Can't load Office 2003

[lbw6303]

I have Win XP and Office 2000 on a Dell Laptop. I recently bought a sealed
version of Office 2003 OEM. It initially loaded, but wouldn't install
updates. Tried to uninstall and couldn't get it off. Got some help from
Msoft. Got it off, but then couldn't re-install. I decided to reinstall
office 2000. Since I had saved my outlook pst file before uninstalling 2003,
it's now not readable by office 2002.

Question 1: why won't 2003 load. won't even get to "key request"?
Question 2: Is there conversion s/w that allows me to go backward? I down
loaded something from Msoft for compatibility btw office 2002,2003 and 2007,
but no joy.
Question 3:

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I have Win XP and Office 2000 on a Dell Laptop. I recently bought a sealed
version of Office 2003 OEM. It initially loaded, but wouldn't install
updates. Tried to uninstall and couldn't get it off. Got some help from
Msoft. Got it off, but then couldn't re-install. I decided to reinstall
office 2000. Since I had saved my outlook pst file before uninstalling 2003,
it's now not readable by office 2002.

Question 1: why won't 2003 load. won't even get to "key request"?

Did you buy this OEM version from Dell? OEM versions of programs are usually
preinstalled and licensed only on the PC where they were installed originally.
OEM versions sometimes don't need a product key.

You can have multiple versions of Office installed if you select that option
at installation time, with one exception: one one version of Outlook can be
installed on a single Windows operating system partition. With Outlook, it's
best to uninstall the previous version before installing the new version.
It's also best to create a new mail profile.

Question 2: Is there conversion s/w that allows me to go backward? I down
loaded something from Msoft for compatibility btw office 2002,2003 and 2007,
but no joy.

Installing Outlook 2003 will NOT change your existing Outlook 2000 PST.
Outlook 2003 will happily use the older PST and should you decide to uninstall
Outlook 2003 and revert to Outlook 2000, the PST will work fine. You must
have created a new PST with Outlook 2003 if the one you have can't be read by
Outlook 2000, but unless you specifically deleted it, your old Outlook 2000
PST is still on your hard drive, probably in the same folder where the PST you
created in Outlook 2003 resides.

Question 3:

This one's rather open-ended, no?

 

[lbw6303]

I saved my 2002 pst file and then uninstalled it. Then I installed ofc 2003
and imported my pst file. All looked well, so I deleted previous/older saves.
When it became obvios I was having trouble with ofc 2003, I once again saved
a pst file and eventually uninstalled ofc 2003, but couldn't get it to
re-install. So unfortunately, I'm left now with having gone back to Ofc 2002
and wanting to import a pst file that is now in ofc 2003 format. Dummie me.
Mixed in with all of this was some help from microsoft that caused me to
delete what was probably the oem-installed key for ofc 2003. I don't know if
that was initially installed by Dell or not. This is a used laptop that came
with Win XP, but no Office program. What started all of this was that I lost
my hard drive and had to reload everyhing. I have a legal Win XP Cd and
purchased an unopened ofc 2003 oem prior to reloading everything.

Win XP loads fine and updates all the way to SP3 and downloads explorer 8.
What I find when I run a BELARC anaysis is that my WIN XP has what is
probably the original key associated with it, but Explorer 8 has the Key from
my CD.

Before Microsoft helped me try to fix this, I had a similar situation with
Office 2003. My key for the CD allowed me to install, but BELARC found what
must have been the original KEY installed by Dell. After Microsoft helped
out, I ended up deleting that key and now can't even get the ofc 2003 to
load. Not even so far as requesting the Key.

For now I'm just trying to get something working which is why I've reloaded
Office 2002. I just am unable to import the 2003 pst file. I'm still working
with microsoft, but that's cycle is pretty slow.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I saved my 2002 pst file and then uninstalled it. Then I installed ofc 2003
and imported my pst file.

Mistake #1. Never import a PST. Just open it and use it. What you did
changed the format to a format that's not downward-compatible.

All looked well, so I deleted previous/older saves.

This may be mistake #2, since OL 2002 can't read OL 2003 PSTs. Always keep
the original data for safe-keeping. CDs are cheap to write and store.

If you have the original CDs for Office, you should be able to get a new key
from Microsoft.