Office Documents Hang (Technical Question)

[Chris]

Just a couple weeks ago, I started to see a particular issue happening with
Word and Excel documents on one my desktops. If you tried to open these files
types by double clicking them (desktop shortcut, directly or within an
attachment) - the system would hang.

If I opened taskmanager, I would see two instances of the file under
application. I checked memory usage as well, expecting to see explorer.exe or
svchost climb in memory the longer I left it - but it did not. Killing the
explorer.exe process and running it again was the only way to get out of it.

Now, if I open Word or Excel first, click on Open from the File menu and
select the file - it opens and saves properly.

Windows XP SP2
Office 2000 Professional
Microsoft Visio 2003
Active Sync 4.5
Windows updates automatic.

I did manage to get it working again by removing the last couple windows
updates, setting them to hide on the MS site. Then re-installing Office 2000
(& SP3), and Visio without SP's. Installing a Visio SP seemed to break it as
well.

As of today, the problem has started again. I haven't checked to see if any
updates on the system occured. This is getting frustrating to say the least.
Does any have a suggestion on what might be causing this - or where to go
next with it.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Bob I]

If after double-clicking, and you wait a long time(several minutes),
does the file eventually open? If so, post back or look for the "DDE" fix.

 

[Chris]

Hey Bob,

Yes, on occassion, if I wait long enough it will open - but usually no
document (only the shell). I might be just impatient thou.

It does not seem to happen all the time. We use Sharpdesk /w Sharp Network
Scanner. When I kill the process nsapp.exe, the file open's quickly.

Before reading this post - I had uninstalled Sharp and will monitor.

I will search for DDE to have some new steps to try should that not work

 

[Bob I]

Here is a write up I did awhile back, you are welcome to try.

If the problem is ONLY when you double-click on a file to open it. the
problem is likely due to DDE. It can be fixed by reinstalling, OR this
workaround.

Go to Control Panel, Folder Options, File Types, scroll down to and
select (DOC for Word files) or XLS (for Excel files), click Advanced,
select Open entry, click the edit Button.
Now uncheck "Use DDE" and then put your cursor in the Application box,
arrow all the way to the right and put in "%1" (include the quote
marks), IF there is /dde remove it. Then OK your way out. Things should
work quickly again.

 

[Chris]

Bob,

Appreciate you taking the time. I will give a try.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Greggbush]

I accidentally ran across your post on the Sharpdesk issues with word.
I am the IT manager for a Sharp dealership. I have never run into th
issue that you described, however I would say to make sure that yo
have the latest Sharpdesk version. There are several out there no
that are version 3.2. The most current disk for version 3.2 will hav
the disk version 1.21 printed on the face. The Network Scanner Too
has gone through the most revisions in the past and upgrading may help
It is very important to uninstall the old version, reboot and the
reinstall the new version. If you have upgraded and not removed th
old version first, that in itself has caused problems. We have bee
told that a completely new Sharpdesk will be coming out but Sharp ha
been saying that for a year now. Sharp may be slow at times i
releasing products, but it is with caution and have consistently no
released product, either hardware or software, until it is ready. Hop
this helps!
Greg

 

[Dave F]

I dont understand why this has been going on for a year without a proper
resolution.
Why hasn't Microsoft fixed this yet?

My office was working fine until a couple of weeks ago when this started
happening to mine.

I have read all the info on dde, norton, etc.
This is not the problem.
If dde worked before you should not have to change it to get it to work now.

I have 3 computers - all running the same office and norton and anything else.
The problem is only on the one computer.
The dde is the same on all 3 - norton is the same on all 3
The only thing I dont know if it is the same is any Microsoft updates.

Alot of people are having this problem and it is with word and excel not
opening files when you double click on the file.

Microsoft - What is the problem here and what is the fix?
Its been going on long enough so there should be a fix.
You are the software experts - you write the programs, so why cant you fix it?

Yes I am a little upset because there is no clearcut fix for this after a
year!!!