Office XP Unable to open existing files

[tim o]

365 days after installing Office XP OEM on a brand new
box, it refuses to open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

Access and Outlook seem to be okay.

Maintenance is current.

Virus scan (Norton corporate version, 12/23 virus
definitions) clean.

Ran repair.
Wouldn't open anything.
Uninstalled, reinstalled.
Worked on a sampel Word document.
Ran updates (SP1, SP2, and recent security maintenance).
Refuses to open the files again.

Recent changes:
Upgraded from Norton AV 2003 to Corporate version.

That's it.

The files themselves seem to be okay...

HELP!
Thanks,
Tim

 

[Echo S]

What happens when you try to open the files?

Also, I'm not sure about the Corporate version of NAV, but have you
tried disabling the Office plug-in?

http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00339.htm references a different
error, but it explains how to disable the Office plug-in. Not sure it
will help here, but it won't hurt.

 

[Guest]

Trying to open the files brings up the correct application
(e.g. click on *.doc and MS Word opens). But the
same "unable to open file" message pops up.

Disabling or even uninstalling NAV will be my next step
unless someone has a magic bullet. Thanks for the info...

Tim

-----Original Message-----
What happens when you try to open the files?

Also, I'm not sure about the Corporate version of NAV, but have you
tried disabling the Office plug-in?

http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00339.htm references a different
error, but it explains how to disable the Office plug-in. Not sure it
will help here, but it won't hurt.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

365 days after installing Office XP OEM on a brand new
box, it refuses to open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

Access and Outlook seem to be okay.

Maintenance is current.

Virus scan (Norton corporate version, 12/23 virus
definitions) clean.

Ran repair.
Wouldn't open anything.
Uninstalled, reinstalled.
Worked on a sampel Word document.
Ran updates (SP1, SP2, and recent security maintenance).
Refuses to open the files again.

Recent changes:
Upgraded from Norton AV 2003 to Corporate version.

That's it.

The files themselves seem to be okay...

HELP!
Thanks,
Tim

.

 

[Tim O]

Well, the link ends up pointing to a KB entry describing
a conflict between Office SP2 and NAV which fit my
symptoms exactly.

Disabled NAV checking of Office files - no change.
Uninstalled NAV Corporate - no change
Uninstalled NAV LiveUpdate - no change
Nosed down in and found stranded directory for NAV stuff -
had to shut down a task or two to delete the files in
the directory - Office files were now available.
Installed NAV Corporate - Office files still okay.
Installed patches etc. to NAV to bring it up to current -
Office files still okay.

I believe the conflict was introduced by installing
Corporate NAV without first completely uninstalling and
removing the NAV 2003. The new install must have brought
in conflicting components and confused the patch process
enough that any NAV fixes to get around the bug were
bypassed.

All is well - for the moment.

Thanks,
TimO

 

[Echo S]

Good to hear, Tim. Nice detective work.

Echo

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Tim,

Yes, if you install Norton CE and do not uninstall Norton AV first
then the DLL for the Office Plug-in found in Norton AV remains
registered.

It sounds like you resolved the problem but for future reference, to
manually un-register the Plug-in DLL:

- Search for officeav.dll
- Go to Start/Run and run the following command:

regsvr32 /u "c:\program files\norton antivirus\officeav.dll"

In the above example the path for "Officeav.dll" would depend on the
location of the DLL.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/