Word automation bug

Mike MacSween

Office 2000

From Access I've been starting an instance of word and doing a mail merge.
Everything hunky-dory until I applied SP1 yesterday.

Now this:

dim wrd as Object
set wrd = CreateObject("Word.Application")

Produces an out of memory error.

My code is a lot longer than that, but I've stripped it down and created a
new module to isolate. I've done umpteen uninstalls, used the eraser,
reinstalled etc. etc. Word itself starts OK if I start it on it's own. It's
as though there's some supporting dll or something that is needed when Word
is used as an automation server. This happens even with a brand new mdb
created on the target machine.

I had something similar a while ago, infact the symptoms were exactly the
same, just that the error message was 'error loading dll' - see that thread
'References Screwed Up'. I tried everything I could think of then. In the
end I gave up and reformatted and re-installed. Obviously I shouldn't have
to do that, and it's not really an option on 10 client machines. I've just
tried it on a Windows 98 machine (Office 2K unpatched) with no problems.

Interestingly I thought the Office 2K SR1 had been applied to this machine,
help/about said so. But when I started Speed Ferret yesterday it claimed
that it was an unpatched version of office (which has a bug that can cause
data loss when using SF, they say) even though it says SR1 on help about. In
other words that Office 2K will misreport itself as having the patch, that
it's the actual build number that counts. BUT on the version on Windows 98
help/about reports itself as not being patched. These versions will have
been installed from the same CD (er, one desktop, one laptop, still within
the licence). So how come one version was reporting itself as patched when
SF said it wasn't? Which shouldn't of course matter, I've just patched it
twice. But this is the problem somewhere isn't it. Some dll or olb or
something has got damaged or overwritten and I can't get it back.

TIA, Mike MacSween

Nov 12 '05 #1

Gina Whipp

Just curious did you check your References... I got caught on that
yesterday and as it turned out, I did have a reference issue. (I use
similar coding to open Word and don't have any problems.)
"Mike MacSween" <mi******************@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:ue****************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

Office 2000

From Access I've been starting an instance of word and doing a mail merge.
Everything hunky-dory until I applied SP1 yesterday.

Now this:

dim wrd as Object
set wrd = CreateObject("Word.Application")

Produces an out of memory error.

My code is a lot longer than that, but I've stripped it down and created a
new module to isolate. I've done umpteen uninstalls, used the eraser,
reinstalled etc. etc. Word itself starts OK if I start it on it's own. It's as though there's some supporting dll or something that is needed when Word is used as an automation server. This happens even with a brand new mdb
created on the target machine.

I had something similar a while ago, infact the symptoms were exactly the
same, just that the error message was 'error loading dll' - see that thread 'References Screwed Up'. I tried everything I could think of then. In the
end I gave up and reformatted and re-installed. Obviously I shouldn't have
to do that, and it's not really an option on 10 client machines. I've just
tried it on a Windows 98 machine (Office 2K unpatched) with no problems.

Interestingly I thought the Office 2K SR1 had been applied to this machine, help/about said so. But when I started Speed Ferret yesterday it claimed
that it was an unpatched version of office (which has a bug that can cause
data loss when using SF, they say) even though it says SR1 on help about. In other words that Office 2K will misreport itself as having the patch, that
it's the actual build number that counts. BUT on the version on Windows 98
help/about reports itself as not being patched. These versions will have
been installed from the same CD (er, one desktop, one laptop, still within
the licence). So how come one version was reporting itself as patched when
SF said it wasn't? Which shouldn't of course matter, I've just patched it
twice. But this is the problem somewhere isn't it. Some dll or olb or
something has got damaged or overwritten and I can't get it back.

TIA, Mike MacSween

Nov 12 '05 #2

Mike MacSween

"Gina Whipp" <No***********@InViruses.com> wrote in message
news:eF**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

Just curious did you check your References... I got caught on that
yesterday and as it turned out, I did have a reference issue. (I use
similar coding to open Word and don't have any problems.)

Yup, umpteen times. Set and reset. As a matter of fact the code I posted
uses late binding, so refs shouldn't be an issue should they? In fact in the
actual code I use early binding, but it has exactly the same result. I tried
every single way I could think of of resetting the refs. Unselecting them,
browsing to the directory where the library lives, etc. etc. Also I got the
same result in a brand new mdb which was created with the libaries as they
are - cause I know you can get problems if you compile one machine and then
run on another machine where the libraries are in a different place.

Although it would appear to be a refs issue I'm really not sure it was. But
then who knows? As I said it works now I've uninstalled Norton Internet
Security.

Cheers, Mike

Nov 12 '05 #3

Mike MacSween

"Brendan Reynolds (MVP)" <br******@indigo.ie> wrote in message
news:uN***************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

Hi Mike,

I missed the earlier posts in this thread, so I'm not sure how relevant this is, or whether it has already been mentioned, but there was a known issue
with Norton Anti-Virus using a GUID that was the same as one used by Word.
Should be documented somewhere at www.symantec.com

Thanks Brendan. Couldn't find anything on Symantec's site, but did find this
at Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;243579

and

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;246018

for anybody else who may have had the problem.

Various workarounds are suggested. I took a more direct route and
uninstalled NAV completely! I'll try the free AVG for a while.

This will go into my collection of 'obscure little bugs that can drive you
nuts and which you might never solve on your own.

Cheers, Mike

Nov 12 '05 #4