Urgent Computer Problem with Word XP - Help please?

[ShirleyM]

Trevor saved a document on his computer (he's at IU - Freshman) and called it "Normal.doc" This has somehow interfered with the Normal.Toc of MS Word (MS Ofc Professional 2003 XP - PC).

He has done everything imaginable, plus had the floor geeks take a look at it, and knowledge base has the question, but no answer provided. The floor geeks had seen this problem before, and fixed it on other machines, but nothing they try works on Trevor's comptuer. He uninstalled all of MS OFC plus Uninstalled all of his Norton Corp edition b/c that was also interfering (no, he has no viruses). He was Offline when he did this, btw. He reinstalled Office, and Still cannot do his homework. As I recall, a message from Norton comes up when he tries to open the docs, eventhough he uninstalls all of Norton...it's somehow still there.

He can create files and save them, but he *cannot* open any of his saved Word docs. I also don't think he can open any new saved Word docs either. He can email a doc elsewhere and open it, but not on his computer.

Here's the message he gets when he tries to open a saved doc:
"The file is not available" Also, when I close word it says the template Normal already exists, do I want to replace it...every time. "


Thanks so much for your help!

Shirley

[Doug1]

Shirley, I am moving this out on the main board , hope you get a quick fix.
Meanwhile can he send the docs to a dummy email account and open them?

[ShirleyM]

Thanks, Doug.
He can email them to the residence hall lounge and open them, but there are only three computers in there...he can email them to another room and open them...his roommate has a Mac..

He's got deadlines and huge projects to type (History) and told me he doesn't have time to reformat and reload plus get his work done, but I don't see why a reformat would be necessary...

Thanks!

This is so frustrating...right before finals and final projects are due!

THANKS!
Shirley

[Doug1]

Ouch , so it doesnt work if he emails to himself using a different email ID, bummer

[ShirleyM]

Emails it to himself? Well, he hasn't tried that, but HIS copy of Ofc Pro XP, supplied by IU...won't open anyone's document...and it gives the error message when he goes to close it.

Thanks,
Shirley

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by ShirleyM
... but HIS copy of Ofc Pro XP, supplied by IU...won't open anyone's document...and it gives the error message when he goes to close it.

Whell THERE'S the problem... another customized product from IU...

Actually I have seen this on several systems with Windows Professional or XP, has something to do with opening a new document, not entering anything, then trying to close the document and not bering able to unless it is saved. This results in the "normal.doc" being part of the list of "standard" formetted documents that are in the listed .doc s for opening new preformatted documents. The fix has something to do with removing the "normal.doc" file from that directory, but cannot be done while the program is running, I don't remember enough to be truly helpful, but that should be a lead for the puter geeks to fix it. I think this file has to be deleted while using the "explore" function in the right-button functiion of "Start".

Try using "find" while the Word or office suite is not open to locate and delete the file.

hth

[tdwyatt]

Might send a PM to DigitalDragon, Earl is pretty good with this kind of stuff (Kids, he's a professional, don't do this at home...)

[ShirleyM]

Thanks, Tom. He got rid of the Normal.doc...he even uninstalled all of Office and then rebooted, then reinstalled it...and the same thing keeps happening...???

Thanks for the rec to write DD

You all are the best...As Always!

Shirley

[512148048]

if he has the cd for the program save the file as a different name and re install the program

[ShirleyM]

He did that, and it didn't fix the problem. This is very strange...

[Geoff]

did he try opening the file on the Mac? we use cross platform opening all the time as a word doc fix. sometimes a file will not open we give it to someone on a PC and have them save it after it is open and that usually works. the Mac should be able to open the file. if it can not, then the file could be pooched.

i hate Word.

the last great microsoft product was Word 5.1.

G~

[ShirleyM]

I don't believe so. He can open his docs when he accesses them in the residence hall lounge computers.

~ Shirley

[ShirleyM]

Hi Geof (and others) I sent your suggestion to Trevor, and this is what he wrote back to me tonight:


"Well, that fix would make sense, except..that notepad and wordpad and nearly
any other text program can open it. It's not just a matter of the PC not opening it. Also, that would not explain the template error message."

I just can't imagine that an entire reformat would be necessary....and he doesn't have time for that with 2 wks of classes left and a wk of finals...

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Shirley

[digital_dragon]

Shirley,

This is what I would try first move all his documents to another directory. Create a directory called say Archive in the root of C:\ and copy them there and make sure he gets any files that he needs out of his My Documents. Un-Install the whole office suite. Go under Program files and find the Microsoft Office Directory and delete it. Have him right click on the start button and left click on explore. This will bring up the Start Up window in Windows Explorer under his Windows XP profile. Go under C:\Documents and Settings\%your profile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates and delete everything under that directory. Then do a file search for normal.* and delete all the items it finds. Download stinger.exe from http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ and run this before re-installing office. Empty the recycling bin shut down and reboot. Bring the laptop back up and login as himself. Re-Install MS Office XP and it will recreate the Normal.doc which shoul be the only file in the Templates directory under his profile.

I really am leaning this towards a virus. I did a search of a Windows XP laptop with Windows Office XP and there is no normal.toc.

Another utility that is free and I would recommend downloading is Ad-aware 6.0 build 181 which is a free download. Download it here:

http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

Once you install it and run it click on the update button to get the latest reference file so that it has the current spyware signatures to look for. Run this and delete all the spyware that it finds.

I hope this helps let me know if this doesn't work and we can attack this problem from another angle.

Earl

[ShirleyM]

Thank you so very much, Earl!

He used to run Ad-aware, but now runs Spybot search and destroy, as do I on my computer. He's very virus-aware and runs Norton Corp 24/7 w/auto updates done every day and then some.

I will copy all you said on to him.

~ Shirley