WORD won't work when I am not on network

[Liz W]

I have a Dell 8500 laptop running XP Pro (SP 2) and MS Office 2002
Pro. A couple of months back I set up a wireless network using Belkin
cards (no router) to our main PC (running ME). When my laptop is NOT
connected to the network WORD will start but within a inute or so
gives me a message that it must close down, will try to save my files
and offers to send a message to Microsoft. (But I can't send a message
because I'm not on the network and I don't get the error if I am!) I
can't tell whether this problem was always there, or started with the
network, or when I updated with SP2
The files I access are definitely on my laptop and will appear, but I
can't get round the problem of WORD closing down. This doesn't happen
with Excel & Access.
I've just started freelancing so it can be very embarrassing when I'm
with a client.
Any advice/help would be welcome.

 

[Liz W]

Hi Suzanne
The default printer is attached to the other PC on the network. I have
2 other pinter drivers installed. I've never physically attached a
printer to this laptop . (I just kept docs on the C drive or copied to
a disk prior to installing the network)
I can send you details of the error signature if that would help?
I have checked that all the file locations in Word relate back to my
local C: drive (not network places)
Thanks for your interest - any further ideas?
Liz

 

[Liz W]

Hi Suzanne
Cracked it! My default printer is on the network, attached to the
other PC. If I transfer the default to a different printer driver I
can access Word as normal. The really odd thing is that the driver I
changed to was also on the network but no longer exists - bizarre or
what? (new printer HP psc 2170 series, Old printer HP960c)
So, I don't know why this works but I am very grateful to you, thanks!

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Liz,

Word just needs a printer driver it can query in order to obtain a
valid font list, printable area, etc. You don't need to have a
physical printer - just the driver.

As I explained in my previous reply, if the printer driver is a shared
network printer driver rather than installed locally then Word will
not be able to query the printer driver if you aren't connected to the
network and end up crashing.

Thankfully they incorporated a better error message in Office 2003.
It's not the most informative message but at least Word won't crash.


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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

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