Microsoft Word won't load on my iMac G4 after kernel panic

[nielsenk]

Hi everyone
As my subject line implies, my iMac G4 had several kernel panics
yesterday, but I was able to restore most of the files and applications
today. However, my Microsoft Word (Microsoft Office X) no longer
functions. The icon is still in the dock, but if I click on the icon a
black triangle briefly appears next to it and then disappears. I also
cannot open any of the many Word documents on my computer.

What should I do? do I have to reinstall my Mac X 10.3 (Panther)
software? I hope not--I don't want to lose all the other applications
etc., if that's what it takes. on the other hand, I have to use Word
every day and don't want to have to pay for it again.

Please advise in the simplest terms...I have been a user for a long
time but don't have any expertise with the "behind the scenes" workings
of applications or the computer.

Thanks a lot.

Kirinphoebe

 

[Chris Ridd]

Hi everyone
As my subject line implies, my iMac G4 had several kernel panics
yesterday, but I was able to restore most of the files and applications
today. However, my Microsoft Word (Microsoft Office X) no longer
functions. The icon is still in the dock, but if I click on the icon a
black triangle briefly appears next to it and then disappears. I also
cannot open any of the many Word documents on my computer.

What should I do? do I have to reinstall my Mac X 10.3 (Panther)
software? I hope not--I don't want to lose all the other applications
etc., if that's what it takes. on the other hand, I have to use Word
every day and don't want to have to pay for it again.

Please advise in the simplest terms...I have been a user for a long
time but don't have any expertise with the "behind the scenes" workings
of applications or the computer.
Thanks a lot.

If you run Console.app and look in the console.log while you're
starting Word, you might see some error messages getting logged and
that might help you figure out what's broken.

But trashing and reinstalling Office X (and reinstalling all the
updates) might be the easiest solution.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Kirin -

First, have you used Disk Utility - Repair Disk Permissions? If not, that
should be done and *may* resolve the problem, along with some other ideas
below. You also don't make mention of what you've done specifically to
recover from the problem.

The icon in the dock is an alias, not Word itself, so that isn't necessarily
an indication that Word is broken. What happens if you go to the
Applications|MS Office folder & double-click the actual Word application
icon? If that successfully launches Word, drag the old icon out of the Dock,
then drag the Word icon to the Dock to create a new alias.

If the above is successful but Word still doesn't launch when you dbl+click
a doc icon, Control+Click a Word doc icon in a Finder window & select Get
Info from the shortcut menu. In the 'Open With' section select Word from the
dropdown list, then click 'Change All'.

There is probably no need to reinstall OS X if there are no other symptoms,
although you may have to reinstall Word/Office, but post back with your
results before you do.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Elliott Roper]

Hi everyone
As my subject line implies, my iMac G4 had several kernel panics
yesterday, but I was able to restore most of the files and applications
today. However, my Microsoft Word (Microsoft Office X) no longer
functions. The icon is still in the dock, but if I click on the icon a
black triangle briefly appears next to it and then disappears. I also
cannot open any of the many Word documents on my computer.

What should I do? do I have to reinstall my Mac X 10.3 (Panther)
software? I hope not--I don't want to lose all the other applications
etc., if that's what it takes. on the other hand, I have to use Word
every day and don't want to have to pay for it again.

To add to the advice of the others, before you do a lot of work
re-installing things, it would be worth your while investigating the
reason your machine panicked. Unless you had been doing some evil
hackery, such as installing dodgy software with kernel extensions and
the like, the overwhelming reason for a kernel panic is a hardware
fault.

If you don't fix the fault, you are going to get a lot of experience
installing software over and over again.

Have a look at your console logs. They are more than a bit geeky.
Got to Applications/Utilities and run consol.app
press "logs" on the top left
Firstly, open ~/Library/Logs
turn down the crash reporter triangle and look for Microsoft Word in
the list of crash reports that may have accumulated.
Scroll to the very end, then scroll back up looking for a row of
asterisks. That marks the beginning of the report of your most recent
Word crash. Check the data and time make sense, then see if there is
anything interesting in the top dozen lines or so. (My last Word crash
reported there was 6 weeks ago, and said there was a memory exception
error, which is saying nothing more than Word tried to reach into some
memory that it was not allowed to reach, almost certainly a corrupt
document pointing at another part of itself that wasn't. It did not
have anything to say about my more recent disaster where I deleted Word
accidentally and then tried to run it from the dock icon, which behaved
similarly to what you see.

While you are in console, /Library/Logs contains your panic reports.
(if the machine stayed alive enough to save its suicide note) My last
panic reported an unexpected tcp lock (the network software went nuts
while I was changing airport and ethernet cables)

By far the most common reason for un-induced kernel panics is hardware,
and the most likely hardware fault is bad memory. You should go for
years without a panic. Several in one day without doing anything
naughty is almost certainly hardware.

If you have recently added memory or changed something in your machine,
try reseating the memory, then try backing out of any changes you might
have made to isolate the bad memory.

I strongly recommend getting a good backup before your G4 gets sicker,
and before you start fiddling with the hardware. Super Duper or Carbon
Copy Cloner are good utilities for making complete copies of your
system. You can boot from the copy afterwards. If you can't find disk
space for a clone, at least back up your ~/Documents and ~/Library
folders as well as all the files that Word strews around your machine
(see http://word.mvps.org/mac/BackUpPrefs.html )

Also, you don't have to completely erase your machine to re-install the
OS. Boot from the CD that came with your Mac and do an upgrade/restore.
But do the backups first. I don't want you to send the boys round to
my place after following my advice *really* screwed your G4.

 

[mmmmark]

I agree with Elliot that it _shouldn't_ be happening. BUT, since I own a G4
iMac of my own, I can tell you that it happens to me from time to time (and
usually in fits of frequency). So...I feel your pain.

It seems that some preference files have not been entirely happy since about
10.3.5. I think someone inadvertently orphaned the G4 iMac when they made
updates. I'm not at home to see exact names of files, but the ones that are
always implicated are related to the video card. There are many threads on
this on the Apple boards or visible via google search. Some people think
that it is hardware related, but I've found that an archive and install
fixes it for about another 6 mos to a year (and they the panics return).

It isn't prefs, per se, because I've tried replacing many of them with known
good copies from another system. I think it is lower level device drivers
and firmware that are actually being corrupted and the reinstall seems to
fix it. Keep an eye on it and if it continues, try the reinstall.

Another thing to try that is much easier is to unhook all your cables and
try blowing some compressed air from the bottom of the unit. Do this
outside as it makes quite a mess. Overheating is also an issue with these
units after many years.

Good luck!
-Mark