Word crashing after system problems

[Zack]

Hello all -

I've been having some system problems, caused I think by a faulty hard
drive. I thought I 'd fixed the system (did my regular maintenance
routine, which includes repairing permissions, running Apple Disc
utility,and running Disk Warrior). However, Word 2004 now seems to be
unstable. If I try to use the 'Find' feature, Word will crash and give
me a "Word had to unexpectedly shut down. Would you like to send a
message to Microsoft?' dialog box. Likewise, Word will crash and give
me the same message every time I try to use the Tools>customize
function. I suspect that other features will also trigger a crash, but
these are the two I've found in the past 24 hours. All my other
programs appear to be running fine.

I think the problems are still system related, since when I booted my
computer on an alternative copy of Panther on a different drive, Word
seems to work fine. I'm currently using OSX 10.3.3, which had been
entirely stable for me until this weekend (for various non-Word related
reasons, I prefer not to upgrade to 10.3.9). Computer is a G4 Tower
(Sawtooth upgraded with 1.3ghz processor, Siig hard drive controller
card, etc).

Any ideas about what else I can do to check my system? I'd REALLY
prefer to avoid having to do a system reinstall.

Thanks,

Zack

 

[Zack]

Update - I now realize that any any action which leads to opening a new
item of some sort (other than an actual word document) on my computer
screen seems to cause Word to crash. Thus, trying to open the
formatting palette, trying to open a toolbar, using the Find command
(which would open up the Find dialogue box) all cause Word to crash.
Operations which only have an effect only within the already open
document window all seem to work fine.

Zack

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I think the problems are still system related, since when I booted my
computer on an alternative copy of Panther on a different drive, Word
seems to work fine. I'm currently using OSX 10.3.3, which had been
entirely stable for me until this weekend (for various non-Word related
reasons, I prefer not to upgrade to 10.3.9). Computer is a G4 Tower
(Sawtooth upgraded with 1.3ghz processor, Siig hard drive controller
card, etc).

I see two options in this case:
- it is System realted (though fairly rare for what you describe)
- the pref and cache are corrupted (fairly common). When you boot from
the other system you are also using another user account with a
different set of prefs and cache which would explain why it doesn't
crash anymore.

You could try moving to another location the pref and cache files
located in ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
(~/ is your user account) and see if it makes any difference.

Corentin

 

[Zack]

Thanks for the advice! Checking for corrupted preference and cache
files was a great idea, but unfortunately it didn't help. And I've
now found that other programs besides Word are not working properly -
Photoshop Elements crashes upon opening, Toast crashes as soon as I try
to burn a disc, and the Finder is behaving strangely (Trash won't open
- as I discovered when I tried to recover my trashed Word pref files,
trying to change the name of a file in a Finder window causes a sort of
mini-crash wherein the screen blinks for a moment and the window
closes, etc). So, for better or worse, it looks like something has
really gotten corrupted in my system.

Zack

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Thanks for the advice! Checking for corrupted preference and cache
files was a great idea, but unfortunately it didn't help. And I've
now found that other programs besides Word are not working properly -
Photoshop Elements crashes upon opening, Toast crashes as soon as I try
to burn a disc, and the Finder is behaving strangely

Now that's quite a differnet problem.....
Try using an application like Onmyx to trash system and user font cache,
repair permissions and rebot to see if it helps. THat looks like a much
deeper problem indeed.

(Trash won't open
- as I discovered when I tried to recover my trashed Word pref files,
trying to change the name of a file in a Finder window causes a sort of
mini-crash wherein the screen blinks for a moment and the window
closes, etc). So, for better or worse, it looks like something has
really gotten corrupted in my system.

Could be permissions... It doesn't hurt to repair them anyway, but the
system might be broken beyond repair :-\

Corentin

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Corentin -

Not trying to horn in, but as a serious inquiry - could LaunchServices be
involved here?

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

IF you can with out crashing
from Finder open Help

Type in Fsck and hit return.

Should be an article on how to run fsck (File System Check).
Follow directions.

Or go to Apple's website to support and type in Fsck.

print out appropriate directions for System used and follow them.

If you receive any messages indicating "any" repairs, repeat the
procedure by typing in appropriate fsck command and running until there
are no messages.

If you've tried fsck, Disk Utility (from The System CD), and DiskWarrior
your system is toast and you will have to do an Archive and install move
over all third party preferences (will be left in the previous system
folder (actual name) be carefully importing over. because items could be
corrupt. Try one or two at a time and see how machine does. if Okay then
add some more. At the first sign of trouble, remove the last item added
and try.

Finally to software update and all updates up to 3.3 and any sucurity
updates and all Quicktime updates.

Hope you don't have to reload because its a Long process. The only thing
worse is to do the same thing on a PC. :-(

Now that's quite a differnet problem.....
Try using an application like Onmyx to trash system and user font cache,
repair permissions and rebot to see if it helps. THat looks like a much
deeper problem indeed.



Could be permissions... It doesn't hurt to repair them anyway, but the
system might be broken beyond repair :-\

Corentin

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[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Hi Corentin -

Not trying to horn in, but as a serious inquiry - could LaunchServices be
involved here?

Quite possibly, but I don't see really how it would make the apps crash.
Onyx can trash the SYstem and user cache (including launchservices) as
well anyway,

Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Should be an article on how to run fsck (File System Check).
Follow directions.

fsck is tricky to use. If you use it from the boot volume itself, it
won't do the reapirs.
You can use it in single user mode, but it's a bit tricky.
By far, the easiest way is to boot on the MacOS X install DVD and use
Disk Utility (which is nothing more than a front-end to several tools
including fsck) from the menus to fix the drive.


For some reason I was confusing some of the steps taken with a different
thread and thought that the drive had been checked with DiskWarrior.
Checking the drive would be my number 1 priority, I agree Phillip,


Corentin

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Corentin - As per the following:

For some reason I was confusing some of the steps taken with a different
thread and thought that the drive had been checked with DiskWarrior.
Checking the drive would be my number 1 priority, I agree Phillip,

You were right in your recollection - mentioned in the 1st sentence of the
1st posting:

Although the extent to which it was used isn't specified. Probably wouldn't
hurt to run it again as long as he boots from a different startup disk.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

You were right in your recollection - mentioned in the 1st sentence of the
1st posting:

:-D
Oh well....

Although the extent to which it was used isn't specified. Probably wouldn't
hurt to run it again as long as he boots from a different startup disk.

DiskWarrior usually does a much more efficient work than fsck. If DW has
nothing more to fix, I doubt fsck will find anything (but you never
know).

Corentin

 

[Zack]

Thanks for everyone's help. I had in fact repaired permissions, run
MacJanitor, and rann both Disc Utility and Disk Warrior (from their
respective start-up CD's) prior to posting my first message. Nothing
worked, and I finally bit the bullet and reinstalled the system on a
new hard drive, which of course solved the problem.

Zack

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Thanks for everyone's help. I had in fact repaired permissions, run
MacJanitor, and rann both Disc Utility and Disk Warrior (from their
respective start-up CD's) prior to posting my first message. Nothing
worked, and I finally bit the bullet and reinstalled the system on a
new hard drive, which of course solved the problem.

Well I'm glad you got it back in good shape

Corentin