Word 2008 and Snow Leopard: frequent crashes

[ajfisher]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I wonder whether I'm the only one having these kinds of troubles, but let me vent here for a minute. I upgraded to SL last month and immediately started to experience Word crashes. I'm fully updated on SL 10.6.1 and Office 12.2.1. I use Word intensively and it crashes on me at least once per day, sometimes multiple times. I never had crashes in 10.5. Often what triggers a crash is one of the following:

- opening a document in an e-mail attachment
- opening an older Word file that has not been modified in a long time
- using the "Save As..." command
- pasting images into a document

I've tried a number of things to fix this, including:

- validating fonts and deleting duplicates/problem fonts
- completely re-installing Office
- creating a brand new user account and using Word from within it
- repairing disk permissions

I'm at the point where I would simply switch to using Pages in iWork, except for the fact that many of my Word documents have hyperlinks and these cannot be read by Pages.

Anyway, I'm curious whether many people are having similar sorts of problems with Word and SL, or whether my situation is unique. And if anyone knows of other fixes that I haven't tried, I'd like to hear about these as well. Thanks to all.

 

[John McGhie]

No, no problems at all here...

However, I did run OnyX to clean up the system before installing Office.

People who "upgraded" Office or "Migrated" Office without cleaning up their
previous system first are the ones who seem to be experiencing problems.

Since it's quick and easy, run Remove Office from /Applications/Microsoft
Office 2008/Additional Tools/Remove Office

Then Repair Disk Permissions.

Then run a cache cleaner of some description (make SURE it's made for OS
10.6...)

Then shut down and turn the power off. Wait 60 seconds, and power back up
(fires the OS X housekeeping tasks...)

Now re-install Office 2008 (disconnect the other disks first so it can't get
confused...)

Re-apply all the updates to Office 2008 (you need to apply 12.2.0 then
12.2.1)

Then run Font Book and resolve all the duplicates.

After that, you should be good to go...

If not... Well, let's not think about that, shall we?

Cheers

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I wonder whether I'm the only one having these kinds of troubles, but let me
vent here for a minute. I upgraded to SL last month and immediately started to
experience Word crashes. I'm fully updated on SL 10.6.1 and Office 12.2.1. I
use Word intensively and it crashes on me at least once per day, sometimes
multiple times. I never had crashes in 10.5. Often what triggers a crash is
one of the following:

- opening a document in an e-mail attachment
- opening an older Word file that has not been modified in a long time
- using the "Save As..." command
- pasting images into a document

I've tried a number of things to fix this, including:

- validating fonts and deleting duplicates/problem fonts
- completely re-installing Office
- creating a brand new user account and using Word from within it
- repairing disk permissions

I'm at the point where I would simply switch to using Pages in iWork, except
for the fact that many of my Word documents have hyperlinks and these cannot
be read by Pages.

Anyway, I'm curious whether many people are having similar sorts of problems
with Word and SL, or whether my situation is unique. And if anyone knows of
other fixes that I haven't tried, I'd like to hear about these as well. Thanks
to all.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[John McGhie]

Ooops... That should have been "Before installing Snow Leopard"!

Clean up your system first, before installing a new OS, and you will have a
much happier life after the upgrade...

Sorry!

No, no problems at all here...

However, I did run OnyX to clean up the system before installing Office.

People who "upgraded" Office or "Migrated" Office without cleaning up their
previous system first are the ones who seem to be experiencing problems.

Since it's quick and easy, run Remove Office from /Applications/Microsoft
Office 2008/Additional Tools/Remove Office

Then Repair Disk Permissions.

Then run a cache cleaner of some description (make SURE it's made for OS
10.6...)

Then shut down and turn the power off. Wait 60 seconds, and power back up
(fires the OS X housekeeping tasks...)

Now re-install Office 2008 (disconnect the other disks first so it can't get
confused...)

Re-apply all the updates to Office 2008 (you need to apply 12.2.0 then
12.2.1)

Then run Font Book and resolve all the duplicates.

After that, you should be good to go...

If not... Well, let's not think about that, shall we?

Cheers



This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ajfisher]

I did also run OnyX before doing an Office re-install, with no luck, but I'm not sure I took all of the steps in the order you mentioned. I'll give it a try if I have a couple of hours to kill this weekend. It's too bad that one just has to "know" to run a third-party cache cleaner before upgrading a Mac OS, and it seems to me that I must not be the only one in this boat.

Thanks.

 

[John McGhie]

It is, and you're not

I did also run OnyX before doing an Office re-install, with no luck, but I'm
not sure I took all of the steps in the order you mentioned. I'll give it a
try if I have a couple of hours to kill this weekend. It's too bad that one
just has to "know" to run a third-party cache cleaner before upgrading a Mac
OS, and it seems to me that I must not be the only one in this boat.

Thanks.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ajfisher]

Well, I tried the steps you mentioned, John, but just experienced another crash typical of the ones that I've been having; this time, opening a .doc file from a few years back. I'll append the crash report to the end of this. I read somewhere that someone had a theory that these kinds of problems may have to do with Word documents that have been printed once on a printer that is no longer defined in Snow Leopard. Any truth to this?

Here's the crash report...

Date/Time: 2009-10-18 20:37:54 -0700
OS Version: 10.6.1 (Build 10B504)
Architecture: x86_64
Report Version: 6

Command: Word
Path: /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Microsoft Word.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Word
Version: 12.2.0 (12.2.0)
Build Version: 0
Project Name: (null)
Source Version: 90605
Parent: launchd [672]

PID: 5916
Event: hang
Duration: 2.99s (sampling started after 2 seconds)
Steps: 9 (100ms sampling interval)

Pageins: 0
Pageouts: 0

Process: Microsoft Word [5916]
Path: /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Microsoft Word.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Word
UID: 503

Process: AirPort Base Station Agent [698]
Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/AirPort Base Station Agent.app/Contents/MacOS/AirPort Base Station Agent
UID: 503

Thread 8f103d4 DispatchQueue 1
User stack:
9 ??? (in AirPort Base Station Agent + 5344) [0x1000014e0]
9 ??? (in AirPort Base Station Agent + 70666) [0x10001140a]
9 CFRunLoopRun + 70 (in CoreFoundation) [0x7fff8837edc6]
9 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 575 (in CoreFoundation) [0x7fff8837f03f]
9 __CFRunLoopRun + 2002 (in CoreFoundation) [0x7fff8837fce2]
9 mach_msg_trap + 10 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83ab6d7a]
Kernel stack:
9 ipc_mqueue_receive_continue + 0 [0x2104e0]

Thread 8f5e7a8 DispatchQueue 2
User stack:
9 start_wqthread + 13 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83ad09c5]
9 _pthread_wqthread + 353 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83ad0b28]
9 _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 244 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83ad11f6]
9 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 195 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83ad16d6]
9 kevent + 10 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83acfb16]
Kernel stack:
9 kevent + 97 [0x470677]

Thread 90087a8
User stack:
9 thread_start + 13 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83aefe19]
9 _pthread_start + 331 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83aeff66]
9 select$DARWIN_EXTSN + 10 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83afa9f2]
Kernel stack:
9 sleep + 52 [0x486ec5]

Binary Images:
0x100000000 - 0x100016fff com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent 1.5.4 (154.2) <73DF13C1-AF86-EC2C-9056-8D1946E607CF> /System/Library/CoreServices/AirPort Base Station Agent.app/Contents/MacOS/AirPort Base Station Agent
0x7fff83ab6000 - 0x7fff83c74ff7 libSystem.B.dylib ??? (???) <66102D4E-6C8B-77D0-6766-2A1788B20C6F> /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
0x7fff88334000 - 0x7fff884a7fef com.apple.CoreFoundation 6.6 (550) <04EC0CC2-6CE4-4EE0-03B9-6C5109398CB1> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation

Process: Appigo Sync [709]
Path: /Applications/Appigo Sync.app/Contents/MacOS/Appigo Sync
UID: 503

Process: AppleSpell [3810]
Path: /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/MacOS/AppleSpell
UID: 503

Thread 81273d4 DispatchQueue 1
User stack:
9 ??? (in AppleSpell + 5976) [0x100001758]
9 ??? (in AppleSpell + 6632) [0x1000019e8]
9 -[NSSpellServer run] + 72 (in Foundation) [0x7fff853f57f2]
9 CFRunLoopRun + 70 (in CoreFoundation) [0x7fff8837edc6]
9 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 575 (in CoreFoundation) [0x7fff8837f03f]

 

[John McGhie]

Well, I can't understand what is happening from that sample log. The one
that appears to be most unhappy is Airport Base Station Agent.

Sadly, unless you are Apple, you can't read these things.

Have you created a new User ID and tried there?

I want to know whether this is system-wide or specific to your User ID.

Cheers

Well, I tried the steps you mentioned, John, but just experienced another
crash typical of the ones that I've been having; this time, opening a .doc
file from a few years back. I'll append the crash report to the end of this. I
read somewhere that someone had a theory that these kinds of problems may have
to do with Word documents that have been printed once on a printer that is no
longer defined in Snow Leopard. Any truth to this?

Here's the crash report...

Date/Time: 2009-10-18 20:37:54 -0700
OS Version: 10.6.1 (Build 10B504)
Architecture: x86_64
Report Version: 6

Command: Word
Path: /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Microsoft
Word.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Word
Version: 12.2.0 (12.2.0)
Build Version: 0
Project Name: (null)
Source Version: 90605
Parent: launchd [672]

PID: 5916
Event: hang
Duration: 2.99s (sampling started after 2 seconds)
Steps: 9 (100ms sampling interval)

Pageins: 0
Pageouts: 0

Process: Microsoft Word [5916]
Path: /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Microsoft
Word.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Word
UID: 503

Process: AirPort Base Station Agent [698]
Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/AirPort Base Station
Agent.app/Contents/MacOS/AirPort Base Station Agent
UID: 503

Thread 8f103d4 DispatchQueue 1
User stack:
9 ??? (in AirPort Base Station Agent + 5344) [0x1000014e0]
9 ??? (in AirPort Base Station Agent + 70666) [0x10001140a]
9 CFRunLoopRun + 70 (in CoreFoundation) [0x7fff8837edc6]
9 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 575 (in CoreFoundation) [0x7fff8837f03f]
9 __CFRunLoopRun + 2002 (in CoreFoundation) [0x7fff8837fce2]
9 mach_msg_trap + 10 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83ab6d7a]
Kernel stack:
9 ipc_mqueue_receive_continue + 0 [0x2104e0]

Thread 8f5e7a8 DispatchQueue 2
User stack:
9 start_wqthread + 13 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83ad09c5]
9 _pthread_wqthread + 353 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83ad0b28]
9 _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 244 (in libSystem.B.dylib)
[0x7fff83ad11f6]
9 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 195 (in libSystem.B.dylib)
[0x7fff83ad16d6]
9 kevent + 10 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83acfb16]
Kernel stack:
9 kevent + 97 [0x470677]

Thread 90087a8
User stack:
9 thread_start + 13 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83aefe19]
9 _pthread_start + 331 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83aeff66]
9 select$DARWIN_EXTSN + 10 (in libSystem.B.dylib) [0x7fff83afa9f2]
Kernel stack:
9 sleep + 52 [0x486ec5]

Binary Images:
0x100000000 - 0x100016fff com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent 1.5.4
(154.2) <73DF13C1-AF86-EC2C-9056-8D1946E607CF>
/System/Library/CoreServices/AirPort Base Station
Agent.app/Contents/MacOS/AirPort Base Station Agent
0x7fff83ab6000 - 0x7fff83c74ff7 libSystem.B.dylib ??? (???)
<66102D4E-6C8B-77D0-6766-2A1788B20C6F> /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
0x7fff88334000 - 0x7fff884a7fef com.apple.CoreFoundation 6.6 (550)
<04EC0CC2-6CE4-4EE0-03B9-6C5109398CB1>
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation

Process: Appigo Sync [709]
Path: /Applications/Appigo Sync.app/Contents/MacOS/Appigo Sync
UID: 503

Process: AppleSpell [3810]
Path: /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/MacOS/AppleSpell
UID: 503

Thread 81273d4 DispatchQueue 1
User stack:
9 ??? (in AppleSpell + 5976) [0x100001758]
9 ??? (in AppleSpell + 6632) [0x1000019e8]
9 -[NSSpellServer run] + 72 (in Foundation) [0x7fff853f57f2]
9 CFRunLoopRun + 70 (in CoreFoundation) [0x7fff8837edc6]
9 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 575 (in CoreFoundation) [0x7fff8837f03f]

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ajfisher]

Yes, I did create a new user, re-installed SL, re-installed Office, and it didn't make any difference for me. So it's system-wide.

 

[John McGhie]

OK, I am out of ideas.

Word 2008 is rock-solid here: actually more stable in Snow Leopard than it
was in 10.5.8 for me.

There are still some bugs in Snow Leopard that Apple is working on.

It appears that some of your issues are what is rumoured to be fixed in
10.6.2, which was seeded to developers last week.

The current Hewlett Packard Snow Leopard printer drivers are apparently
causing trouble.

In the meantime, Word 2004 runs well, if you still have it. Failing that, I
find that Parallels, Windows 7, and Word 2003 or 2007 are a good combination
(2010 is better, but it's not out yet...)

Sorry to be no help at all.

Yes, I did create a new user, re-installed SL, re-installed Office, and it
didn't make any difference for me. So it's system-wide.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Yes, I did create a new user, re-installed SL, re-installed Office, and it didn't make any difference for me. So it's system-wide.

Hi,

There's an application called Console in the Utilities folder of your
Applications folder. Run Console while you create a crash situation and
see what it has to say. There may be a hint - such as a problem with a font.

-Jim

 

[ajfisher]

Thanks to Jim and John both. Running Console is a good idea and the next time I have a crash I'll post a report. It shouldn't be long.

 

[ajfisher]

OK, I had a another Word 2008 crash this morning while running Console. Console gives the following line:

10/20/2009 12:33:19 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.503[672] ([0x0-0x314314].com.microsoft.Word[8976]) Exited: Terminated

This probably isn't helpful. About ten minutes before this I quit Preview normally, but this line appears directly before the one above:

10/20/2009 12:22:05 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.503[672] ([0x0-0x30e30e].com.apple.Preview[8926]) Exited: Killed

There doesn't seem to be anything else close to the same time. I'm not sure what the code "8976" is, but each termination of Word produces a different code (7245, 7017, 5916 are some examples).

In this case the crash occurred when I opened a document from a couple of years ago that had been printed on an old HP printer that I no longer have. Again, since printing a document embeds some information into the file, I wonder whether this is a printer definitions issue.

Thanks,
Alex

 

[ajfisher]

By the way, I am now able to consistenly reproduce the crash by opening older documents that have been printed at least once on an old HP LaserJet 3300 printer that I used to own, but no longer have. Other documents never printed, but around the same age, open fine.

I'm thinking that this problem must have to do with print information embedded in these files when they were printed on that HP printer. What the solution is, I have no idea.

 

[John McGhie]

One way to prove it: install the driver for that old printer and set it to
Print to File...

Name it exactly as the old printer was, and try again.

Word does keep the name of the last printer used to print the document in
the document. When it opens the document, it checks for that printer. If
the printer is not available, Word should simply ignore it and reformat the
document for the default printer.

The only thing I can think of is that Snow Leopard contains a GutenPrint
driver that impersonates almost any known printer in the universe. If the
document says it wants an old HP Printer, SNL may be offering it the
GutenPrint driver. But when Word attempts to retrieve the metrics from the
"printer" it may be finding that there are none, or that they don't make
sense...

If you install the real driver, there may be a change in behaviour. Let's
find out...

Cheers

OK, I had a another Word 2008 crash this morning while running Console.
Console gives the following line:

10/20/2009 12:33:19
PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.503[672] ([0x0-0x314314].com.microsoft.Word[8976]
) Exited: Terminated

This probably isn't helpful. About ten minutes before this I quit Preview
normally, but this line appears directly before the one above:

10/20/2009 12:22:05
PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.503[672] ([0x0-0x30e30e].com.apple.Preview[8926])
Exited: Killed

There doesn't seem to be anything else close to the same time. I'm not sure
what the code "8976" is, but each termination of Word produces a different
code (7245, 7017, 5916 are some examples).

In this case the crash occurred when I opened a document from a couple of
years ago that had been printed on an old HP printer that I no longer have.
Again, since printing a document embeds some information into the file, I
wonder whether this is a printer definitions issue.

Thanks,
Alex

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[John McGhie]

Did you see my earlier answer?

There is a severe issue with some of the current HP drivers for OS 10.6.

If one is getting called, that could be the problem.

Hope this helps

By the way, I am now able to consistenly reproduce the crash by opening older
documents that have been printed at least once on an old HP LaserJet 3300
printer that I used to own, but no longer have. Other documents never printed,
but around the same age, open fine.

I'm thinking that this problem must have to do with print information embedded
in these files when they were printed on that HP printer. What the solution
is, I have no idea.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ajfisher]

John, I'm confused by your instructions "One way to prove it: install the driver for that old printer and set it to Print to File... Name it exactly as the old printer was, and try again."

I've installed the driver by downloading and installing the driver package from the HP website, but what do you mean by setting the driver to "Print to File"? Are you suggesting adding the old printer in the "Print & Fax" system preferences? This isn't possible because the actual printer no longer exists.

Alex

 

[John McGhie]

If that driver will install by setting it without "print to file" then
that's fine.

You will need to add that printer into the Print and Fax printer settings in
the System Preferences. You may have to set the driver to "Print to File"
to tell the system that the printer does not actually exist, otherwise it
may not allow you to add it.

For what it is worth, Snow Leopard can be a challenge with printers: I have
an elderly HP Printer (yes, I do still have it...) but while I can get a
driver that will work in Windows 7, so far nothing has appeared that will
run in OS 10.6.1.

Same with my friend's Canon ImageRunner. Canon released a driver that is
supposed to work in 10.6 last week. But so far, it DOESN'T

Cheers

John, I'm confused by your instructions "One way to prove it: install the
driver for that old printer and set it to Print to File... Name it exactly as
the old printer was, and try again."

I've installed the driver by downloading and installing the driver package
from the HP website, but what do you mean by setting the driver to "Print to
File"? Are you suggesting adding the old printer in the "Print & Fax" system
preferences? This isn't possible because the actual printer no longer exists.

Alex

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ajfisher]

The problem is adding the printer in "Print & Fax" - I can't see how to do this. In the "Add Printer" dialog box, searching for the HP printer in the search box at upper right does not work, neither does clicking on "More Printers..." - the only options I have are the printer(s) actually seen on the network.

The HP drivers installed into Macintosh HD/Library/Printers/hp/laserjet, but I don't see how to actually "activate" any particular driver. They appear to be bundled into a file called hplaserjetzjs.bundle, which appears to be Javascript related.

Any ideas on how to proceed from here?

Thanks,
Alex

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Alex:

Yeah: Phone HP. Their Tech Support is normally pretty good...

Cheers

The problem is adding the printer in "Print & Fax" - I can't see how to do
this. In the "Add Printer" dialog box, searching for the HP printer in the
search box at upper right does not work, neither does clicking on "More
Printers..." - the only options I have are the printer(s) actually seen on the
network.

The HP drivers installed into Macintosh HD/Library/Printers/hp/laserjet, but I
don't see how to actually "activate" any particular driver. They appear to be
bundled into a file called hplaserjetzjs.bundle, which appears to be
Javascript related.

Any ideas on how to proceed from here?

Thanks,
Alex

--

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]