Word 2007 Crashes on Exit

[Clark]

I've been fighting this problem for 6 months on a HP DX6500 Notebook.
Running Vista with all updates, HP LaserJet with Vista driver, Office 2007
with all updates. Have reinstalled Office with same results. All Add-ins
have been disabled; no dice. I am the only one in my office who use Office
2007 and Vista with this problem. Here is the dump data from the error log:


Product
Microsoft Office Word



Problem
Stopped working



Date
11/30/2009 9:39 PM



Status
Not Reported



Problem signature

Problem Event Name: APPCRASH

Application Name: WINWORD.EXE

Application Version: 12.0.6514.5000

Application Timestamp: 4a89d533

Fault Module Name: StackHash_289c

Fault Module Version: 6.0.6002.18005

Fault Module Timestamp: 49e03821

Exception Code: c0000374

Exception Offset: 000afaf8

OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3

Locale ID: 1033

Additional Information 1: 289c

Additional Information 2: fcf97e4077c5fd117c7bcba8f28865aa

Additional Information 3: 90fd

Additional Information 4: 416426634fb435af1d9d599bebb8225f

Can anyone suggest what this means?

Thanks!

 

[Terry Farrell]

Is it this...

That's a symptom of a Word Data Key corruption - usually because Word has
been running when updates are installed.

Run Regedit and expand by double-clicking to the key below. With DATA
selected, press DELETE. Word will automatically recreate a new key when it
is restarted.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data

Symptoms of Data Key corruption include:

• The mouse does not work when you use Word.
• You cannot open a Word document from the Search window in Windows
Vista.
• You cannot open a Word document from Windows Desktop Search.
• Word crashes when you try to start or exit Word.
• Word crashes when you open the Open dialog box.
• Word crashes when you save a document.
• Word crashes when you close a document.

If you feel uncomfortable editing the registry yourself, Microsoft have a
fix that will do this for you.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940791 and press FixIt

 

[Clark]

Terry, I had tried this once before but the problem returned. Same thing
this week. After I deleted the registry entry and restarted Word, it behaved
itself. Today, I've kept Word open for 10 hours and when closing it tonight
the old problem returned. I'm not aware of any update that took place in the
last 24 hours while Word was open.

Might it have something to do with my computer being a laptop? I have the
Power Options set so the sleep mode never occurs when the computer is
connected to AC power.

My workaround for the last six months has been to keep a blank document open
during the day so I can open/close documents as needed. At the end of the
day I just wait for Word to do it's screwy thing.

Any other fixes to try?

 

[Terry Farrell]

Have you got a locally installed printer driver set as the Windows default
printer?

Terry

 

[Clark]

Yes: HP1320 LaserJet. The driver is version E which is supposed to be Vista
compatible.

Today, before I started, the DATA key was deleted and I started Word in safe
mode. Left it open all day, opened and closed several documents and it
exited with no problem.

Of course, I've seen this before. A single point doth not a trend maketh!

 

[Terry Farrell]

My suspicion is the HP printer driver. Try switching to a different printer
driver, deleting the data key and testing for a while to see if that
resolves the problem. Certain HP printer drivers have been notorious for
causing crash on exit in Vista. AFAIAA, HP has washed their hands of the
problem and refused to update the driver.

 

[Clark]

Will do and report back to this thread.

Have a great weekend!

 

[Clark]

Well, gang, I still have the problem after doing the following:

1. Reassign Default Printer to a non-HP printer (Epson 230). Problem
still there.
2. Deinstall all printers. Problem still there.
3. Reinstall LJ 1320 with current Vista compatible driver. Problem still
there.

Most of the data on the HP printer problem seems to revolve around a
specific All-in-One model. My printer is a LJ 1320. To the best of my
knowledge, I have the most recent driver (PCL 5e May 2008).

I can't believe this problem has me stumped---but it does. Next?

 

[Terry Farrell]

If deleting the data key resolves the problem but it returns, there has to
be something external to Word that is causing this. It is not a Word itself.
What other utilities are you using that integrate with Word? Have you tried
to save a newly created Data Key and then comparing to see what is changing
when it goes bad again?

 

[Clark]

Terry, excellent suggestions. Regarding utilities that are integrated, I do
have several that include Add-ins but the Add-ins have been disabled. I did
find a template enabled from Avery that was downloaded last month for one of
their utilities to make invitations and the like. That program has been
removed.

I'll start comparing entries in the Data key before/after and see what turns
up.

 

[Clark]

Hello and Happy New Year!

I have been ill for the last two weeks and am just now trying your
suggestion. It is still exhibiting the same problem and I can find no changes
being made to the Data key. There are 4 entries in mine: Default (value
unset); Settings, Settings Word Mail (which appears to be identical to the
Setting entry), and Toolbars. I have checked the registry entry in the
morning, and when closing down Word (when it fails) and they look to be the
same.

Today, I have opened Word attachments to email; opened Word documents on
Sharepoint, and opened documents from my hard disc. My SOP has been to keep
a blank document open so I can open/close documents as needed without going
through the crash.

The only Addins enabled is a Smart Tag associated with Outlook.

I might mention that a colleague of mine who just installed Office 2007
fresh on his vista PC is experiencing the same problem.

What should I try next?