outlook/excel problem

[snurge]

i'm experiencing a problem with corrupt files within excel after receiving
them in outlook. i've run through the details with a MS concierge but to no
avail and was hoping that someone might be able to provide some information.
the details of the concierge chat are as follows.....

***Welcome to the TechNet Online Concierge Service
Your chat session has been accepted by a TechNet Online Advisor and can
begin now.

{Alice}Hello and welcome to TechNet Online Concierge. How may I assist you
today, Stuart?
{Stuart Ashworth}Hello.
{Alice}Hi, Stuart. What can I do for you?
{Stuart Ashworth}we are having a problem with an individual computer
(involving excel&outlook) and we are unable to resolve this after speing
quite a lot of time on it. i wanted to escalate this to microsoft to attempt
to resolve but wasn't quite sure how to (this is the first time i've used the
technet). can you please provide me with some guidance?
{Alice}Stuart, may I know what is your question?
{Stuart Ashworth}certainly, starting yesterday for reasons that we dont
know, a user cannot open excel files after receving them in outlook. excel
starts to open then restarts a number of times. we have tried a full
re-install, changing the excel version, saving files locally first but
nothing seems to have worked yet
{Alice}Just the Excel in Outlook can not be opened? How about other excel
files locating in other please?
{Alice}place, sorry for typo.
{Stuart Ashworth}i can open older files saved locally but if i try to open a
file contained in an email received last week (when the problem didn't
exist), this wont open anymore.
{Alice}And the excel was attached as attachments right?
{Stuart Ashworth}thats right
{Alice}I see. Let me see if I can locate any resource for you. Just one
moment please.
{Stuart Ashworth}no problem
{Alice}Stuart, would you please try this?
Close outlook, open excel.
Click new onthe toolbar for a new worksheet, close excel.
Open outlook again and open your excel attachment.
{Alice}Hope this helps.
{Stuart Ashworth}i will try this now. please give me one minute
{Alice}Sure. Take your time.
{Stuart Ashworth}still the same problem. excel opens fine when trying to
open the attachment but then comes up with the 'recover my work and restart
excel' pop up
{Stuart Ashworth}...which is the same as whats been happening before
{Alice}Stuart, let's try these following steps:
Close Excel --- Windows Start Button|Run
excel /unregserver
then
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /regserver
{Stuart Ashworth}still no different
{Alice}And please make sure the "ignore other applications" checkbox is
Unchecked .
This option is in Excel>Tools > Options > General Tab
{Alice}Close outlook and excel before you set this. Then open Excel again
{Stuart Ashworth}this was already unchecked
{Alice}oh...sorry to know that...
{Alice}Stuart, I've ran out my resources.
As a TechNet Plus subscriber, you have access to more than 90 managed
newsgroups. This means that when you post a question on any one of our 90 +
IT Professional related managed newsgroups a Microsoft Support Professional
will respond to your posts in these newsgroups if nobody from the community
has answered you in 72 hours.
{Alice}Here is the link to the Newsgroup:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/managed/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx
{Stuart Ashworth}ok, i will attempt to resolve it via the newsgroups. thanks
for your help ***

I would appreciate if anyone has any information that may be of help.
(p.s. office 2003 sp2)

 

[Bob I]

First, do you have the Latest Windows Security Updates installed. Then
try it. Also try Saving the attachment first, and then go Open it from
saved location.

 

[snurge]

Thanks for the reply Bob.
After finding this issue, I made sure that all service packs/security
updates were installed. This didn't resolve the issue.
I also tried saving the file first and then opening but this too didn't work.
I also tried forwarding the email with attachment to my private account on a
different computer and this computer was able to open the file with no
problems.

 

[Bob I]

Have you tried Detect and Repair yet? Another check would be to see if
it is Profile related on this PC. Add a new profile and test the file.

 

[snurge]

yes, i've tried both of these also.
funnily enough, whilst still trying to find a resolution i managed to get
one excel file received on email open.
i created a new worksheet, added one word into one cell and saved it.
This document is very small (13kb).
when i sent this excel file to the offending computers email account, it
opened fine so the problem may be something to do with file sizes.
just a thought.

 

[Bob I]

Humm, perhaps a networking hardware problem?

yes, i've tried both of these also.
funnily enough, whilst still trying to find a resolution i managed to get
one excel file received on email open.
i created a new worksheet, added one word into one cell and saved it.
This document is very small (13kb).
when i sent this excel file to the offending computers email account, it
opened fine so the problem may be something to do with file sizes.
just a thought.

:

 

[snurge]

i'm not sure how a networking problem would cause this issue.
The computer is at a remote branch and also uses erp software that is very
sensitive.
if there was a network problem, the erp software would crash first and there
hasn't been any problems with that.

 

[Bob I]

I don't have an answer, it would appear the Office products are working.
If larger files get corrupted in transit, then one has to suspect the
transmission method. Follow?

 

[snurge]

Thanks for your input Bob.
Do you know of a way to check for any issues with the transmission method?
Sorry if i sound stupid.

 

[Bob I]

I would try transferring other files and see at what size I experienced
corruption, then stop over to the networking news group and ask for
help. tell them what you have tried and your observations, and what
their suggestions might be.