Publisher 2002 on Win98 - XP File won't open (crashes)

[Nathan Humphrey]

Dear all,

Situation:

Upgrade of Publisher to 2002 on Windows 98 (to take advantage of
compression etc). Save Publisher files (doesn't matter what format)
on another machine which uses Windows XP with Publisher 2002. Note:
the two machines are different operating systems only. Open files on
Windows 98 with Publisher 2002. It takes a little while and then
crashes asking me if I want to restart. The safe mode option doesn't
help. The details are quite long (and I cannot select them anyway).
But The main error message displays:

AppName: mspub.exe AppVer: 10.0.4128.0 ModName:mso.dll
ModVer: 10.0.4219.0 Offset: 0005af18

Assessment:

This does appear to be a problem that is at Microsoft's end. Although
I have narrowed it down to a network issue.

in Safe Mode, the files open without any problem. If I take out the
network card the files open (they take a little while, but they do
open).
I have done various tests taking out the network card: this works.
Then I have tried pulling out the network card and putting it back in
which is inconsistent, but without the network card it seems to try
for much longer to do something. Having the network card in allows
Publisher to detect what ever it is detecting and crash.

I will test policies to see if this is the issue, but I don't think
so.

All of the above tests have been done on a few machines and with a
complete install. If I have more time I may try one more machine, but
I think it will have the same problem.

I have upgraded my home machine and the files open without a problem
(a little slowly the first time but after that they are fine).

I have sent an error report several times, but I'm not sure whether
this feature actually works. This may be another post for Microsoft
later!

Thanks and any advice/patches would be greatly appreciated.

We all here find it unusual that this has not been discovered yet, as
no Google group articles or Microsoft articles cover this as such.

Cheers,
Nathan

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

Do you realise Publisher is not at all network friendly and the files you are attempting to open MUST be on the local hard drive.
When you save the files they MUST also be on the local hard drive.
After you have CLOSED Publisher you can then copy them back to the server if you need to.

PUB2002: Office Application Error Message in Publisher 2002 When You Open or Save a Publisher File
Applies To
This article was previously published under Q317070
SYMPTOMS
When you open or save a Microsoft Publisher file in Publisher 2002, you may receive the following Office Application Error Report message, and Publisher stops responding (hangs):

Microsoft Publisher has encountered an error and needs to close.
The details of the crash state that the crash occurs in module PTXT9.dll.
CAUSE
This problem can occur if more than 250 device fonts or PostScript Level 1 fonts (ATM fonts) exist on the same system where Publisher 2002 is installed.

NOTE: To identify device fonts or PostScript Level 1 fonts (ATM fonts) in Publisher, view the Font menu. On the Font menu, all device fonts and PostScript Level 1 fonts (ATM fonts) are represented by a printer icon next to the actual font name.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Office XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
307841 OFFXP: How to Obtain the Latest Office XP Service Pack

WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, reduce the number of device fonts or PostScript Level 1 fonts (ATM fonts) on your computer system to fewer than 250 by following these steps.

NOTE: Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

1.. Use Microsoft Windows Explorer to access the Fonts folder. In most versions of Windows, the Fonts folder appears under the Windows folder.
2.. In the Fonts folder, locate the fonts that are identified by a red "A" icon next to the font name.
3.. Select several device fonts/PostScript Level 1 fonts (ATM fonts) by clicking each font name while holding CTRL.
4.. With several device fonts selected, right-click the selected fonts, and then drag them to another location where you want to store them.
5.. When you release the right-click, click Move from the list that appears.
6.. Repeat steps 2 through 5, until the total number of device fonts/PostScript Level 1 fonts (ATM fonts) in the Fonts folder is fewer than 250.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 2 (SP-2).
The information in this article applies to:
a.. Microsoft Publisher 2002
Last Reviewed: 11/5/2003 (3.0)
Keywords: kbbug kbfix kbOfficeXPsp2fix KB317070


--

 

[Nathan Humphrey]

I have tried to save the file locally on the xp machine and I still
have the same problem. Do I have to save in the same place that I
open it? I will try this next. But it's already starting to get a
bit rediculous.

Besides which, I am able to open the same files at home with a similar
set up, just no networking.

What is it looking on the network for anyway? I tried a netstat -a
and it does look like it opens another port. To what is anyone's
guess. What ever it is doing Windows 98 doesn't like it.

Maybe the article you have posted will work, so I will try this as
well.

 

[Nathan Humphrey]

Did I mention that I had tried to upgrade to the very latest Service
Packs (in fact I went through everything) and I still had the problem.

So I think this article might not work. But I'll try it anyway

cheers

 

[Mary Sauer]

Try the following, it is a Knowledge Base suggestion.
Most articles addressing the mso.dll recommend the XP service pack to correct your
error.

Right-click Start and then click Explore.
Double-click Programs, and then double-click Startup.
Right-click FindFast, and then click Delete.
Restart your computer.

 

[Nathan Humphrey]

Problem solved. But I think this thread needs to be moved to another
news group (a Samba one)

I would just like to thank my colleague for his advice and assistance
in hepling me with this. Without it I would never have come to THIS
conclusion.

The problem is Samba-related.

The main reason for this is because Publisher saves printer
information in the publisher file. That's what it was looking for on
the network: the printer.

The only way to test this was to setup a different samba domain login.
And another piece of luck was the fact that this samba server was an
older version: samba-client-2.2.7a-7.9.0. Our production Samba
version is samba-3.0.2rc1,1.

Exactly why this is a problem we are still trying to work out.

It seems that setting up the default printer is vital.

In our case, we use an alias with an exclamation mark (so that the
server appears first on the list). For some reason using the printer
share with the alias works, and the normal printer share doesn't.

Anyway, this is not a Microsoft-related problem.