Office 2008 — setup assistant crashes

[swansung_net]

I installed Office about 2 weeks ago and still haven't gotten it to
run. Setup Assistant crashes after the first page (where they ask for
your contact info.) I called Microsoft tech support and got a great
rep who worked with me for over an hour, only to tell me that the
problem was Apples (and he thought it was font-related). I've been on
the Apple discussion sites for over a week trying this and that and I
thought I'd try here too...

I can get Office apps to run in a new "test" user account I set up. I
have reinstalled OSX 10.4 (and downloaded the combo .11 upgrade from
Apple and installed that), I have repaired disk permissions, I have
tried reinstalling Office, I have deleted the preferences files from
Suitcase X1 (which got rid of all suitcase control over fonts—I'm a
graphic designer and I have a ton). Any other ideas? I do have an
ancient version of Office 98 (which only runs in Classic mode) but the
Microsoft tech guy didn't think that would affect it (and, I can run
that in the "test" account so he's probably right.) It would be nice
to use this software!

Thanks in advance...

 

[jb44mag]

Move MicroSoft User Data folder to the desktop. reinstall Office 2008. This will create a virgin MicroSoft User Data folder. Now the Setup Assistant should operate properly. Start up Entourage. Import 2004 identities into the virgin userdata. Everything should now work correctly.

-Jim

 

[John McGhie]

Well, *I* don't think it's Fonts, and it's certainly not Apple's fault

There are a few bugs in the installer

I suggest that you run Remove Office from the CD. Run it twice, to ensure
that you get all versions out.

Then:

1) Quit all Microsoft applications.

2) Track down all instances of pre-2008 Normal template on your computer,
and drag them to your desktop. The file is called simply "Normal" and has
no extension.

3) Find and drag the file Normal.dotm to your desktop. Unless you have
moved it, it should be in
/Users/ ~ /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/

4) If the following files exist, Remove or rename them:

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (10)

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (11)

User/Library/Preferences/com.Microsoft.Word.plist

User/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008 (the whole folder!)

5) Now try your installation again.

Be thorough with this, if you leave any of these files behind Office 2008
will find them and won't replace them. Do it right and Office will
construct a new, clean, set of preferences and everything should now work.

Hope this helps

I installed Office about 2 weeks ago and still haven't gotten it to
run. Setup Assistant crashes after the first page (where they ask for
your contact info.) I called Microsoft tech support and got a great
rep who worked with me for over an hour, only to tell me that the
problem was Apples (and he thought it was font-related). I've been on
the Apple discussion sites for over a week trying this and that and I
thought I'd try here too...

I can get Office apps to run in a new "test" user account I set up. I
have reinstalled OSX 10.4 (and downloaded the combo .11 upgrade from
Apple and installed that), I have repaired disk permissions, I have
tried reinstalling Office, I have deleted the preferences files from
Suitcase X1 (which got rid of all suitcase control over fonts‹I'm a
graphic designer and I have a ton). Any other ideas? I do have an
ancient version of Office 98 (which only runs in Classic mode) but the
Microsoft tech guy didn't think that would affect it (and, I can run
that in the "test" account so he's probably right.) It would be nice
to use this software!

Thanks in advance...

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Diane Ross]

1) Quit all Microsoft applications.

This includes Notifications/Reminders and Microsoft Messenger for Mac.

How to quit Notifications:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/glossary/daemon.html#quit_daemon>

 

[naxalite971]

tried the method as outlined above. Assistant is still crashing.

 

[Diane Ross]

tried the method as outlined above. Assistant is still crashing.

Just posted this fix:

[Office 2008 SP1] install causes setup assistant to loop

This situation is a result of when the Office Setup Assistant detects that
an invalid Product Key was used to install Office 2008. David Pelton,
Microsoft MacBU core lead test has outlined how to fix the problem and
requests users to contact him with info that will help chase down the issue
to keep it from happening in the future.

You will find details here:

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/05/office_2008_sp1_install_causes_setup
_assistant_to_loop.html>

In case the above link does not work:

<http://tinyurl.com/5tbw5m>

 

[naxalite971]

Actually, that was my initial problem. I reinstalled with my valid
copy and then instead of looping, it would simply crash when setting
up user identity. On a whim, I created a new admin account, and
launched from there. It created a new user id for office!. I logged
out and then back in my normal identity, and for some strange reason,
it worked. Thnkx for paying attention though...

 

[Diane Ross]

Actually, that was my initial problem. I reinstalled with my valid
copy and then instead of looping, it would simply crash when setting
up user identity.

Feedback from developer:

Issue 1 - ³reinstalled with my valid copy² - this is the issue ­ customer
had a PID that was no longer valid, we catch there was an invalid PID, but
did not give a UI to fix it ­ deleting the files gets rid of the PIDs and
allows the user to input a valid Product Key.

Issue 2 - ³it would simply crash when setting up user identity² - sounds
like an issue upgrading a database. I would wonder if the user was trying to
choose an Office 2008 identity or creating a new identity when there was a
2008 identity there. Getting more data on this could help us track this
down.

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

 

[naxalite971]

The absent Ui would have avoided the secondary problem, certainly, as
I would have then entered my valid serial and moved on.
I'm not sure if there was a trace of an identity left that may have
been tripping up the setup assistant. I had deleted anything in
preferences with microsoft in the name; com.microsoft.plist, and
preferences, the entire microsoft folder in preferences, the entire
folder left in applications and running 'remove office'. I double
checked for package receipts.
I was attempting to install w/o Entourage and Messenger. The last time
I let those install, along with all the non-english proofing support I
had originally opted out of. It still crashed. When I created a new
admin user acct and logged in under that name, I didn't think it would
help. Once it created an ID, I thought I might try to pull those pref.
files into my normal user side and launch word from there. I only
tried to relaunch before moving those files just to verify it was
still goofed. When it created my new ID, I was rather floored. My
guess is that you are on the right track however, perhaps it was being
directed to a file no longer there. I wonder if emptying the trash
'securely' would have helped....
I wish I could tell you more...

 

[naxalite971]

5/14/08 4:40:39 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context

Wow, that's more errors per second than I can make with a gun....
Now that's impressive!! (and I suppose, this is a little mea-spirited,
but I was really hoping this invalid context thing would be fixed.
That's why I was so up on the SP1 update....
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Wow, that's more errors per second than I can make with a gun....

I think you have an exaggerated estimate of your own neural capacity.
Given that the impulse for a voluntary motion takes roughly 200 ms to
travel from the brain to the fingers, you're operating orders of
magnitude slower than your machine and Word.

And given that in each timeslice OSX gives Word (say, 10 milliseconds),
a 2 GHz processor experiences 20 *million* clock cycles, 22 log entries
per second really isn't a lot...

 

[William Smith]

invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context

Wow, that's more errors per second than I can make with a gun....
Now that's impressive!! (and I suppose, this is a little mea-spirited,
but I was really hoping this invalid context thing would be fixed.
That's why I was so up on the SP1 update....
5/14/08 4:40:43 PM Microsoft Word[95044] CGBitmapContextGetData:
invalid context

I've seen the same message with other applications. I have no idea if
the applications are calling something they shouldn't or if the Mac OS
should be preventing this from happening.

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>