Word crashes when opening multiple documents

[Matt McElligott]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to troubleshoot an odd problem whereby Word 2004 shuts down
whenever opening more than one document at the same time. Sometimes it will
open two simultaneously, but three always seems to crash it. It's a problem
that's cropped up relatively recently.

I'm running the latest version (with all the latest updates) on Mac OS X
10.3.8.

Here's what I've tried to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Completely removing, then reinstalling Office. (Using the Remove Office
program on the CD)

2. Repairing permissions, running all the cron scripts, etc.

I can duplicate the problem easily, by opening Word and creating three
separate documents. When I try to open them, the first will open no problem,
but when I try to open the second (with the first still open) Word quits
with no chance to save.

This one has me baffled. Any thoughts on what the culprit might be?

Matt

 

[matt neuburg]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to troubleshoot an odd problem whereby Word 2004 shuts down
whenever opening more than one document at the same time. Sometimes it will
open two simultaneously, but three always seems to crash it. It's a problem
that's cropped up relatively recently.

I'm running the latest version (with all the latest updates) on Mac OS X
10.3.8.

Here's what I've tried to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Completely removing, then reinstalling Office. (Using the Remove Office
program on the CD)

2. Repairing permissions, running all the cron scripts, etc.

I can duplicate the problem easily, by opening Word and creating three
separate documents. When I try to open them, the first will open no problem,
but when I try to open the second (with the first still open) Word quits
with no chance to save.

This one has me baffled. Any thoughts on what the culprit might be?

Does anything useful (or potentially useful) appear in the Console log?

Have you got lots of RAM?

Just guessing wildly here...

m.

 

[Tim Murray]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to troubleshoot an odd problem whereby Word 2004 shuts down
whenever opening more than one document at the same time. Sometimes it will
open two simultaneously, but three always seems to crash it. It's a problem
that's cropped up relatively recently.

Same here, but it's not an immediate crash. For example, I was keeping
multiple documents open to do a mass search-replace. The search-replace
worked, but as I was closing them (say I had six open), after maybe one or
two saved okay, the remaining four would crash as soon as I did a Close on
the second file.

 

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

Hi Matt:

OK, if we're down to the wild guess time, then let me add mine:

When Word starts, it loads its kernel into memory, then allocates a series
of buffers and a series of temporary files. It opens and locks Normal
Template, Entourage's MUD and all its Pref files. It also allocates some
paging space in the page file.

When you open a document, Word opens a temp file, a .lck file, and it may
open a backup file depending on your setting of Preferences>Cave>Always make
backup, and it adds another memory buffer into which it loads part of the
text.

When you open another document, it repeats the above preference.

Word's limit is about 20 open documents: you're nowhere near that.

So the first thing I would do is prove that there is space in the OS temp
folder, and that your user ID has write access to it. Next, I would check
your permissions to the document folder (you need read, write, rename,
remove because you are going to be doing some behind-the-scenes file
renaming).

I would re-name your Normal template (producing a clean default copy) and
ensure no other User can get write access to it. Quit and restart Word when
you have done that. Create your three test documents from the new version,
don't use the old ones.

I would disable any font managers you may have active (Word crashes on Open
are often font problems).

I would disable any haxies such as TypeItForMe and WindowShades.

I would quit Entourage and rename your Microsoft User Data Entourage
identify. Word crashes can be caused by Entourage identity corruptions. If
that fixes it, do a Rebuild on the database, if not, rename it back again.

I would alter your display colour depth (number of colours). Graphics
Driver problems have been known to kill Word.

Basically, what I am suggesting is simply stirring the pot to see if we can
get some kind of an error indication to appear that will give us a clue to
the problem. Almost any other problem I know of will produce an error
indication of some sort.

Hope this helps

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to troubleshoot an odd problem whereby Word 2004 shuts down
whenever opening more than one document at the same time. Sometimes it will
open two simultaneously, but three always seems to crash it. It's a problem
that's cropped up relatively recently.

I'm running the latest version (with all the latest updates) on Mac OS X
10.3.8.

Here's what I've tried to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Completely removing, then reinstalling Office. (Using the Remove Office
program on the CD)

2. Repairing permissions, running all the cron scripts, etc.

I can duplicate the problem easily, by opening Word and creating three
separate documents. When I try to open them, the first will open no problem,
but when I try to open the second (with the first still open) Word quits
with no chance to save.

This one has me baffled. Any thoughts on what the culprit might be?

Matt

--

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. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410