Office apps will not run after upgrading to Office 12.1.9

[mikalelu]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Whenever I launch Word (or any of the Office apps), I get an error message which says, "You cannot open the application "Microsoft Word" because it is not supported on this architecture. And for each app, the icon changes to the circle with a slash. As I recall, everything was fine under 12.1.7 prior to the upgrade.

I subsequently ran a utility to repair the permissions (per a previous post with the same error with 12.1.7 on a PPC platform). No luck there. OSX is at 10.5.7

 

[mikalelu]

Appending the original post, I should mention that I also upgraded to Safari 4.0.1 and installed iLife '09 just prior to the symptoms.

 

[CyberTaz]

This is an odd one -- at least I've not seen any mention of it here. The
nature of the error suggests that it is external to the Office software,
though, so my first inclination is to grab the 10.5.7 COMBO Update from
Apple Downloads & re-apply it. I don't know if the stuff in your other post
might have contributed or not, but the Combos do a more thorough job than
what you get from SU.

<http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx1057combou
pdate.html>

Please reply with your results.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[mikalelu]

Thanks for your suggestion. I downloaded and applied the 10.5.7 Combo Update. Alas, still no Office apps will run.

I agree that it seems external to the Office software. For lack of a more specific clue, I suspect that there could be a variable or plist file, which identifies the architecture of the processor, and that it has become incorrectly set or corrupted.

Michael

 

[CyberTaz]

A few additional thoughts;

Is it just the Dock icons you're referring to? Have you tried launching the
programs directly from the Applications folder? If they'll launch that way
it may just be a matter of recreating the Dock icons.

Have you tried logging in with the Shift key held down? That bypasses login
items & may give a little more insight.

Also, try running the programs from a new User Account.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Diane Ross]

Whenever I launch Word (or any of the Office apps), I get an error message
which says, "You cannot open the application "Microsoft Word" because it is
not supported on this architecture.

Do you have Parallels or VMWare running? Any external drives attached?

Did you quit all applications including the virtual machines before
updating? Did you restart after updating?

 

[mikalelu]

Thanks for your additional suggestions.

I logged in using the shift key, but the results were the same.

I created a new user, and logged in. All of the Office icons were circle/slash, and the apps would not launch, and displayed the same error message.

Regarding the icons... all Office app icons, both in the dock, and in the Applications folder show the circle/slash icon.

The apps will not launch whether I use the dock or the icon in the Application Folder

Michael

 

[mikalelu]

Thank you for your diagnostic questions.

I am not running Parallels or VMware.

No external drives were attached. However, connected network drives are resident on the sidebar.

No other applications were running during installation

I restarted after the initial installation from the Office CD, and again after the upgrade to 12.1.7; However, I did not restart after each incremental upgrade (12.1.1, 12.1.2, etc.)

 

[mikalelu]

I should mention that since my original post, I removed and then reinstalled Office 2008 from the CD, and installed each sequential upgrade from 12.1.0 SP1 thru 12.1.7. Unfortunately, I still encounter the same results at the end of the process.

I did observe that after the initial installation from the CD, Word launched with no problem. Same after 12.1.0 SP1. However, I did not launch test after each subsequent upgrade, but waited until 12.1.7.

I am now planning to remove Office again, and restart the installation process, beginning with the CD. And I plan to test the launching behavior after each sequential upgrade.

I'll post the results when completed.

Thank you both for your interest and your help.

Michael

 

[Diane Ross]

I restarted after the initial installation from the Office CD, and again after
the upgrade to 12.1.7; However, I did not restart after each incremental
upgrade (12.1.1, 12.1.2, etc.)

You don't need all those incremental updaters. There are two combo updaters:

12.1.0 SP1
12.1.9

Newer DVDs only need the 12.1.9. Those DVDs come with SP1 installed.

 

[Diane Ross]

I created a new user, and logged in. All of the Office icons were
circle/slash, and the apps would not launch, and displayed the same error
message.

This would indicate they are locked. Are you installing Office on your
computer? Is it an Admin account? Have you checked the permissions?

When I select any Office application and do a Get Info, I see these
permissions:

system: read & write
admin: read & write
everyone: read only

 

[mikalelu]

I believe that I have an older DVD; the installed apps are listed as version 12.0.0

Based on your comment, I applied only 12.1.0 SP1 and 12.1.9 to a fresh install from the DVD.

After upgrading to 12.1.0 SP1, I was able to open and use all of the Office apps with no problem. However, after I subsequently ran the 12.1.9 upgrade, I again encountered the same error message from my original post, which indicated the architecture error; and none of the Office apps would launch.

I don't know if it's relevant, but the architecture on my machine is listed as Intel 64 bit. I'm wondering if the Office upgrade is properly detecting the architecture.

 

[mikalelu]

I see the same permissions (as the ones you listed) on my Office applications. And I do have an admin account.

 

[mikalelu]

After further testing, I again started fresh from the DVD, and worked my way thru the upgrades. I did not encounter the "architecture" error until I installed 12.1.7.

Now I'm going to start over with another fresh install from DVD, but I plan to stop at 12.1.5.

I must say... that this has undermined my confidence in MS Office for Mac.

Michael

 

[Diane Ross]

Questions from the developer. Please give all the info he asks for.

1) Does the Installer is ³fails because the OS is being misread as pre
10.4.²? ( screen shot would be great) You'll have to go back to the
installer to do this.

2) Press CMD+L (that will bring up the installer log). Then change the drop
down to show everything. Copy that text out, and then mail it to me.

dianeross at mvps dot org

Or

entouragehelp at gmail dot com

 

[mikalelu]

apologize for taking so long to respond to your request for more information.

During the process of recreating the problem, I used my administrator account instead of my own userid. While using the administrator account, I was able to install and upgrade Microsoft Office 2008 with no problems whatsoever. I find this perplexing. My userid had administrator privileges, but Office seems to prefer my admin account over my regular account. I assume that I will encounter no further problems going forward.

I appreciate the effort you all put into this, and I hope that my experience can prevent someone else from "banging their head against the wall."

Michael

 

[Diane Ross]

Thanks for the feedback. It is perplexing that your other admin account
failed though.