Word 2007 Save option causes error and reboot of Windows XP

[MidiMagic]

Here is the order of what happened. Some of it seems weird:

1. I downloaded a web page with Firefox Save Page As. The site should be trustwoirthy (a local newspaper).
2. I edited the HTML file with Notepad to remove everything (ads, scripts, etc) from the page except the text I wanted to keep. I saved it as a .txt file.
3. I opened the .txt file and fomatted it with Word 2007. I then saved it with Save As as a .docs file.
4. I then made a small change (adding the date at the bottom) and hit the save button on the Quick Access toolbar. A blue screen error message appeared, and then the computer immediately rebooted. There was not time to read the message, other than that Windows detected the error and closed to protect the computer.
5. The reboot did a Chkdsk on the drive I saved the file to. It found no problems with the disk.
6. I found a .tmp file in the folder the file was saved to.
7. The file was intact, but the changes I made were gone.

Now, every time I use Save from Word (either from the Office button or the Quick Access toolbar), the same thing happens. It does not matter which drive I save the file to Chldsk checks the disk I saved the file to. But the Save As function works normally, as does the rest of Word..

I used my original Office install disk to repair the installation. It did not fix the problem.

I don't know if this is germane, but the last boot that happened caused a "Desktop Interface Shutdown" error. Using Properties from the display menu and reselecting the image displayed on the desktop made this error go away.

I have a Compaq Pentium 4 at 1.70 GHz, 512 M RAN, Windows XP Pro, Office 2007 Pro, and Firefox 46.0.1. There is a Trendnet KVM connecting the keyboard and mouse to two computers.

No, I can't upgrade without losing the use of software I paid for.

[rproffitt]

While the XP discussions are legendary and folk that don't keep install media and keys may not know what troubles they are getting into, so let's not discuss XP or that.

-> Start Word in Word's Safe Mode. See google if you forgot how.

[MidiMagic]

I even reinstalled Word after removing it. It still does this.

I have all of my install disks and product keys.

[rproffitt]

Reinstalling Word does not remove addins and settings.

I guess the -1 is because you are upset about something. But did you try what I asked?

Yes we could start looking at the event viewer but let's get the usual out of the way first.

[MidiMagic]

I am running XP because I have legacy external hardware. No versions of this kind of hardware have been manufactured that can work with newer versions of Windows. So stop complaining that I am still running XP.

I tried the safe mode and at first thought it had worked. But I then found out the following:
- Save As always works on all drives with or without safe mode on.
- Save worked OK when I saved to My Computer whether or not safe mode was on.
- Save crashed whenever I saved to drive E or drive H whether or not safe mode was on.
- Sometimes the crashes made the computer forget the desktop settings when it rebooted.
- Normally rebooting the computer does not make it forget the desktop display settings.
- Drive E and drive H are FAT flash drives. Drive C is an NTFS hard disk.
- Excel Save and Save As worked OK to all drives.
- Drive H is shared with a computer with Office 2010. Word 2010 Save and Save As work OK to drive H.
- Drive H is physically located in the computer with the trouble and configured as a network drive.
- Notepad works OK with Save and Save As on all drives.
- Ejecting drive E and reinserting it made no difference.
- Shutting down the computer and restarting it after a minute rest made no difference.

[rproffitt]

About Safe Mode. It's a shame that Word's Safe Mode wasn't called something else. So there is Windows Safe Mode and Word Safe Mode. I know it's terrible but when working a Word issue we have to tell which is in safe mode, the OS or the App.

[rproffitt]

PS. I didn't complain you were running XP. I guess you get that from others, not me. in fact I wrote I wasn't going to discuss that.

[MidiMagic]

I still need an answer.

I set Word to require signed certificates on all add-ins. This removed 3 of the add-ins. But it did not fix the problem.

Should I remove all of the add-ins?

Are there other items that are somehoiw added to Word that could cause this?

Will removing all of Office and reinstalling it fix this?

@ rproffitt 224, I misunderstood what you wrote. I thought you meant you didn't want any more XP problems on Daniweb.

[rproffitt]

You don't have to remove all add ins. Word's Safe Mode, not to be confused with the OS's safe mode would do this as a test run.

I can't tell if you got that test done.

As to the question of removing and reinstalling Word, that does not work for a reason. Which is, when we remove Word we are not removing settings and addons. Can really upset folk that think this would fix it.

[MidiMagic]

Save crashed whenever I saved to drive E or drive H with safe mode on.

Can removing all of Office (instead of just Word) and reinstalling it fix this?

Virus checker scans have repeatedly found no malware other than an incomlete file in the virus checker (the download and installation of this file was interrupted by one of the crashes). Downloading the file again fixed this.

I scanned for registry errors. It found and fixed a few. But none of them were related to Word and it didn't fix the problem.

[rproffitt]

Sorry but I continue to not see your write the right words about safe mode. I was trying to avoid a deep cleaning and removal of Word and at the risk of upsetting you again, tell me how you got to this safe mode.

Since the save crashes on E and H, what's different about those?

[MidiMagic]

I used the following procedure:

Click on “Start,” then select “All Programs” and “Microsoft Office.”
Press and hold down “Ctrl,” and then select “Microsoft Word.”
Create or open the file to be tested.
Save As a copy of this file to the drive to be tested. I chose different folders.
Make a small change in the file and use Save.

Drive C is an NTFS hard disk. Windows is on this disk.
Drive E is a USB FAT flash drive.
Drive H is a USB FAT flash drive mounted inside the computer and configured as a network drive.

Chkdsk has not found any faults in these drives.

I found the trouble with the desktop. Something had changed a setting in the Active Desktop, enabling a function I did not want, but not activiating the Active Desktop.

[MidiMagic]

My other question was not just about uninstalling and reinstalling Word.
My question was if it would help to uninstall and reinstall all of Office instead of just Word.

What is this "deep cleaning" you are talking about. Is it removing all of the Word registry entries?

One other possible clue: I had just removed some Office components two days before because I was running out of disk space on drive C and I didn't use them on this computer. I uninstalled all of the following:
OneNote, Access, Publisher, InfoPath, and SharePoint.

[rproffitt]

You tried the Control Key method but it looks to have failed since I read no mention of the dialog box that pops up. This is why I don't use that method but the older reliable command line. Picture at http://i.imgur.com/bJhU4uV.png

How I start Word in it's safe mode. I use a the run box and use Word's safe mode that way. The command varies with version but here it was.

WINWORD /A

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/210565 covers the others.

I know it's rough on folk but here we are with many posts and we haven't accomplished the first test I try when I see an issue like this.

Is the command line a thing of the past?

[MidiMagic]

You told me to google to find out how to start safe mode, and that was what I found.

I did not get the dialog box shown in your image, so I guess safe mode was not on. But if I had gotten that box, I would not have thought to mention it in the posts.

I tried your link and got this:

"Broken Link
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/210565
You're trying to visit a URL that doesn't currently exist on the web. Most likely, a member posted a link a long time ago to a web page that has since been removed. It's also possible that there was a typo when posting the URL. We redirect you to this notice instead of stripping out the link to preserve the integrity of the post."

Selfish Microsoift has removed all of the KB material for Windows XP, Vista, and 7.

I tried the command line WNWORD /A in the original attempts to run in safe mode and it returned "command not found". Don't I have to put in the complete path? But the command line won't take a path with lower case letters in it.

Can I add the switch to the Winword command line of a duplicate shortcut that starts Word?

I also need to know which command line to use. I found 2 different command lines online that are different from yours. Is the switch /A . /S , or /SAFE ?

[rproffitt]

I don't want you to get upset over forum link issues. The link works fine here so I can't guess why.

As to the command I don't own your PC so I can't know the path to Word or such. This variability means I can not tell you exactly what to do but only ask you try this or that. Since we have yet to get Word into Word's safe mode we can't get the first test I use out of the way.

There's other ways to find KB articles. But do not take offense here. As a XP user I think such users are seasoned. They know how to use google, know the command line, paths and more. There are users that don't know but they end up at service counters because of the variables. One PC isn't like the next one. This can lead to some folk flaming out.

Any how, you can try each command line varient until you find it. As to the complete PATH, we're back to the old issue of what the PATH variable has. As a seasoned Windows user you could check that or just put in the full path and word or winword as needed.

[MidiMagic]

Here is what I did:

• The URL in the post above contains strikethroughs added by Daniweb.
• I copied the URL to Notepad to remove everything but the pure URL (including the strikethroughs).
• The repaired URL worked. I was able to read the KB article. Only the link in Daniweb won't work.
• I got the path string from the shortcut to word.
• I tried both the command line and the new shortcut methods listed in the KB article..

• Was I supposed to get the dialog box in this link? http://i.imgur.com/bJhU4uV.png I did not get it.

• I got the same results I got before:

  1. Using either Save or Save As to the My computer folder on the C: drive caused no problems.
  2. Using Save As to the E: drive caused no problems.
  3. Using Save to the E: drive caused the computer to crash.
  4. The first test that crashed the computer caused the Acvtive Desktop problem.
  5. The second test that crtashede the computer did not do this.

• Each crash leaves a .tmp file on the drive used. Examples are ^WRD0000.tmp and ^WRD0001.tmp.

• If the .tmp file is left in place, Word gives the option of recovering the file. It works.
• Word works normally except for the Save option.

I did not do any other tests because I lose the computer for half an hour each time it crashes (because Chkdsk runs before Windows starts) and because each crash deprives other users the files on the H: drive.

[rproffitt]

My view is that you never got Word into safe mode. But you did reveal another clue (maybe.)

You wrote about depriving other users the files so this is starting to sound like the old "I'm using my XP PC as a server" discussion. That one has so many priors and the advice is to not do that. Make it a simple XP setup with no shares since shares can create locks and in your case, crashes.

Remember that XP in 2000 is not XP today. There were many patches that broke setups such as "I'm using my XP as my office server" and more. There are some users that explode at the need to change what was a working setup. You can't do much for them and sometimes they get irate. Remember I never wrote a word about changing the OS. I am only noting that maybe the use of this PC would have to change. No more "shares."

PS. While I wish for safe mode as a test, that's not happening. Try getting into the Event Viewer and see if there's more clues there.