Setup assistant bounces in the Dock and closes

[Brad Copan]

I was having some trouble with my Office applications not launching.

First I removed all the preference files and the preference folder for the
software
Second I uninstalled the Office suite using the Remove Office tool
Third I deleted the Microsoft Office folder

Now when I start the setup assistant from the cd or from the applications
folder after dragging the folder to the Hard Drive, the setup assistant
bounces in the dock and then closes and no errors are reported.

Same thing happens in a new account on the system and in Safe Boot mode.

Anyone have any ideas

Mac OS X 10.4.8 eMac g4

Thanks in advanced,
Brad

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Brad - since you make no mention of it there are 3 things I'd suggest you
try first:

1- Having reinstalled, make sure you apply the 11.3.3 then 11.3.4 updates to
Office,
2- Reapply the OS X 10.4.8 Combo updater for Intels, &
3- Run Disk Utility - Repair Disk Permissions or comparable utility.

If these steps don't resolve it post back including what it was that caused
you to reinstall in the first place... it sounds like you've wound up right
back where you started

 

[Diane Ross]

I was having some trouble with my Office applications not launching.

Have you perhaps deleted or disabled any system fonts?

Do NOT turn off Apple's Helvetica, or any other font found in
/System/Library/Fonts.

I agree with Bob that running the Combo updater might help. It's also
possible that you will need to do an Archive & Install of the OS.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[jcam90502]

I am experiencing the same problem outlined by Brad. All Office 2004
Apps except Messenger. When activating, the Icon Bounces for a few
seconds then just stops. I followed Brad's same steps:

1. Removed Office using Remove Office application.
2. Attempted to reinstall from the CD (The Office setup assistant
exhibited the same behavior, bouncing then quitting.)
3. Attempted to reinstall by dragging the Office 2004 folder from the
CD to the applications folder. Office applications still exhibit the
same behavior.
4. Applied the Office 11.3.3 update. Problem persists.
5. Applied the Office 11.3.4 update. Problem persists.
6. Used Disk utility to verify system disk. Also verified Permissions.

Differences from Brad's situation:
1. I recently upgraded to OSX 10.4.9.
2. I'm running a MAC-Tel MacBook not a Power PC.

I have three other MACs (all Power PC's, recently upgraded to OSX
10.4.9). Office works fine on all of them.
I have not disabled any fonts.
I also tried:

1. Installing and running in safe boot mode.
2. Installing and running using root account.
3. Removing Preference files.
4. Checked for recent crashes of Office products or any OSX Services
using Console App., none found.

I am at my wit's end.

Sincerely
Jeff

 

[Diane Ross]

You gave very good descriptions of your trials. You have one of the
stumpers, so obviously it doesn't have a simple answer so let's see what's
left.

Seems I remember a problem when Messenger was recently updated that was
causing some problem with Office. Try uninstall Messenger and see if that
helps.

Next, try to install in a new User with nothing installed.

This could be a hardware problem. On rare occasions problems like this is
tracked down to a bad drive or bad RAM. Just today someone on the OS X list
reported constant freezing to a bad fan. Try running the hardware tests that
are included with the OS install CDs.

Anyway, just FYI, the answer to the extreme freezing/SPOD problems
appears to have been due to a dead fan on the video card.

</quote>

See Twenty steps to help diagnose and fix system issues for more help.

<http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2004011205473937>

Let us know what happens.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Jeff:

OK: this is a worry. I need you to repeat a few things:

1) Run Remove Office TWICE. It sometimes is unable to get the whole
application out on the first try (yeah, we know, they've got that on the
list to be fixed...)

2) Having done that, Please re-name your Microsoft Office User Data folder
(don't delete it, you will need it back...)

3) Delete ALL the Microsoft Office preferences.

4) Now delete your Microsoft Office 2004 folder and empty the trash.

5) Now run Disk Utility and this time, REPAIR permissions, not VERIFY them.

6) Perform a drag-and-drop install of Microsoft Office

7) Start, then quit EVERY Microsoft application. This re-creates valid
preferences (and that's probably where the problem is). Entourage will want
to create a new identity: let it.

8) Make sure everything is quit, and go into Startup Items and remove the
Microsoft Office Daemon.

9) Restart the computer (to kill the running Daemon)

10) Now carefully copy your old MUD files over the top of the new ones in
your MUD folder.

This *should* overcome the problems. You may get some warnings about your
Entourage database: all of the applications read it for various information.
If you do, perform a rebuild of the database.

If this doesn't solve the problems, come back and we'll see if we can narrow
it down a bit more for you.

Cheers

I am experiencing the same problem outlined by Brad. All Office 2004
Apps except Messenger. When activating, the Icon Bounces for a few
seconds then just stops. I followed Brad's same steps:

1. Removed Office using Remove Office application.
2. Attempted to reinstall from the CD (The Office setup assistant
exhibited the same behavior, bouncing then quitting.)
3. Attempted to reinstall by dragging the Office 2004 folder from the
CD to the applications folder. Office applications still exhibit the
same behavior.
4. Applied the Office 11.3.3 update. Problem persists.
5. Applied the Office 11.3.4 update. Problem persists.
6. Used Disk utility to verify system disk. Also verified Permissions.

Differences from Brad's situation:
1. I recently upgraded to OSX 10.4.9.
2. I'm running a MAC-Tel MacBook not a Power PC.

I have three other MACs (all Power PC's, recently upgraded to OSX
10.4.9). Office works fine on all of them.
I have not disabled any fonts.
I also tried:

1. Installing and running in safe boot mode.
2. Installing and running using root account.
3. Removing Preference files.
4. Checked for recent crashes of Office products or any OSX Services
using Console App., none found.

I am at my wit's end.

Sincerely
Jeff

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[jcam90502]

John & Diane,

Thanks for your prompt response. I will try your steps later this
weekend, and post back with the results. In the mean time here is some
more information for you.

1. TechTool Pro reports no Hardware errors, but I will run the Apple
ones on my problem MacBook, and let you know.
2. Even though MS Messenger works, I don't use it. The application
merely starts up and exits cleanly. It's version 4.0.0 that came with
the Office Distribution CD.
3. I cannot run the remove office App once, much less twice. It
reports: The operation could not be completed. An unexpected error
occurred (error code - 660). This is the app in the office folder ->
Additional Tools -> remove office folder as it was just dragged from
the install CD.

Anyway I will let you know how the other steps fare. Thanks again for
your help.

Jeff

 

[Diane Ross]

3. I cannot run the remove office App once, much less twice. It
reports: The operation could not be completed. An unexpected error
occurred (error code - 660). This is the app in the office folder ->
Additional Tools -> remove office folder as it was just dragged from
the install CD.

Try to manually remove:

<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323675/en-us>

The directions are for Office X, but also applies to Office 2004.

It has you deleting the Identities folder, but don't do that. You'll loose
all your mail.

Remember your Templates and Normal file are in the Office folder so back
these up.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[jcam90502]

John and Diane,

Here are my steps an results.

I followed the instructions to manually remove the oofice components.
Most of them already were gone.

2. Rther than renaming my Microsoft User Directory, I copied it to a
backup location on another server on my network, and deleted the
original on my MacBook.

3. From the Office Install CD, I dragged the folder to my applications
folder.

4. When I got to Step 7 in John's instructions, where I was to start
and quit each Office application, I ran into the same original problem
where the App Icon bounces a few bounces then quits.

No apparent preference files appear to have been created.

However, In the console system log, I have found these lines recently
created:

Microsoft Word: CGGStackRestore: gstack underflow.
Mar 17 13:24:50 Arakis /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Microsoft
Excel: CGGStackRestore: gstack underflow.
Mar 17 13:24:56 Arakis /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Microsoft
Entourage: CGGStackRestore: gstack underflow.
Mar 17 13:25:00 Arakis /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Microsoft
PowerPoint: CGGStackRestore: gstack underflow.

I hope this sheds more light on the problem.

Jeff

 

[Diane Ross]

4. When I got to Step 7 in John's instructions, where I was to start
and quit each Office application, I ran into the same original problem
where the App Icon bounces a few bounces then quits.

Have you re-applied the combo updater from Apple since installing Office
this time?

Mac OS X 10.4.9 Combo Update (PPC)

<http://wsidecar.apple.com/cgi-bin/nph-reg3rdpty2.pl/product=13206&cat=60&pl
atform=osx&method=sa/MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.9PPC.dmg>

Mac OS X 10.4.9 Combo Update (Intel)

<http://wsidecar.apple.com/cgi-bin/nph-reg3rdpty2.pl/product=13207&cat=60&pl
atform=osx&method=sa/MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.9Intel.dmg>
--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[jcam90502]

Diane,

Per your request, I have re-installed the 10.4.9 combo update.
Unfortunately, afterwards, I still have the same problem, and my logs
indicate the stack underflow problem.

I appreciate your help.
Jeff

 

[Diane Ross]

Per your request, I have re-installed the 10.4.9 combo update.
Unfortunately, afterwards, I still have the same problem, and my logs
indicate the stack underflow problem.

I appreciate your help.

This is out of my area of expertise. Most of the info in logs can only be
understood by developers. I did search on Google and found the following

Definition of: stack underflow: An error condition that occurs when an item is
called for from the stack, but the stack is empty.

Is this an Intel Mac? Seems Intel Mac problems with stack underflow are not
unusual.

Check for memory problems. For Mac-specific debugging there is a
lot of very powerful tools for memory management inspection, see man
malloc for details. See this page for links to check memory:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/performance2.html>

Run Hardware test diagnostics that are on the CD (came with the OS install).

If it isn't hardware, then a wipe and install of your entire system might be
called for to cure the problem. Any way to test on another volume or
computer?

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[Diane Ross]

Per your request, I have re-installed the 10.4.9 combo update.
Unfortunately, afterwards, I still have the same problem, and my logs
indicate the stack underflow problem.

Also see message: Troubleshooting Update article: HOW INSTALLING APPLE'S
UPDATES CAN RENDER YOUR MAC UNBOOTABLE AND HOW YOU CAN PREVENT IT

Posted today.


--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[jcam90502]

I have read the article and tried the suggestions, but I am still
troubled with the problem. All other applications are working
perfectly, Just Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage all terminate
with a stack underflow.

Is my only recourse doing a refresh of the OS by doing an Archive and
install option? I hope not, but I'll bite the bullet if I have to.

Jeff

 

[Diane Ross]

Is my only recourse doing a refresh of the OS by doing an Archive and
install option? I hope not, but I'll bite the bullet if I have to.

Archive & Install isn't too bad. Be sure to select the "Preserve User and
Network Settings" option to preserve your current Users folder and related
network configuration.

See this page for more help:

<http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/archiveinstall.html>
--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[jcam90502]

After spending a bit of time, researching this problem, it seems I
have been bit by the dyld_update_prebinding bug while updating to
10.4.9. This is outlined in the article located at:
http://www.unsanity.org/archives/mac_os_x/shock_and_awe.php

It has also prevented me from performing an Archive & Install refresh.
But I am working with Apple to resolve this issue.

Thanks for your help.

Jeff Cameron

 

[pat]

Just re-installed the 10.4.10 update for Mac OS X... from the Mac site...
fixed the bounce and off problem... Applications Word, PowerPoint, Excel
work... but Word says it encountered an error loading "Microsoft Frameworks
Library" but it still works... and since I had already re-loaded the app
from the three account Office for Teachers - I didn't want to use another
number to update the whole shebang. Thank God for Appleworks!


I guess we should all just use .pdf files for presentations and avoid this
MS app altogether.

?

TT

 

[John McGhie]

If you read back through this group before running off at the typeface, you
won't make such a fool of yourself.

In doing that, you will learn that the Apple Quicktime update is what
screwed your system, and the cure is on the Apple site.

Actually nothing to do with Microsoft at all: unless you are going to blame
Microsoft for making software that can't run unless the operating system
works??

Just re-installed the 10.4.10 update for Mac OS X... from the Mac site...
fixed the bounce and off problem... Applications Word, PowerPoint, Excel
work... but Word says it encountered an error loading "Microsoft Frameworks
Library" but it still works... and since I had already re-loaded the app
from the three account Office for Teachers - I didn't want to use another
number to update the whole shebang. Thank God for Appleworks!


I guess we should all just use .pdf files for presentations and avoid this
MS app altogether.

?

TT

--
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, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Further to what John posted...

and since I had already re-loaded the app
from the three account Office for Teachers

<snip>

And this is what caused your current problem. Reinstalling Office -
especially without running Remove Office *first* will rarely fix anything &
it overwrites key aspects of your _updated_ install with the original [_not_
updated] version on the source disk. Office is now out of sync with OS X.

I have no idea what you mean by "use another number..." as the only numbers
involved are for separate installations & have nothing to do with updates.
You now have no choice but to a) reapply the updates or b) continue to
languish in the purgatory you've created for yourself

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Elliott Roper]

Further to what John posted...

You now have no choice but to a) reapply the updates or b) continue to
languish in the purgatory you've created for yourself

Watch it Bob! You are starting to sound like me and Clive!