Word Crash causes permission and memory full errors

[Fred Murhammer]

Word recently crashed and since then I have not been able to work with the
program. When I launch Word and by pass the Project Gallery I get the
default blank document. I can not type in this document and Word's menus and
toolbars do not function either.

When I close the blank document and quit Word I get the following error
alert box:

"Word cannot save this document due to a naming or permissions error on the
destination volume. (Normal)."

If I hit the error alert box's OK button I am brought to a Save dialog box
that asks me to save the Normal template. If I click the Save button Word
acts as if I hadn't clicked save and presents the Save dialog box a 2nd
time. In fact I am caught in a continuous loop unless I hit the Cancel
button.

When I click the Cancel button I am presented with the following error alert
box:

"You are working without a Word file and memory is nearly full. Save your
work."

My systems has plenty of RAM and hard disk space so there is no lack of
memory.

I have tried the following:

* Repaired Permissions
* Confirmed that permissions are correctly set on the home folder and the
main volume.
* Ran Disk Utility
* Ran Disk Warrior
* Trashed MS Office and its preferences and reinstalled MS Office.

Ironically after I installed MS Office, Word crashed on initial boot up.

Excel and Powerpoint run without problems. All of my non Microsoft software
runs with out problems.

Any help resolving this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Fjm

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

If this is Word 2008, try #7 here:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Word2008Issues.html#Memory

Please always state exact version numbers for Word and OS when asking
for help.

 

[CyberTaz]

Daiya is quite correct, Fred - There isn't much to be offered if we don't
know what version of Office & OS X are involved. However, one of your
attempts to correct the situation has actually compounded the problem & that
will have to be addressed first.

Having "trashed MS Office...and reinstalled" you've set it back to version
[whatever].0.0 of whatever version you have. That's why it's crashing on
launch - the new install is totally out of sync with everything that was
left behind by the trashing process. You need to also reapply *all* updates
(if you can) to get it back to the build it was/should be. That alone "may"
resolve the problem, but probably not. However, that won't be known until
you try. If not, provide all pertinent requested details in order to
proceed.

For future reference, "trashing Office" is *never* an appropriate step to
correct a problem. If reinstallation should become necessary Office includes
a Remove Office utility which should be used to properly remove the array of
files - many of which are not in the MS Office folder. Otherwise you're just
yanking out some files & sticking older versions back in their place. Then
everything that wasn't out of whack gets broken. The original problem
remains & it becomes more difficult to deal with.

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

 

[fjm]

Thank you for responding.

Sorry about leaving out necessary info. Since the posting form fields have a popup menus asking for the Word and OS versions I thought that info would be included in the post. Anyway I am using MS Office 2004 on an iMac (Intel) running Tiger 10.4.11.

As far as updates are concerned I never updated the software (at any time) beyond the initially installed version. For over six months Word ran fine on my iMac.

As a test I installed MS Office another another account on the same computer and it seems to work fine. It is only on the primary account where Word alone behaves oddly , as describe in my initial post.

If more info is need please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks,

fjm

 

[CyberTaz]

OK - the lack of updates to Office are quite likely what caused the initial
problem. There have been a number of changes in OS X (Tiger) since you
installed Office & the Office updates are required in order for it to keep
up... Even the new user installation probably won't last Evidently you're
installation is still at 11.0 - 11.4.2 is the current build.

The crash on launch is most likely due the trashing as discussed in the
earlier messages. Hopefully updating will work to get things right.

If you can at least launch any one of the Office apps just go to Help> Check
for Updates. (While you're there I'd suggest setting the AutoUpdate utility
for Monthly update checks.) Then let everything update. Repair Disk
Permissions afterward - & it wouldn't hurt to restart your Mac.

If you can't apply the updates or if you continue to have any difficulties
reply with specifics for further suggestions.


BTW - it looks like the system info didn't come with the initial post in
this thread because you didn't post through the web interface... That
message indicates the From: as Fred Murhammer <[email protected]>
rather than the offoceformac.com address.

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

 

[fjm]

Bob,

Thanks for the fix. I will give it a try and let you know. You are right about not posting via the web interface. I forgot that I posted via Entourage. I was having trouble getting the Web Interface to accept my post so another forum user, Diane Ross, kindly suggested I use Entourage.

fjm

 

[BenG]

I have a problem which is similar, so I will stick it in here. Maybe they are related.

I have a Word 2004 document (about 650KB) with a lot of tables and figures (taken from Excel 2004). It has gotten so squirrley that I can't add any more inserted material. When I try to save it, the program crashes. When I call it back up, it will crash if I work on it.

I then installed Office 2008 and opened the file. It will not save, but instead of crashing it now says there is not enough memory.

I have an Intel MacBook Pro with 2GB of ram and 20GB of free disk space. :angry:

 

[BenG]

I have a problem which is similar, so I will stick it in here. Maybe they are related.

I have a Word 2004 document (about 650KB) with a lot of tables and figures (taken from Excel 2004). It has gotten so squirrley that I can't add any more inserted material. When I try to save it, the program crashes. When I call it back up, it will crash if I work on it.

I then installed Office 2008 and opened the file. It will not save, but instead of crashing it now says there is not enough memory.

I have an Intel MacBook Pro running OS10.5.3, 2GB of ram and 20GB of free disk space. :angry:

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Ben -

Actually your problem isn't the same at all

From what you describe the problem is with the one file, which is an
indication that the file - or something within it - is corrupt. See this
page and the suggested fixes for cleaning it up:

http://word.mvps.org/mac/DocumentCorruption.html

Also, by "sticking it in here" you've avoided providing specific version
information which could also be contributing to or provide insight on the
problem. IOW, "Office 2004" could mean anything from 11.0.0 to 11.4.3 and
"Office 2008" doesn't indicate whether you're actually at 12.0.0, 12.0.1 or
12.1.0 - that makes a difference in many cases.

You might first make sure the Office software is fully updated, repair disk
permissions & restart your Mac to see if that makes a difference before you
start the un-corrupting steps.

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