Microsoft Office 2003 locking up?

[Alexisonfire]

Picture of Desktop

Enclosed is a picture of my desktop. On the right side there are 2 arrows pointing to the Drop down menu which will show all of your drives / folders etc. The 2nd arrow is pointing to the folder in which "we are in".

Whenever I try to "browse" my computer via the drop down menu Microsoft Office will lock up. It also locks up when trying to browse thru folders in the white box in the middle.

I have tried running a repair of Microsoft Office. I have completely uninstalled the suite and reinstalled it. I have also gotten all of the latest updates via SP3. Still no results.

As far as the computer it is a pretty generic workstation.

Microsoft 2000 Pro sp4
256 MB memory
1.3 GHZ Duron Processor
Generic MB
30 GB Seagate HD
No sound
Generic Video
etc

Am looking for guidance before we do a format / reinstall.

Thanks

 

[BadThad]

Is the PC on a network? Do you have an external storage devices attached? What antivirus software do you have running?

As you can tell, I don't think it's an Office problem.

 

[Alexisonfire]

It is on a network. It is running AVG antivirus.

I believe there is one networked drive..

 

[BadThad]

Try repeating the excercise in Safe Mode (no networking) and report back.

 

[RebateMonger]

This "freezing effect" when using the drop-down menu is often caused by mapping drives and network locations that are now non-existent. To be safe, I suggest going to "Network Neighborhood" and deleting the entire contents, and going to "My Computer" and removing all the mapped drives.

Or, if you look at the contents and recognize a reference to a location that doesn't exist any more, just delete that one and see if that fixes things.

 

[Allanv]

stolen from another forum

Is the problem possibly related to this matter?:

Problems in Windows Explorer or the Windows shell after you install security update MS06-015


quote:
View products that this article applies to.
Article ID : 918165
Last Review : April 15, 2006
Revision : 1.0
SYMPTOMS
After you install security update MS06-015 (908531) (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-015.mspx), you may experience one of more of the following issues:
? Unable to access special folders like "My Documents" or "My Pictures".
? Microsoft Office applications may stop responding when you attempt to save or open Office files in the "My Documents" folder.
? Office files in the "My Documents" folder are not able to open in Microsoft Office.
? Opening a file through an application's File / Open menu causes the program to stop responding .
? Typing an address into Internet Explorer?s address bar has no effect.
? Right-clicking on a file and selecting Send To has no effect.
? Clicking on the plus (+) sign beside a folder in Windows Explorer has no effect.
? Some third-party applications stop responding when opening or saving data in the ?My Documents? folder.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/918165

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
This "freezing effect" when using the drop-down menu is often caused by mapping drives and network locations that are now non-existent. To be safe, I suggest going to "Network Neighborhood" and deleting the entire contents, and going to "My Computer" and removing all the mapped drives.

Or, if you look at the contents and recognize a reference to a location that doesn't exist any more, just delete that one and see if that fixes things.

Yea, that's one of the things I was thinking about. We also once had an issue with Symantec AV causing this. Shutting off NAV autoprotect and services fixed the problem. It was so bad for me that I had to totally uninstall NAV from my system!

Anyhow, when you hit that dropdown to select a drive, Windows will scan ALL available drives. If it can't connect to a drive, you get the "hour glass" while it attempts to query the drive.

 

[Alexisonfire]

Update on this ticket is:

I've pin pointed the problem to being an update installed by Microsoft Update I believe. I am trying to find out which one in particular and trying to uninstall it. I will keep you all informed and please keep responses coming

It wasn't the network drive. I deleted the map and disabled the network interface card and still was having the lockup problem

 

[Allanv]

i listed it above

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: Alexisonfire
Update on this ticket is:

I've pin pointed the problem to being an update installed by Microsoft Update I believe. I am trying to find out which one in particular and trying to uninstall it. I will keep you all informed and please keep responses coming

It wasn't the network drive. I deleted the map and disabled the network interface card and still was having the lockup problem

Rather than removing an important security patch, I'd try to fix/remove the software that doesn't play well with the patch.

 

[WildHorse]

Alexisonfire,

You need more RAM.

Your 256 MB memory isn't enough.

 

[Alexisonfire]

UPDATE: Allanv's tip fixed my problem. Thank you!