if I kill them the Access program starts running normal again. No
errors in the event log. I google this process and I only find this post
Stephanie started spread across 8 different web sites with no solution. Did
anyone ever figure this out?

 

[Mike]

Hi Bob,

After reviewing what you have written here, I am aware that there is a
program that is halting Microsoft Excel (2007). I have a script I am
running, that is intentionally doing this. The problem is that, when the
script executes, Office thinks the application is frozen, and therefore runs
OFFLB. Is there a way to disable OFFLB for specific applications, or disable
it entirely? When my application returns, OFFLB is holding a resource that I
need to exit, and I am forced to either kill the process or wait until it
finishes.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[AllSystemsDown]

Hello All, I finally figured out my problem. The computer had a printer
installed from HP installation CD rom for an HP inkjet 1200n. Once I
uninstalled the HP printer and all software associated with it my lockup
problems with Access went away and so did OFFLB.EXE. I can only think
something from the HP program was conflicting with Office2007 causing it to
go into protection thus firing up Office Life boat (OFFLB.EXE). I downloaded
just the driver and setup a new printer using just the driver from HP and now
everthing is working.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Mike,

I'm not sure what all the Office Lifeboat (OffLB.exe) watcher uses for criteria or timing to identify a problem. My understanding
it that it's not something that can be customized, but you should be able to disable it as part of the install/configuration of
Office, but it's part of the diagnostics capability.

If this is a deployed/enterprise edition, you can use, from either the Office CD or Office Network Installation Point (oNIP)
Setup.exe /Admin
to create an Office Customization Tool (OCT) patch file.

The setting in the OCT is at
Microsoft Office Systems=>Office Diagnostics=>Disable Office Diagnostics.
but you may want to do some testing.

I haven't tried simply renaming OffLB.exe but suspect that the MS Installer would likely put it back, but you may want to check that
as well.

You may also want to use the link below to also post this in the MS Office Excel Programming discussion group (link below) to see if
anyone there has a solution for you.

==========
Hi Bob,

After reviewing what you have written here, I am aware that there is a
program that is halting Microsoft Excel (2007). I have a script I am
running, that is intentionally doing this. The problem is that, when the
script executes, Office thinks the application is frozen, and therefore runs
OFFLB. Is there a way to disable OFFLB for specific applications, or disable
it entirely? When my application returns, OFFLB is holding a resource that I
need to exit, and I am forced to either kill the process or wait until it
finishes.

Thanks,
Mike >>
--
Please let us know if this has helped,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

LINKS
A. Specific newsgroup/discussion group mentioned in this message:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.programming
or via browser:
http://microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/?dg=microsoft.public.excel.programming

B. MS Office Community discussion/newsgroups via Web Browser
http://microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx
or
Microsoft hosted newsgroups via Outlook Express/newsreader
news://msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Thank you for posting back with that information. There have been some odd issues with HP Printer drivers with Office 2007 and HP
has mentioned that they are working on some updates, but I don't recall that particular model printer being mentioned.

Glad you're now UpAndRunning.
=============
Hello All, I finally figured out my problem. The computer had a printer
installed from HP installation CD rom for an HP inkjet 1200n. Once I
uninstalled the HP printer and all software associated with it my lockup
problems with Access went away and so did OFFLB.EXE. I can only think
something from the HP program was conflicting with Office2007 causing it to
go into protection thus firing up Office Life boat (OFFLB.EXE). I downloaded
just the driver and setup a new printer using just the driver from HP and now
everthing is working. >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*