Project isn't showing project data; just a white pane. Any ideas

[StarshipCC]

I've recently begun having a problem in which Project apparently loads a
Project file, but none of the data shows up in the window. This includes new
Project files and Project files I have previously created and opened. Anyone
have any ideas what is going on? I'm running a Dell Latitude laptop, Windows
XP Pro, 512 MB RAM, Project 2002 fully updated (according to the MS Update
service).

Thanks!

 

[JulieS]

Hi Starship CC,

Just a shot in the dark here -- did you activate the product? After 50
launches without activation, the product goes into "reduced functionality
mode".

See: http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_faq.mspx for additional
information.

You may also try Detect and Repair from the Help menu to see if that has any
effect.

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

Julie

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi StarshipCC ,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

This might help: The screen is blank when you try to open Project
Professional 2003 or Project Standard 2003:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891170/en-us.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[StarshipCC]

Julie, yes, I've activated the product, done a "detect and repair," and even
uninstalled and reinstalled Project. I'm still getting the same result: a
blank screen. When I exit Project, the program asks me if I want to save the
changes to the Project file I've tried to load. Still having problems.
Thanks for trying!!!

mtk

 

[StarshipCC]

Mike, I tried the registration steps mentioned in the Knowledge Base article.
Both steps indicated the .dlls were properly registered. The problem
remains. I also looked at the FAQ page you mentioned; I didn't see anything
that would appear to help with the problem.

Thanks for trying!!

mtk

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome, MTK, sorry I couldn't help :-(

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[JulieS]

Hi mtk,

Sorry those options didn't work. You mention that the problem was fairly
recent. Can you track down any other changes (other software products
installed) that occurred before the trouble started? Can you open the blank
project files on another computer without trouble?

Julie

 

[StarshipCC]

Julie, thanks for getting back with me again. I've been able to open the
Project files on my home computer, running the same version of Project.
Others at work have been able to open the files I have not been able to open.

I've done the "detect and repair" action. I've uninstalled Project and
reinstalled it. So far, no joy. Still get the blank while screen, though
the header shows the file is open and Project asks me if I want to save
changes, so it appears to be opening the file, it just won't show any of the
data in the file on the laptop.

I don't know of any new software that has been installed since I last opened
a Project file successfully. I keep the system updated with Windows and
Office updates; those are all that I know that have gone on to the system
recently.

Thanks!

mtk

 

[CaptainTact]

MTK,

Guaranteed...it is a "MS Project running on WinXP" issue, not a Project
specific issue.

All the items I can find pertaining to this problem, reference people
running Project 2003. However, I am using Project 2002 Pro SP1 and am
experiencing the exact same problem.

I have had Project 2002 Pro SP1 installed on my WinXP SP2 desktop for more
than a year...never had a problem. However, about 2 weeks ago, I went to
Windows Update and installed all the XP and Office related patches it said I
needed. At the time, I really didn't think anything about it. However, the
next day, I tried to use Project...and I got the same results you did, but I
still didn't put two and two together.

I wiped my laptop, reinstalled all my software, installed SAV and Project
2002 and went to Windows Update to finish up. Same resolution to the
problem, with a completely clean and updated workstation.

I reregistered srchui.dll and jscript.dll but it did not fix the issue. I
applied the ProjectServer 2002 SP1 patch and the SQL patch...nothing. I
tried opening a project while connected to the server and while
disconnected...local .mpp files and published...nothing. FINALLY today, it
occured to me to try this on a Win2k SP4 machine. I installed Project 2002,
set the connections for the server, restarted the application and VOILA! Lo
and behold...the project showed up just fine.

So...can someone identify WHICH patch I installed from MS that hosed my
Project 2002 installation?

TIA,

~The Captain!

 

[StarshipCC]

Captain, your problem seems to be almost exactly the same that I'm having.
Project was working fine, then it began having this problem. I suspect
you're correct that an XP patch is causing the problem. Just not sure how to
figure which one. This is my business system, so I really can't afford to
lose anything on the system, but I may end up having to
reformat/reinstall/etc/etc/etc to get past the problem.

Would be nice if someone from Microsoft would help us out and tell us which
patch to dump to correct the problem.

Best of luck to you.

StarshipCC

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi,

Sorry you're both having trouble. However, Microsoft very rarely respond
to posts in these newsgroups, and thus I can only recommend you contact
Microsoft Support. It would be nice to see feedback on this when you get a
solution in order to help others.


Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[CaptainTact]

Starship,

If you do wind up reformatting and reinstalling everything, make sure you
only install one patch at a time from MS Update, reboot after each one and
then try MS Project. I know that will add a lot of time to the installation
process, but it would eventually tell us which patch is causing the problem.

 

[StarshipCC]

The "funny" thing is that I'm running the same version of Project on my home
system, a desktop with a fully-patched XP Pro setup, and it works as it
should. Has the same patches for both XP and Project. Only major
differences are for Office; I have Office XP at home, 2003 on the work
system. REALLY weird!!!

 

[CaptainTact]

I guess that would mean that it HAS to be an Office 2003 patch then. I have
Office 2003 Pro on my workstation at the office as well. Let me test a
couple of things and I'll get back to you.

 

[StarshipCC]

OK. Thanks!

I guess that would mean that it HAS to be an Office 2003 patch then. I have
Office 2003 Pro on my workstation at the office as well. Let me test a
couple of things and I'll get back to you.

 

[CaptainTact]

Ok Starship...are you ready for this? I'm betting you have the new IE7 Beta
Preview on your machine...don't you? I'm betting that everyone that has this
issue has the IE7 Beta on their machine. The IE7 Beta is the problem.
Something about the graphic rendering engine in IE7 is playing havoc with
Project 2002 and 2003...at a minimum.

IS ANYONE AT MICROSOFT LISTENING OR TAKING NOTES ON THIS?

Here is a log of what I did to isolate the problem.

I wiped my laptop and started over from bare metal. I installed the
following software in the order listed, starting at the bottom. The top of
the list is the last thing installed:

Apple QuickTime 7
Windows Genuine Advantage Notification (KB905474)
Microsoft GDI+ Detection Tool (KB873374)
Project 2002 Service Pack 1
EVERY single critical patch on the Microsoft Update site (I have a
list of what order I installed them in, if you want it).
Symantec Anti-Virus, version 10.0 & current virus definitions
Windows Update Tool
Windows XP, SP2
Project 2002 Professional, Enterprise edition
Office 2003 Professional
Windows XP Professional

I installed one application/patch at a time and rebooted in between each
one. Before installing the next application/patch, I tested it to make sure
that Project still worked. When I was done with this list of patches,
everything still worked!

Yesterday, I was on my desktop machine that was having the same issue. In
Windows Explorer, I noticed that all the icons for my project files in my
backup directory had changed to an icon that I didn't recognize. I thought,
"Nah...the solution can't be that simple...can it?"

So I went to the Tools / Folder Options... and clicked the File Types tab.
I scrolled down to the listing for MPP files, and sure enough, there was
something else in the association. I opened the entry, changed the
associated program back to MS Project 2002 and closed it. As soon as I
opened Project and tried to open a project...it popped right up!

Since I was still not having an issue on the newly installed laptop, I
started comparing what was installed on the laptop prior to wiping it. The
only thing that was not installed was IE7 Beta. So I downloaded and
installed it, rebooted the machine and opened Project. Sure enough, as soon
as I attempted to open a project file from the server or anywhere else, I got
the blank white window! As soon as I uninstalled/rolled back IE7 and
restarted, Project worked just fine again.

Hope that helps you and anyone else having this problem.

 

[CaptainTact]

Just one more piece of information...

The brand new IE7 Beta 2 download labeled "IE7BETA2-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe",
which is 12,235 KB in size installed just fine and did not harm Project 2002.
I don't know what the effect will be on Project 2003...I would assume the
same.

The IE7 Beta file labeled "IE7B2P-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe" with a size of
11,553 KB is the one that gave me problems.

 

[James T]

jumping on the bandwagon...has this ever been resolved? I have the same
issue at work. Office 2003, Project 2003 Standard, XP SP2 and can only get
blank screens when opening project files. As this is a work computer I
cannot afford the downtime of copying data off and re-imaging, so hoping
someone here has found a soloution.

Thanks!

 

[StarshipCC]

James T, so far, to the best of my knowledge, no one has come up with
anything useful. It appears, in my case, to be a conflict of some sort
between Office and Project. At home I'm running Office XP and Project 2002
on a Windows XP box with no problems; at work, on a Windows XP box, I'm
running Office 2003 and Project 2002. That combination worked fine until
earlier this year when I began to have this problem.

Sorry I don't have better news for you.

StarshipCC