Re: Word 2000 needs to close - error with ms09.dll and more...

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From: Beth Melton (bmelton_at_NoSpam4Memvps.org)
Date: 10/30/04 

Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 11:23:53 -0500

Answers inline

> Beth, sorry for the apparent confusion. First off, the versions of
> my
> installation are:

No need to apologize. It's not necessarily confusion - I needed a
recap and make sure I have all of the current details. :-)
>
> mso9.dll version 9.0.0.6926
>
> winword.exe v. 9.0.8216
>
> I immediately noticed that they're different - is this a problem?
> I've gone
> to microsoft's office update site, and it indicates that I'm running
> at
> latest version.

The version for MSO9.DLL and Winword.exe can be different. Version
6926 for MSO9.DLL indicates SP-3 is installed and 8216 for Winword.exe
indicates additional security updates were installed. (there have been
so many recently I've lost track.)

> As for my removal, reinstallation, I simply used the option under
> "add/remove programs" from control panel to uninstall office. I
> didn't do
> anything else - didn't realize I should have. I then rebooted, and
> reinstalled from my CD (Office 2K sp1), then applied updates at
> microsoft's
> site.

The procedure you used was fine. Although when you uninstall/reinstall
several Office components/reg entries are left behind and are not
updated. Those include the two Registry keys I previously provided.
Did you try deleting/renaming the Registry keys so they would be
recreated?

In the past when I've encountered an MSO9.DLL error using the Save As
or Open dialog box it was due to corruption in the Registry keys.

In the Registry navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Open
Find\Microsoft Word\Settings\Open
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Open
Find\Microsoft Word\Settings\Save As

And delete both keys.

If you are worried about editing the Registry then prior to making any
changes to the Registry you should review "Backing up the Registry"
and "Restoring the Registry" in the Registry Help.

Also, when it comes to deleting/renaming keys in the Office branch it
is 'self healing'. If Office finds missing information it will
recreate it using the installation defaults.

> Perhaps something will jump out from here. What's strange, is that
> Office
> had been working fine on this computer for several weeks before this
> weird
> activity started. I'm not exactly sure if the timing of the
> problems
> completely coincided with my installing the win xp SP2 updates (I
> think it
> did, but not really certain), which I've since removed.

> I'd initially only noticed the problem when saving, but it also
> happens on
> occasion when opening word. I can't seem to nail down what exactly
> causes
> the problem, but here's a sample of my activity:
>
> opened word document from explorer, modified document, then did
> "save as"
> with new name, word bombed with the mso9.dll error message
>
> then, (after word closed), successfully opened another document from
> explorer, edited and closed word - responded "yes" to "save
> changes?"...
> everything seems good. reopened the same document from explorer,
> tried to
> save again, word bombs with same error message (ms09.dll).
>
> If I launch word from start menu, I cannot successfully open
> anything from
> the file...open menu. What's really interesting is that I just
> tried to open
> a file from the list of most recently used files under the File menu
> after
> launching Word from Start menu. File opens fine. I can edit and
> save with no
> problem, but when I try to open the same file from the file, open,
> Word
> closed with ms09.dll error. Hmmm...
>
> I suppose that I will have different causes of the error, but
> related to the
> same root problem depending on whether its the open or save as that
> causes
> the crash. In both cases, though, the summary user message - "Word
> 200
> needs to close..." that I get is the same, and the offset in ms09
> error is
> the same - a0a2e.

Again, these scenarios indicate corruption in the Registry. 

-- 
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for 
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

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