Computer problem -- any ideas, anyone?

Rufus T. Firefly · February 27, 2003, 13:45

Hi all. Normally i'd just take this to tech support, but I'm halfway around th world from tech support so I thought I'd' ask the many gurus here.

I work on a Dell laptop, running on Windows 98. Today, out of nowhere, it refuses to load Word 2000, which yesterday was working just fine. What happens is, it starts to load -- I get the box with the logo in it -- and then it just stops there, hourglassing forever. this only happens with Word. Scandisk rveals nothing; ditto Norton antivirus. The system was defragged just a few days ago. I haven't added or deleted any software lately.

Any idea what this is and, moreover, how I might fix it? TIA.

monolith94 · February 27, 2003, 14:06

My advice is to get one of these, stat.

Gary · February 27, 2003, 14:11

Apart from reinstall Word, no, can't think of anything.

Zopperoni · February 27, 2003, 14:12

Rufus,

Maybe you can fix the problem with the Office 2000 CD.

Rufus T. Firefly · February 27, 2003, 14:12

don't taunt me, mono; I was a confirmed Mac user before my move to Turkey, and only switched becaue my entire institution is pc-based.

Urban Ranger · February 28, 2003, 00:28

Rufus,

Looks like something that will go away in a few days.

alva · February 28, 2003, 00:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Rufus,

Looks like something that will go away in a few days.

Why is that, is this something that happens that time of the month orso?

monolith94 · February 28, 2003, 01:10

"don't taunt me, mono; I was a confirmed Mac user before my move to Turkey, and only switched becaue my entire institution is pc-based."
I feel quite a bit of sympathy for you!
Incorporating my Mac into my college's pc-based network was proving to be a bit of a pain for me too... The new operating system upgrade, 'jaguar', made it TREMENDOUSLY more useful.
Again, sorry to taunt you...

*mono wishes they would go ahead and release the next chip upgrade... and the latest radeon graphics card is coming to mac very soon too!*

Urban Ranger · February 28, 2003, 01:13

Quote:

Originally posted by alva

Why is that, is this something that happens that time of the month orso?

Computers are not supposed to do this kind of things, but Windows does. Ask che, he was a victim.

loinburger · February 28, 2003, 01:15

Rufus: Try doing a system restore.

alva · February 28, 2003, 01:16

System restore on win98?
(quite awhile since I worked with it, but I don't think that's an option.

Urban Ranger · February 28, 2003, 01:18

Yes, System Restore is in W98, but only if Rufus has been doing the backups.

Skanky Burns · February 28, 2003, 01:19

No, it isn't included with 98 in the same way it is with xp.

Urban Ranger · February 28, 2003, 02:27

Is too, a flunkie friend of mine has been using it.

Skanky Burns · February 28, 2003, 02:32

Hmm, havta check that. We still have a 98 box around somewhere...

Urban Ranger · February 28, 2003, 02:33

Maybe it's for SE only. Not 100% sure.

Asher · February 28, 2003, 02:34

WinMe was the first OS with System Restore (the only useful thing of the whole OS). WinXP has an improved version of it.

Rufus T. Firefly · February 28, 2003, 03:38

First of all, thanks everyone for your suggestions (yes, even mono

).

I've tried fixing it with the repair kit that comes with the CD as well as reinstalling. Nothing has worked, though once I did get an error message before the freeze-up -- something about Kernel32. I guess its time to find out jut how good my Turkish is, and phone Dell-Istanbul. Though maybe I'll take UR's advice and wait a few days first.

Anyway, thanks again everyone, and if anyone has a further suggestion, please, please post it.

Asher · February 28, 2003, 03:45

Does Word 2000 have the "Detect and Repair" option from the Help menu?

Rufus T. Firefly · February 28, 2003, 05:02

Quote:

Originally posted by Asher
Does Word 2000 have the "Detect and Repair" option from the Help menu?

THANK YOU ASHER!

Since the whole problem was that I couldn't open Word, I ran Detect and Repair off the original disk -- and it failed. But then it occured to me that I could possibly get into Word through the "back door" of Microsoft Works. Having done so, I ran Detect and Repair again, this time off the help menu with the program open, and it seems to have done the trick.

Many thanks again.

Ari Rahikkala · February 28, 2003, 10:02

Backdoors in MS products rock

TheBirdMan · February 28, 2003, 10:32

Find the Word settingsfile Normal.dot and delete it. It re-generates with the default settings next time Word is opened.

This little operation solves 50% of all normal Word errors.

This advice is only for those, who are NOT making a hell lot of homemade macros in Word - if they delete the normal.dot file, they loose all their macroes.