Word 97 crashes when printing. Problem does not happen when using a different Windows XP Profile on

[Nate Goulet]

Update: I tried creating a new Windows XP profile on the same computer
that has the Word 97 printing glitch (Word crashes). The problem does
not happen when using the new profile. I assume this must mean the
problem is somewhere in Windows rather than with Word, yet all other
apps print fine.

Any idea where to look in Windows to correct this problem?

FULL DESCRIPTION BELOW:

Word 97 Winword.exe Application Error when printing


I have one machine on a network that recently developed a problem when
printing.

Winword.exe - Application Error
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
X The instruction at "0x77e760cd" referenced memory at "0x00000000".
The memory could not be "read".

Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program

OK CANCEL
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Office 97 Pro has been installed on this pc for a couple years and
this problem just started happening. It has SR-R and other patches
installed running under Windows XP SR2. I have other machines setup
exactly the same way, and none of them have this problem.

There is a local printer installed, and a few laser printers. I'm
able to print fine using Wordpad and other programs (even Excel)
so I can eliminate a corupt printer driver.

Nothing new has been installed on this machine recently that I am
aware of.

I found several people on this group, and on the Internet that have
run into this problem. I've read countless solutions, but for some
reason I don't think the ones I noticed sound too likely to correct
the glitch.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[Mary Sauer]

I wouldn't discount a bad or dated driver out of hand. Word will be more
critical about a printer driver than some other products. Your error is
indicative of a driver failure.


It is always best to completely remove a driver before installing/reinstalling.

How to clean up printer drivers
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm

 

[Nate Goulet]

Thanks for the suggestion.

However, there is one local and two network printers connected.

I get the same glitch, no matter which printer I choose. With that in
mind, I don't see how it's possible that it's a printer driver
problem. The two networked printers work fine with other Word 97
users on the network, and worked fine on this machine until the glitch
started recently.

Considering the glitch does not occur when using another Windows
profile on the same pc, the problem has to be somewhere in Windows
with the primary XP profile.

I'm not sure sure how to correct it other than transfering everything
to the other profile. Speaking of which, is there some simple way to
perform that task or do I have to copy everything manually?

 

[Mary Sauer]

Have you thought about fixing your profile?
Windows XP Problems if Your Profile Is Damaged
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326688/en-us

--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/

Thanks for the suggestion.

However, there is one local and two network printers connected.

I get the same glitch, no matter which printer I choose. With that in
mind, I don't see how it's possible that it's a printer driver
problem. The two networked printers work fine with other Word 97
users on the network, and worked fine on this machine until the glitch
started recently.

Considering the glitch does not occur when using another Windows
profile on the same pc, the problem has to be somewhere in Windows
with the primary XP profile.

I'm not sure sure how to correct it other than transfering everything
to the other profile. Speaking of which, is there some simple way to
perform that task or do I have to copy everything manually?

 

[Nate Goulet]

Have you thought about fixing your profile?

Windows XP Problems if Your Profile Is Damaged
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326688/en-us

I agree the problem is likely a damaged XP profile. It seems to have
only affected Word.

I'll take a look at that, but it could disrupt other programs that are
working fine by creating a new profile and then transfering data to
the new profile.

This is an important user with various software packages installed,
some of which I didn't install.

Is there a way to create a new profile with a different name, test
everything out, then delete the old profile and rename the name
profile to the same name as the original one? It's on a Windows 2003
Server network using Active Directory, so i'd want the network to
recognize the permissions on the new profile the same as it was
originally.

I also noticed that if you don't open the Word documents, but instead
right click on them and then select print, Word will open quickly,
print the document and then exit with no error message.

Might what I just discovered above pinpoint us a little closer to
where the problem may actually be that could be corrected?