Office 2004 apps fail on startup

[John Barnabas]

I have just installed Office 2004 and cannot get Word, Excel or PowerPoint
to start up. In each case the splash screen shows, there's a brief blank and
then the error dialog box comes up.

Typically the error log shows (and there are similar logs for the other two
apps):

Microsoft Error Reporting log version: 1.0

Error Signature:
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS
Date/Time: 2004-05-30 14:30:02 +0100
Application Name: Microsoft Word
Application Version: 11.0.0.040408
Module Name: ATS
Module Version: unknown
Module Offset: 0x0002aac4
Extra app info: Reg=English Loc=0x0409


Thread 0 crashed:

# 1 0x96c1aac4 in _FixPostScriptName + 0x000001A8 (ATS + 0x0002aac4)
# 2 0x96c195d0 in _FOGetNameInternal + 0x000002A4 (ATS + 0x000295d0)
# 3 0x96c0af50 in __eFOGetName + 0x00000284 (ATS + 0x0001af50)
# 4 0x96c0aca4 in _FOGetName + 0x0000005C (ATS + 0x0001aca4)
# 5 0x915b7ca8 in _ATSUGetIndFontName + 0x0000009C (QD + 0x00057ca8)
# 6 0x92999230 in __Z16FindBestFontNamemmPmS_S_mPcS_S_ + 0x0000016C
(HIToolbox + 0x001c9230)
# 7 0x929a513c in __Z20BuildFontNamesRecordmsm + 0x00000060 (HIToolbox +
0x001d513c)
# 8 0x929915e0 in __Z14AppendFontMenuP8MenuDatasmPm + 0x0000019C
(HIToolbox + 0x001c15e0)
# 9 0x928ee29c in __Z23_CreateStandardFontMenuP8MenuDatatsmPm + 0x00000054
(HIToolbox + 0x0011e29c)
# 10 0x005a10c0 in (MCPZ.stb + 0x00030cd0)
# 11 0x005a0b7c in (MCPZ.stb + 0x0003078c)
# 12 0x0057e518 in (MCPZ.stb + 0x0000e128)
# 13 0x0057e4ac in (MCPZ.stb + 0x0000e0bc)
# 14 0x005a0af8 in (MCPZ.stb + 0x00030708)
# 15 0x005a0a78 in (MCPZ.stb + 0x00030688)
# 16 0x0203d788 in (Microsoft Word + 0x0001dce8)
# 17 0x02022cdc in (Microsoft Word + 0x0000323c)
# 18 0x02020360 in (Microsoft Word + 0x000008c0)
# 19 0x01023430 in (Microsoft_Office_2001Z + 0x0000cec0)
# 20 0x020200b4 in (Microsoft Word + 0x00000614)
# 21 0x02b052ec in (Microsoft Word + 0x00ae584c)

PPC Thread State:
srr0: 0x96c1aac4 srr1: 0x0000d030 vrsave: 0x00000000
xer: 0x20000000 lr: 0x96c195d0 ctr: 0x00000000 mq:0x00000000
r0: 0x0000001c r1: 0xbfffe110 r2: 0x0000003d r3:0x0000002b
r4: 0x00000003 r5: 0x00000001 r6: 0x0000002d r7:0x011e8058
r8: 0x00405000 r9: 0xff199023 r10: 0x00000001 r11:0x00de3058
r12: 0x0038107a r13: 0x0316b88c r14: 0x0316b858 r15:0x00000003
r16: 0xbffff538 r17: 0x00000000 r18: 0xbfffe418 r19:0xbfffe41c
r20: 0xbfffe414 r21: 0xbfffe378 r22: 0xbfffe364 r23:0xbfffe368
r24: 0x0177bffc r25: 0x00381050 r26: 0x054d91fc r27:0x0000002b
r28: 0x00381050 r29: 0x054d92a4 r30: 0x054d929e r31:0x96c1933c

It looks to me as if this has something to do with the fonts. I have
resolved all the font conflicts using FontBook. I have tried removing the
Fonts folder from inside the Microsoft Office/Office folder, but to no
avail.

Entourage works fine, except when I click on a fully formatted message
(adverts from Apple, for example, or the daily headlines from the NY Times)
and then Entourage crashes, showing a similar error log to the above (except
that it is Thread 9 that crashes.

I am working on a 867MHz G4 PowerBook with OSX 10.3.4 just updated (and no
other problems showing up following the update). I utterly depend on this
machine and Office for my work and maintaining a busy schedule.

Any useful suggestions gratefully received.

 

[Mickey Stevens]

Check for corrupt fonts. You can use a utility like Apple Font Book
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/fontbook/> to enable/disable fonts for
testing.

Extensis Suitcase <http://www. extensis .com/suitcase/index.html?ref=hp>
even claims to be able to detect corrupt and duplicate fonts; you might want
to download the free trial and see if that'll help you fix the problem.

 

[John Barnabas]

I used the FontBook to disable all the fonts except system fonts. The apps
still crash on startup just the same. I am convinced there's a corrupt font
somewhere, but I was surprised that disabling all except system fonts had no
effect.

Does this suggest that one of the system fonts is corrupt? If so, how can I
deal with it?

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

I used the FontBook to disable all the fonts except system fonts. The apps
still crash on startup just the same. I am convinced there's a corrupt font
somewhere, but I was surprised that disabling all except system fonts had no
effect.

Does this suggest that one of the system fonts is corrupt? If so, how can I
deal with it?

Not necessarely. The Office Font cache can be corrupted as well. You should
go to the pref folder and delete the font cache from the Microsoft folder
there. I hope it'll fix it :-\


Corentin

 

[Andreas Ullrich]

Hi,

I have the same problem. I did a fresh install of Mac OS 10.3, and installed
Office 2004. But when I started loading up more data onto my HD Office 2004
won't load up word, excel and power point. I have come across with many
Office 2004 who have the same issue.

Andreas

 

[Andreas Ullrich]

I have deleted the font cache from the MS folder, no luck.

Andreas

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

I have deleted the font cache from the MS folder, no luck.

Do you have SUitcase active ?? It is known to considerably slow down the
process (though I have it and everything is fine on my Mac :-\ ).

Corentin

 

[Duggan]

I am having the same problem. First word initialised fonts and
identified 3 corrupt ones (which I removed) but now neither Excel,
Word or Powerpoint start under my profile, yet in other profiles (ie
guest) they start fine - as far as I know the same font file is used
each profile.

Very frustrating

 

[Ben Lewis]

I would like to echo these frustrations. I've always been in favor of
purchasing Microsoft products on the Mac because they've been very
good. This seems to be a step backward.

I have a PowerMac G5 single processor 1.8 mhz with 512mb RAM. Word X
installed. All fonts removed. Office 2004 Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
still won't launch.

I really hope MS comes out with a solution soon. This is holding us up
in a major way.

 

[bob]

I would like to echo these frustrations. I've always been in favor of
purchasing Microsoft products on the Mac because they've been very
good. This seems to be a step backward.

I have a PowerMac G5 single processor 1.8 mhz with 512mb RAM. Word X
installed. All fonts removed. Office 2004 Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
still won't launch.

I really hope MS comes out with a solution soon. This is holding us up
in a major way.

Just seem to have fixed one w/ the same symptoms using the suggestion
of one of my co-workers in our Mac support group. Repaired
permissions(using Cocktail), installed Office, repaired permissions
again. All apps lit fine where Entourage was the only one that would
function previously. Seems strange tho that previously and now, the
only app that shows up in the System Profiler software list is
Entourage. I hope this helps./Bob