Office 2001: Can't save in Excel or Word

[Jared]

Hi,

I am running OS8.6 w/office 2001.

I brought a excel file to my Mac from a PC. When I tryed to save it I
got the hour glass and it just stayed there and wouldn't save so I had
to shut the machine down.

Later I began to have the same problem with Word. It seems to be getting
worse. Now I can't save or open any existing file in excel or word.

Before this happened it seemed to me that Word was slowing a lot and
doing a lot of hard disk "thrashing" as I was opening, closing, saving.

I have increased the memory alottment, tossed the preferences and
renamed to normal.doc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jared

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Jared,

What you are describing sounds like memory related issues. It may be that
your hard drive is nearly full or that you have run out of real RAM and your
computer is using the hard drive as virtual memory (hence, the thrashing of
your hard drive).

So first, make sure you have given your office applications lots and lots of
RAM allocation in the Preferred setting using Finder's Get Info command. You
might need 25000 for Excel and 40000 for Word.

The thing is, does your computer have enough actual RAM to comfortably
accommodate these settings plus cover MacOS and all the other applications
you want to run simultaneously?

So add-em up! Word, 40 Meg + Excel 25 Meg + MacOS 75 Meg + Every Other
Application. Make sure you have have plenty of real RAM for your computer.

-Jim

 

[omjaroo]

So add-em up! Word, 40 Meg + Excel 25 Meg + MacOS 75 Meg + Every Other
Application. Make sure you have have plenty of real RAM for your computer.

-Jim

Jim,
Thanks for your helpful and speedy reply.
When I went to implement your suggestion, I realized I had shut my
vitual memory off in the memory control panel. I turned it on, cycled
the machine and without making any other changes opened and saved a word
file, no problem. I thought we had the problem. I increased the ram
allocated to all my office programs to the suggested levels (I have 224
megs of physical ram and a gig of HD space).

Then I opened on of the excel files I had brought over from the PC and
bingo, no save. I can't save or save as in excel or word. I cycled the
machine, turned virtual memory off and then on, all to no avail.

I'll try renaming normal.doc and throw out the preferences again. And I
quess PC files are out for now. Any more ideas? Thanks

Jared

 

[Jared]

So add-em up! Word, 40 Meg + Excel 25 Meg + MacOS 75 Meg + Every Other

Application. Make sure you have have plenty of real RAM for your computer.

-Jim

Jim,
Thanks for your helpful and speedy reply.
When I went to implement your suggestion, I realized I had shut my
vitual memory off in the memory control panel. I turned it on, cycled
the machine and without making any other changes opened and saved a word
file, no problem. I thought we had the problem. I increased the ram
allocated to all my office programs to the suggested levels (I have 224
megs of physical ram and a gig of HD space).

Then I opened on of the excel files I had brought over from the PC and
bingo, no save. I can't save or save as in excel or word. I cycled the
machine, turned virtual memory off and then on, all to no avail.

I'll try renaming normal.doc and throw out the preferences again. And I
quess PC files are out for now. Any more ideas? Thanks

Jared

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

OK - My next suggestion is to trash "Carbon Registration database" and see
what happens.

-Jim

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

OK

My next suggestion is to trash "Carbon Registration database" and see what
happens.

-Jim

 

[Jared]

OK

My next suggestion is to trash "Carbon Registration database" and see what
happens.

-Jim

Jim,

I couldn't find anything called "carbon registration database". I found
something like carbon preferences in the MS preferences folder and
tossed it. No change.

On of the things I have noticed since this problem started is that it
seems to take word much longer then usual to start and to close. Lots of
hd thrashing and 30 or more seconds of tying up the processor until it's
done doing whatever it's doing.

Jared

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

OK it's time for medium and heavy artillery!

Try Disk First Aid. You may need to boot your OS install CD to run the
repair feature. Then use Disk First Aid to Repair permissions.

Not better? Give DiskWarrior a shot.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

The OS 9 equivalent of Carbon Registration Database is PPC Registration
Database, loose in the Prefs folder, not the MS folder w/in prefs. Try
trashing that.

Have you rebuilt your desktop lately? Should be done every month, at least.

What version of Office 2001 do you have? There were updates. Do a Get Info
on a program icon.

Have you checked for an extensions conflict?
Most likely to apply with consistent and reproducible problems.
Boot with all extensions off by holding down the shift key as the computer
restarts. If the problem is gone, you had an extensions conflict.

Check to see if there's anything in the startup folders for excel or word
(Appsfficeffice:startup)

Do run Disk First Aid and whatever other maintenance software you have.

DM

 

[Jared]

Have you checked for an extensions conflict?
Most likely to apply with consistent and reproducible problems.
Boot with all extensions off by holding down the shift key as the computer
restarts. If the problem is gone, you had an extensions conflict.

Dayo,

Duh, duh, and double duh! You would think after 15 years I would get it!

Start with the extentsions off, rebuilt the desk top and zap the pram.

Thanks, that's exactly what the problem was. A conflict with Norton Anti
Virus Protection Extention. Turned it off and, bingo, no more problem
with saving.

Thank you very much

Jared

 

[Jared]

OK it's time for medium and heavy artillery!

Jim,

Thankfully that won't be needed. I turned of a conflicting extension
(NAV) and walla, no more problem.

Thanks for your time, attention and patience.

Jared

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

That's what makes the newsgroup thing work so well. My hat's off to Dayo.

-Jim