Opening drop-down lists cause Project 2003 to crash

[Tim W. - FWA, IN]

I've been plagued for some time now with a condition where I cannot open most
of the drop-down lists in MS Project Professional 2003 without the
application immediately shutting down. (I'm running version
11.0.2003.0816.15.)

This condition has followed me from one laptop to another. Also, another
colleague at my company is having the identical problem.

Thanks for any assistance you can offer.

Tim W.

 

[JulieS]

Hello Tim,

What service packs do you have installed? Project 2003 is up to
SP-3.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Tim W. - FWA, IN]

I was only at SP1, but just applied SP3. It appears that SP3 did not resolve
the problem.

 

[JulieS]

Thanks for the information that you've now applied SP-3. Exactly
what "drop-down" lists are you trying to open? Are they in
enterprise fields? Are you connect to Project Server? What SP is
applied to Project Server?

Julie

 

[JulieS]

Hi Tim,

Another thought. Are you running Norton antivirus? There were a
number of reports back in October of Project crashing. It appears
to be tied to a Norton update. Disabling the Office Plug-in in
Norton fixed the issue.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Tim W. - FWA, IN]

Sorry for the break in the thread.

I'm not running Norton Antivirus. (I run McAfee Viruscan Enterprise
Workstation 8.5.0.781.) Additionally, one of my IT guys has told me that
there could be some issue with the Credential Manager for HP Protect Tools
(by Infineon Technologies).

 

[Tim W. - FWA, IN]

Most all of the drop-downs in a project view (e.g., Gantt view) will cause
this. An exception is the date control (which technically isn't a
drop-down, so no big surprise there.) Also, if we turn AutoFilter on, then
click on any of the column heading drop-downs, it will crash. This happens
regardless of if I have a Project Server project open, or just a file-based
project.

 

[Tim W. - FWA, IN]

Note: This issue may be specific to HP Compaq laptops running HP Protect tools.

Thanks to a tip from one of my IT guys, we’ve found the fix to the
application hangs we've been seeing when attempting to open drop-down list
controls in applications like MS Project and some SharePoint pages. (Note,
I’ve had this problem on two different HP Compaq 8710 series laptops for
several months.)

The solution appears to be an upgrade to the HP ProtectTools Security
Manager Suite, specifically v4.00 rev H, effective 10/23/2008. The specific
install file is sp40032.exe.

(See the HP ProtectTools Security Manager Suite page for info.)

 

[JulieS]

Tim,

Thanks very much for posting the resolution to your problem.

Julie

 

[Tim W. - FWA, IN]

You're welcome, but unfortunately my initial enthusiam was premature. Upon
subsequent use of HP ProtectTools, the problem has re-surfaced. I will
completely uninstall the HP ProtectTools and more thoroughly test the outcome.

Sorry about the misinformation.

Tim

 

[JulieS]

No trouble Tim. We had some reports quite awhile ago in this
newsgroup that the HP Credential tools were causing some trouble.
You may try searching this ng to see if there is any further
information posted by others that may assist you. I've not
personally experienced the difficulty (I don't run HPs) so, I can
only refer you back to the ng.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

Julie