[Chris - Thecleancar]

Hello

I had to reinstall Office 2002 SP3 and am now having problems. The reinstall was over the existing installation.
When I open applications I see various boxes for example ‘Preparing to install’, ‘Installing Microsoft Excel Feature’ after a few seconds the application loads. A Windows explored type window sometimes opens headed ‘System 32’ listing loads of folders and files.
If I try to open Access I get a box ‘Please wait while Windows configures MS Office with Front Page’ and the application does not open.
If help is clicked in Excel either nothing happens or I get a warning box ‘Error starting Excel help’ If Word help is clicked nothing happens
PowerPoint and FrontPage both seem to open normally but help does not work
In the drawing toolbar the ‘No shadow’ and ‘No 3D’ options are greyed out and therefore unselectable in all applications
Is the answer to uninstall in Add/Remove progs in Control Panel and reinstall from the CD
I hope this gives enough info for a few ideas to be forthcoming

Thanks Chris

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The only real loss with uninstalling and re-installing Office is the e-mails in Outlook, if you can back those up then uninstall Office, use the windows clean up utility to remove the installation files for Office

http://support.micro...kb;en-us;290301

http://download.micr...1bd/msicuu2.exe

Click start then all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then also from system tools, run disc defragmenter

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, (all files will highlight), right click any file, click delete, confirm then reboot.

Download, install and run Tune Up 2006 Trial

Run Tune Up disc clean up

Run Tune Up registry clean up

Disable the anti virus programme then click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, the screen will lose colour during the process which can take a few minutes and then needs a reboot

Check the anti virus programme is running

Those will have cleared the drive of obsolete software errors

These are suggestions for making the most of the free trial

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot.

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor


Re-install Office, choose complete install (run all from computer) and leave the installation files on the drive

Check it is running properly, if so, visit Microsoft Update for the critical updates then also check the optional downloads for any which apply to Office

http://update.micros...t.aspx?ln=en-us

[Retired Tech]

The only real loss with uninstalling and re-installing Office is the e-mails in Outlook, if you can back those up then uninstall Office, use the windows clean up utility to remove the installation files for Office

http://support.micro...kb;en-us;290301

http://download.micr...1bd/msicuu2.exe

Click start then all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then also from system tools, run disc defragmenter

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, (all files will highlight), right click any file, click delete, confirm then reboot.

Download, install and run Tune Up 2006 Trial

Run Tune Up disc clean up

Run Tune Up registry clean up

Disable the anti virus programme then click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, the screen will lose colour during the process which can take a few minutes and then needs a reboot

Check the anti virus programme is running

Those will have cleared the drive of obsolete software errors

These are suggestions for making the most of the free trial

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot.

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor


Re-install Office, choose complete install (run all from computer) and leave the installation files on the drive

Check it is running properly, if so, visit Microsoft Update for the critical updates then also check the optional downloads for any which apply to Office

http://update.micros...t.aspx?ln=en-us

[Chris - Thecleancar]

Hi
Thanks for the very fast response - I'll get on with that lot ASAP

Please advise the best way to back-up / restore the Outlook Express e-mails

Regards

Chris

[Retired Tech]

Try here

http://support.micro...b;en-us;Q270670

Do you not use Outllook?

[Chris - Thecleancar]

Hello

No I use Outlook Express - I'm a mere Home User !!

Thanks for your help I'll get on with it soon as possible

Regards

Chris

[Retired Tech]

Outlook is part of Office and is easier to use IMO

[Chris - Thecleancar]

Hello

I have completed the tasks you listed and reinstalled Office but unfortunately the same problems still exist

Any more ideas please

Chris

[Retired Tech]

Is it doing this before you update it, did you choose complete install, run all from computer?

[Chris - Thecleancar]

Hi thanks for getting back so soon

Yes BEFORE any updates and I selected a custom - complete install - run all from computer

When I ran the Windows clean up utility it ran very quickly 2-3 seconds at the most - is that normal ?

Chris

[Retired Tech]

In regional and language options, check everything is correct there, click apply if you change anything on each tab before moving to the next one, also the sub tabs to check advanced text services is ticked

Put the Office CD in and cancel set up then open a programme which sets the installer off, it should take the files from the Office CD, if so, let it finish then reboot to see if you can open them properly

If no change, open an Office programme, click help, click detect and repair, tick restore shortcuts

Go to Microsoft Update and install any updates, check the optional ones as well

Have you got .net framework installed, worth getting if you haven't

[Chris - Thecleancar]

Hi

In regional and language options, check everything is correct there, click apply if you change anything on each tab before moving to the next one, also the sub tabs to check advanced text services is ticked

All was ok here but I had to enable 'check advanced text services'

Put the Office CD in and cancel set up then open a programme which sets the installer off, it should take the files from the Office CD, if so, let it finish then reboot to see if you can open them properly

Did this but nothing seemed to happen so left it a while to be sure nothing was going on. The problem remainded at this stage.

If no change, open an Office programme, click help, click detect and repair, tick restore shortcuts

Did this things appeared to be being loaded/updated but the problem still remained at this stage.

Go to Microsoft Update and install any updates, check the optional ones as well

Went to MS Update and loaded everything there in total about 30 updates for XP and Office INCLUDING the Office SP3 update
Checked Office again and ALL APPEARS TO BE BACK UP AND WORKING I'm sitting here with 5 Office applications open all with their Help screens open !!
Could the answer be that I reinstalled Office over SP3 when the CD was almost certainly for an earlier version. Although in theory I did uninstall today with the cleanup utility.

Have you got .net framework installed, worth getting if you haven't

Well I think I have now as I saw version 1.1 and later v 2.0 load in the updates but I'm sorry I dont know what it does - would you be kind enough to advise.

Last of all a huge THANK YOU for taking the trouble to help me Sorry this is a bit of a long reply but I thought it best to tell you exactly what happened so you might be able to go straight to the answer for someone in the future

Regards Chris

[Retired Tech]

Thank You for the reply

If you have version 1.1 and Microsoft Update didn't offer a service pack or anything then that's fine. You only need version 2.0 for some programmes, and they usually specify this on the download page or the initial install screen

It should run properly now, especially with the install being run all from the computer as any files it could need are now on the drive

Try to make sure you leave the Office installation files on the drive when you run disc clean up