Can't get out of Safe Mode

[bobhitch]

After successfully using MSOffice 2003 for many years I have recently become unable to open Excel other than in Safe Mode. When I run excel.exe I get a message that 'Microsoft Office Excel has encountered a problem and needs to close' offering the opportunity to send an error report to Microsoft. After this I get the option to open Excel in Safe Mode which works fine, except that I have lost all my default settings eg Default file path, Macro Security level etc.

I am running MS Office 2003 SP3 under Xp Professional SP3. I have completely uninstalled and reinstalled Office a couple of times but to no avail. Word, Outlook etc still work fine as before.

Any suggestions gratefully received as I have run out of ideas.

Regards

Bob H

 

[ZVI]

Hi Bob and welcome to MrExcel Board!

Try:
1. Close Excel if it was open.
2. Desktop > Start > Run > type: %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Excel > hit OK button.
3. Delete file: Excel11.xlb
4. Run Excel.

Regards,
Vladimir

 

[bobhitch]

Thanks for the response Vladimir. Unfortunately my problem is a little more obscure and deleting the excel11 file makes no difference.

I have had this issue for about a week now and I have tried all manner of suggestions given in reply to another couple of users who had similar problems in the past. On the basis that Excel will only open in Safe Mode, even after MS Office has been fully uninstalled and reinstalled, I can only conclude that the underlying issue is with Xp. Reinstalling Xp will give me more grief that working around this Excel problem, so I have bitten the bullet and am currently living with it.

However, if anyone has any bright ideas, I'd just love to know the answer!

Regards,
Bob H

 

[ZVI]

There also can be unregistered ActiveX components in your PERSONAL.XLS or in XLA or COM Add-Ins.

So try uncheck all XLA & XLL AddIns from the list of Tools > Add-Ins

Do the same with COM Add-Ins
Use control from View > Control panels > Customize > Command tab > Tools category > Commands list > Com Add-Ins. Drag & drop it into Tools menu, then use it to uncheck all COM-AddIns

Move PERSONAL.XLS and all other files from XLSTART folders, i.e. from:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\XLSTART\
C:\Documents and Settings\<YOUR LOGON>\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART\

Move all files from AddIns folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\<YOUR LOGON>\Application Data\Microsoft\AddIns\

To be sure that registry is ok run these commands from Start > Run:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL" /UNREGSERVER
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL" /REGSERVER

Also try temporary to switch off your anti-virus software because such software can be one more possible reason.

Good luck,
Vladimir

 

[bobhitch]

Thanks for the follow-up Vladimir.

Tools > Addins shows 8 addins, none of them checked.
View > Toolbars > Customize is greyed out.
Both XLSTART folders are empty.
Microsoft\AddIns folder is empty.
I've unregistered and reregistered Excel and switched off AV.

Still when I run excel.exe or d/click a .xls file I get the same message and have to open a Book1 in Safe Mode. I can then open other existing spreadsheets (but first I have to update macro security in Book1 if I want to use macros). Everything is then "normal", apart from being in Safe Mode, until such time as I close Excel. Then it's back to square one.

Regards,
Bob H

 

[ZVI]

Bob, please move also all files from directory shown in Tools > Settings > Common > Startup folder, if it's not empty.

Try also to load Excel directly by Start > Run > "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\Excel" /e
Excel should open without creating of new workbook. Then create new workbook.
Let me know at what step Excel goes wrong, i.e. before or after creating of new workbook.
If issue happens only at creating of new workbook then template Workbook1.xlt is corrupted. In this case overwriting of it can help.

Next step is in loading by VBScript with auto creating of new workbook. The advantage of that is in loading without any add-ins and without firing of auto events.
1. Open Notebook,
2. Copy & paste this code to it:
With CreateObject("Excel.Application")
.Workbooks.Add
.Visible = True
End With
3. Save as TEST1.VBS file
4. Run it by d/click in explorer

If issue still happens then try this one:
Copy your workbook as C:\test.xls
Save as TEST2.VBS file
With CreateObject("Excel.Application")
.Visible = True
.Workbooks.Open("C:\Test.xls")
End With

Let me know on results,
Vladimir

 

[bobhitch]

Did you mean 'Tools > Options > General > At startup, open all files in' ?
If so that is blank.
Running excel /e still gives the error straightaway (ie before opening excel) and then offers Safe Mode which opens excel with a Book1.
Running test1.vbs (also test2.vbs) gives the error straightaway (as above) and then a couple of minutes later gives the following Windows grey box error:

---------------------------
Windows Script Host
---------------------------
Script: C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\My Documents\test2.vbs
Line: 1
Char: 1
Error: ActiveX component can't create object: 'Excel.Application'
Code: 800A01AD
Source: Microsoft VBScript runtime error
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Hope this means something to you.

Regards,
Bob H

 

[ZVI]

Ok, delete files EXCEL11.PIP and VB11.PIP from the folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\<YOUR LOGON>\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\
It is safely - such files are recreated automatically by Excel

 

[ZVI]

Hope you are still in good humor Bob!
Never mind - all software is bugged Sometimes we haven't caught its bugs, but sometimes does.

If nothing has helped then the issue is more likely in the registry.
Try recommendations of MS How to troubleshoot startup problems in Excel

The final suggestion is in reinstallation. You wrote that you've tried it, but I would recommend completely reinstall all products of Office 2003 as follows:
1. Uninstall MS Office 2003 (all products)
2. Remove folder: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\.
3. Remove folder: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Office11\
4. Delete all files with mask *.XL* and *.PIP in C:\Documents and Settings\
5. Remove all folders with mask *Office* in C:\Documents and Settings\
6. Delete all files with mask Excel*.* in folder C:\WINDOWS\
7. Remove all unlinked items from the registry using any of Registry Cleaner utility (there are a lot of them, you can google the free one).
8. Reboot PC
9. Install MS Office 2003

Backup all your personal files from the mentioned folders before removing.

Regards,
Vladimir

 

[bobhitch]

Unfortunately the full uninstall and reinstall has had no effect.

As I have said before all attempts at running Excel in normal mode have failed - I instantly get the message that "Microsoft Office Excel has encountered a problem and needs to close". If I choose to open a specific spreadsheet (eg double click on .xls file) I get the same message. If I choose Start > Run > excel.exe /s c:\......testspreadsheet.xls, my spreadsheet is opened in safe mode as I would expect. However, if this spreadsheet has a macro I get a macro security level message and after accepting that I get a small excel box which lets me "Exit Design Mode". This seems a little strange.

Anyway as I said earlier I am ok living with this problem and I'm probably only 12 months or so away from buying a new machine, probably with Windows 7 and MS Office 2007!

Regards,
Bob H