HELP!!! I can't go home until this is resolved!!!

[Liz Hopkins]

I was trying to get my Excel timecard to my boss, who
doesn't have Excel. This was supposed to be the LAST
task of the day and, since I am part time, the entire
work week! I have already stayed an extra hour!

Office chose THIS moment to stop working ENTIRELY.

I have two ways of getting her the time card.

Printing it- which causes Excel to crash now.
or
Imbedding it in Word, which causes Word to crash now.

I have done both tasks earlier today with no problem.

Excel crash analysis tried to blame the HP printer
driver, which is obviously not true (indicating that MS
policy is to blame any other software involved first)

Word crash analysis pointed me at an Office update that
did absolutely nothing to resolve the problem.

I am running Windows XP and the obviously prematurely
released Office 2003 on a BRAND NEW Dell.

 

[Liz Hopkins]

Fortunately, my boss called back and can call in just the
hours. However, I still need a functional computer!

But at least I can go home and deal with it next week.

BTW, now that I've downloaded the useless update that did
nothing, Word's "online crash analysis" is also trying to
blame the HP printer driver, EVEN THOUGH I WASN'T TRYING
TO PRINT FROM WORD. How could the printer driver affect
an action that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE
PRINTER?

Obviously, it's Microsoft policy to scapegoat any other
program (and I've printed fine since I installed that
printer driver) they can find on the system, rather than
admit that it's their fault.

I am absolutely IRATE about this! What a SCAM! Write
horrible, buggy, insufficiently documented, virtually
USELESS software and then charge $30 a pop for live tech
support.

I dearly wish that Linux use were more widespread so I
didn't have to deal with this garbage.

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Liz,

First of all, in order to display the document correctly Word queries
the printer driver during various operations in order to obtain
information such as printable area, fonts, etc. So the printer driver
is in use for reasons other than printing.

Second, have you followed the advice the crash analysis provided and
updated printer driver?

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Guest]

I tried to pull out and reinstall the printer driver.

Although Windows can find the printer driver in order to
blame it for the shoddiness of Office, it can't find it
in Control Panel.

This will make it very difficult to follow the computer's
instruction (which I don't trust to begin with, since it
was generated by software written in Redmond.) How do I
even address the printer driver, since Windows has
decided not to let me remove it?

I tried HP's autodiagnostic, but it doesn't work with a
network printer.

Which brings me to why I'm here. Automatic "support" is
very limited in its capability and Microsoft's is very
short on information.

I still wish Linux were more widespread. It may be
(ostensibly) less "user-friendly" but at least I wouldn't
have to contend with "features" added to increase MS
profit margins rather than the software's usefulness.

 

[Chris Schatte]

Depending on your printer model from HP
HP usually provides software to perform a forced uninstall. You will need to search their site. We have had to use one for an older networked printer that we have not upgraded yet. The regular uninstall utility does not remove all traces. You should be able to find a downloadable utility to perform a forced uninstall, so your original software will install correctly

With either Linux or Microsoft you will always be increasing someone's bottom line