Office SP3 update screws up Office

[Robert]

Hello All,

After receiving the automatic MS update for Office 2003, specifically
"Office 2003 Service Pack 3", Word will not function properly.

The "tools" menu, when used, will completely shut the program down,
prompting the standard "sorry for the inconvenience" error message, then Word
attempts to reopen and save any lost information, and the cycle repeats
itself and never stops. The only way out is to control-alt-delete.

So how do you get around this? The SP3 update cannot be removed, as stated
in the "Add/Remove Program" utility in control panel.

The only option I know of, and now have tried three times to be sure the
problem is isolated to the SP3 update, is to go through the hassle of
completely uninstalling Office 2003, then reinstalling. However automatic
updates always trys to reinstall the SP3 update. So you get screwed again if
your computer is set up for automatic updating.

So what's the solution to this problem that SP3 is causing, and how do you
get around installing it if your computer is scheduled to get automatic
updates?

Thanks for any help in advance.

Robert
09/26/07

 

[Dian D. Chapman, MVP]

Well...I haven't seen this, so I'm not entirely sure what to do, but I
would start with some basics. Since others who have installed it
haven't complained about this same problem, it isn't an overall issue,
so start with your computer.

* Make sure your TEMP folder is cleared
* Rename Normal.dot to Normal.old and see if that helps

Are you trying to open the same document each time? Try other one in
case that doc is messed up.

And then you can modify your Update to be prompted versus auto
install. When prompted, I've HEARD (since I haven't gotten that
particular Office update notice) that there should be a button to not
be asked again...choose that and that should stop the prompts for
Office to update you???

Sorry I don't know the answer. But verify that you've done the above
and then we can move on troubleshooting from there.

What version of Windows are you running?

Good luck!

Dian D. Chapman
Technical Consultant, Microsoft MVP
MOS Certified Instructor, Editor/TechTrax Ezine
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Dian.Chapman

Free PC Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
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[Robert]

Hi Dian,

I'm running XP. I'm going to try to turn off this particular update. Still
that leaves me with a concern that without Office updates, I'm setting myself
up to vulnerabilites.

 

[Dian D. Chapman, MVP]

True, but not TOO critical at this point, I believe. But again, try to
do the troubleshooting to see if that fixes the problem. If it was the
patch itself, everyone would be reporting this issue and they're not.
So it's something that is related to your system.

Good luck!
Dian ~

 

[Robert]

Hi Dian,

I've turned off the SP3 patch, and selected to "not download this item
again". So instead MS automatic updates dowloaded the same individual items
that were all grouped in the SP3 patch. So I essentially got all the items
of the SP3 patch, except in the form of individual file updates.

And in that form of automatic updates, MS Word experiences none of the
problems I previously described.

So essentially, I found my own solution to the problem.

Thanks for the Support,

Robert
09/26/07

 

[Dian D. Chapman, MVP]

Oh very cool that you got it working. Don't know what the problem is,
but I'll pass this info back to MS...might help???

Dian ~

 

[Dian D. Chapman, MVP]

Hey Robert...

I passed your thread to a friend at MS support and he said they did
have one other incident like yours. That was fixed by creating a new
user profile. So if you want to give that a shot, it should help you
clear out the old issues and start fresh a bit.

You can do that under the Accounts in the Control Panel. Granted, you
may have to reinstall apps that were set only for your user profiles,
unless you set them to all users during install.

But if you want to try that, it fixed it for someone else.

Good luck!

Dian D. Chapman
Technical Consultant, Microsoft MVP
MOS Certified Instructor, Editor/TechTrax Ezine
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Dian.Chapman

Free PC Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word Tricks eBook: http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Optimize your business docs: http://www.mousetrax.com/consulting
Learn VBA the easy way: http://www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html

 

[Mosey]

Hi
I'm afraid the update has also screwed up a relative's Office. I really should have read the full warning before installing it.

She has Office 2002 installed, and I had clicked to 'ok' the SP3 update. Somewhere in the middle it must have stopped, and when she next attempted to open up an excel file, it came up with an error that eventually disappeared, to be replaced with 'trying to find the installer' etc. message.

As far as I'm aware, this is to do with the registry being messed up, but I'm not sure as this was from a bit of googling! Cancelling this 'looking for installer' message means the file isn't opened. The only way to open up excel successfully at the moment, is to open it without any add-ins (I think?) via the Run command - it still asks for an installer message, but cancelling at least gives her a working Excel!

Now we have another problem: Outlook 2002 does not want to connect to pop3. I'm still not sure this is to do with SP3, but after ruling out any account setting errors/ISP being down/still not working with firewall disabled, I'm wondering if it is the SP3 patch rearing it's head again!

The worst thing, of course, is that SP3 is still showing up in the 'windows update' box, asking to be installed!

There have never been any previous problems with installing any windows updates, so I am still in a mini-shock from this experience (which hasn't been resolved) and would really like to find a solution to all of the above mentioned. The new user-profile option is one I'd like to leave as a very last option.

Thanks in advance!
Kind Regards
Mosey



A Womand Told Me
http://www.awomantoldme.com

 

[Mosey]

Hi
I'm afraid the update has also screwed up a relative's Office. I really should have read the full warning before installing it.

She has Office 2002 installed, and I had clicked to 'ok' the SP3 update. Somewhere in the middle it must have stopped, and when she next attempted to open up an excel file, it came up with an error that eventually disappeared, to be replaced with 'trying to find the installer' etc. message.

As far as I'm aware, this is to do with the registry being messed up, but I'm not sure as this was from a bit of googling! Cancelling this 'looking for installer' message means the file isn't opened. The only way to open up excel successfully at the moment, is to open it without any add-ins (I think?) via the Run command - it still asks for an installer message, but cancelling at least gives her a working Excel!

Now we have another problem: Outlook 2002 does not want to connect to pop3. I'm still not sure this is to do with SP3, but after ruling out any account setting errors/ISP being down/still not working with firewall disabled, I'm wondering if it is the SP3 patch rearing it's head again!

The worst thing, of course, is that SP3 is still showing up in the 'windows update' box, asking to be installed!

There have never been any previous problems with installing any windows updates, so I am still in a mini-shock from this experience (which hasn't been resolved) and would really like to find a solution to all of the above mentioned. The new user-profile option is one I'd like to leave as a very last option.

Thanks in advance!
Kind Regards
Mosey



A Womand Told Me
http://www.awomantoldme.com

 

[Dian D. Chapman, MVP]

Well, in the meantime, I certainly HOPE you have reenabled the
firewall as you can open her up to tons of other problems with that
down!



Dian D. Chapman
Technical Consultant, Microsoft MVP
MOS Certified Instructor, Editor/TechTrax Ezine
Tech Editor for Word & Office 2007 Bibles
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Dian.Chapman

Free PC Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word Tricks eBook: http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Optimize your business docs: http://www.mousetrax.com/consulting
Learn VBA the easy way: http://www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html

 

[ernest.taylor]

I installed Office Service Pack 3 and after that I started to have
issues with word too. I can open up doc but when I was running other
programs that imported in to word I got a "inufficient memory" error.
I uninstalled office and reinstalled it without SP3 and everything
work but when I installed SP3 I could not import in to word. Any help
would be appreciated.

 

[Dian D. Chapman, MVP]

Do you regularly clear your temp dir?

Dian D. Chapman
Technical Consultant, Microsoft MVP
MOS Certified Instructor, Editor/TechTrax Ezine
Tech Editor for Word & Office 2007 Bibles
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Dian.Chapman

Free PC Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word Tricks eBook: http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Optimize your business docs: http://www.mousetrax.com/consulting
Learn VBA the easy way: http://www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html

 

[ernest.taylor]

yes,

Sorry I should have given more about the system. This system is one of
three terminal servers that i reconfigured and reinstalled software on
including Office 2003 Pro. After updating office with SP3 I could
logon as a administrator and could import in to word correctly but if
a user or myself using my login (in the Domain Admin Group) it would
give the "inufficient memory" error. After removing Office 2003 Pro
and reinstalling it back on and updating up until SP2 all users are
working.

 

[Bob I]

Perhaps it's an issue with the domain account needing to be made local
administrator.

 

[ernest.taylor]

I don't want to make my users loging in to my terminal server local
admin. There has to be another solution.