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Can't open Word or Excel docs!!!!!

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by bradleyr

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Please, help. The weirdest thing is happening to a computer on our network. When a user tries to open either word or excel files from her C:\My Documents a message pops up saying ' Word can't open the existing file " ' . After the double quotes there is a little square - almost like done in ASCII, but I do not know the key combination to produce it. It asks you to ok it. The user Okays the message - the second message comes up saying, "C:\My Documents\nameofdocument.doc is being used by another user. Do you want to make a copy?" If you cancel - it does not open the document. If you ok it, it still does not open the document! So, the upshot is that the user can't work in MS office at all - new docs, old docs - does not matter. Here is what I have done so far:
1. I copied one of her .doc file to another machine to see if it could open it - opens it up no problem - so the problem is not with the file being corrupted.
2. Used by another user... I did the netstat to check all open connections - nothing. Same error "open by another user". So, I uplugged the network cable, rebooted (nobody is connected now) - same messages come up. What the hell?
3. Uninstalled Microsoft Office, reinstalled Microsoft Office - same problem!!!!
4. Well, sounds like a virus? Downloaded the latest .dat files for Norton - ran the scan - no viruses.

I am really stuck now. Help!!! OS=Win98, Microsoft Office 97, applied all the service packs to Office.

11 replies

by admin-stuart

Since everything including the problem is on the local drive, have you tried to reboot in Safe Mode, and open Office docs then? If they open in Safe Mode, then the problem might an errant TSR running simultaneously with Office/Windows. Use msconfig utility to remove all TSR's, then add them back one at a time if you want to hunt down the culprit.

If the error duplicates in Safe Mode, a core reinstall of Win98, followed by reinstalling Office/Service packs may be the next step.

Good Luck.

by dklippert

Something I always do in this situation is to delete any temporary files. Also files that start with a tilde (~).

by nettek

You installed Office 97 SR-2? This was supposed to have corrected this.

If you have, try the following after first defragging your hard drive:
1. Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties.
2. Select the Performance tab.
3. Click the Virtual Memory button, and choose "Let me specify my own settings".
4. Choose the same drive that the Windows Temp directory is located.
5. Set the min. and max. to the same number. This should be 64mb or equal to your RAM, whatever is greater.
6. OKthe changes and reboot.

by zlitocook

if these answers dont work email me I have the compleat list of dll, mapi and other files to remove after uninstalling office. these are not removed and could be corrupt.
zlito@aol.com

by christofer

I had a similar problem and I was lucky doing a trick.I have to tell you that this trick didn't always work. When you open a document with the name myname.doc word renames it to $yname.doc. In my situtation this name still existed after closing word. I tried to rename $yname to name.doc(or something else). It worked 3 times 5 did not. I know that this is not a solution because word will continue the same with new documents but it may get you of a hard position.

Good Luck

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