Win2k Pro and Office 97

[sharyn]

I've recently had 2 different users call me to tell me about a problem they have been having. Both
users are running win2k pro and office 97. Both have power user permissions.

When they open an office application (0ne was using Word, the other Excel), the app opens very
very slowly, (the Excel person told me it took about 5 mins for the document to open) and once
it's open, no changes can be made..and the cursor won't move.

In one instance, powering off the box and turning it back on helped (warm boot did not), in the
other, the user had to actually turn the machine off and leave it sit for awhile before he could use
his office apps again.

Has anyone seen this??????? I'm thinking Office 97 was just not meant to run on Win2k!
Comments? Suggestions?

Sharyn

 

[pbxman]

I agree with the Virtual Memory idea..and also

You mentioned that the problems are sporadic..is Outlook open while the users are opening the other programs?

By default - if Outlook is open, the other office apps will pause when opening, and other programs will run slower or even hang sometimes. This is due to the Outlook Journaling feature which records all Office acvitity.

You can disable this "feature" (yeah right) by going to "Tools", "Options", "Journal" in Outlook...

If not the cause of the problem..it will definitely speed things up.

Hope it works for ya..
Pbxman
Systems Administrator

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[jontheisguy]

Sharyn-

How much memory do these laptop/computers have? If you are running Win2K Pro I would definately recommend nothing less than 128MB per unit. About 64MB is used only by Win2K.

Another approach for you is to investigate the Task Manager for these folks in the Process tab. Sometimes a rundll32 item gets stuck and clogs up the system. I have an IBM notebook running Win2K Pro/Office 97 SR-1 and have not been having one problem. Not one.

Good luck. Let me know if anything helps here.

 

[sharyn]

Thanks everyone for your posts.

These machines are running 128 megs and 256 megs of memory.

I don't think it's a RAM issue as these machines were BRAND NEW with very little software loaded on them when this problem starting happening. Only thing extra loaded on these machines was Office 97, anti virus software (McAfee) and a Citrix client.

I am, at this moment, inclined to go with an antivirus software conflict. Unfortunately (or maybe it's fortunate) this week, these machines are behaving themselves and I have other things that require my attention.

I'll keep you all posted!

Thanks again
Sharyn

 

[Rohdem]

Has anyone heard anything from Microsoft related to this problem? I'm not sold on the Norton Antivirus solution, because we have one machine running Norton that works fine, while 2 others not running Norton are extremely slow when running Office 97 SP1 apps.

I did recently try turning off the outlook journal recording on one of the machines, but the jury is still out on whether that helped or not.

I've got different components on the two machines, and both installations were fresh installs. The only thing that is consistent between the two machines is the motherboard, which makes me wonder about a possible BIOS issue??? (I'm grasping at straws here!!!)

I've also had the system just lock up rather frequently on one of the machines.

I'm running out of ideas.

Sharyn, if you find anything else out could you let me know.

If I figure anything out, I'll post it here.


Thanks
Mike Rohde
"I don't have a god complex, god has a me complex!"

 

[sharyn]

I've already tried turning off the journal thing in Outlook..still waiting on the verdict from that.

I also had my remote user run that norton thing that was suggested. I haven't heard back from him which could mean it worked, or he doesn't have time to email me.

I will certainly keep everyone posted! I'm glad others are having an issue here and it's not just me! LOL

Sharyn

 

[YO123]

We are not using Norton (and it has never been installed on any of the machines) or Outlook at all, and most of the machines are brandnew with minimum 128 Megs of RAM.

So none of these solutions apply for the problem.

And sometimes a cold boot is required and sometimes just a logoff works.

And untill now there is no noticable improvement and the users are really getting fed up with this. One might got thinking of throwing out M$ and having a look at something else.

YO

 

[sharyn]

It seems to be a problem with Office 97. I am finding that the machines that are running Office 2000, or Office XP, are fine.

Throwing out MS is not an option for us unfortunately!
But, perhaps, it's just time to upgrade everything.

Sharyn

 

[Rohdem]

I've also noticed that the solution to the problem varies. Sometimes logging out and in works, sometimes it takes several reboots, usually it is slow first thing in the morning and then has less problems as the day progresses.

I've also had a new problem pop up on one of the machines that my or may not be related. The system is not keeping the correct time. The machine was 45 minutes slow at the end of the day yesterday (our machines our set to the server time when the user logs in, so it had to be right at the beginning of the day). The clock still seems to be running, but its like it is running slow. CMOS battery? Mike Rohde
"I don't have a god complex, god has a me complex!"

 

[pbxman]

As Sharon first stated - why use Office 97 with Windows 2000? Office 2000 is designed for Windows 2000, and the issues posted here don't seem to be happening with those setups.

When upgrading your OS - you should also upgrade your productivity software. Office 97 is almost 5 years old now, and a lot has improved in it.

While I agree backwards compatibility should be rock-solid..it just doesn't always work that way when incorporating new technology.

..just a thought - and food for your IS Dept's pocketbook..
Pbxman
Systems Administrator

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[sharyn]

Up until now, the reason we have used Office 97 is because we do a lot of work in Access.

The Access databases are not compatible with the different flavors of Office. Once a database has been "accidently" upgraded to Access2000, it is no longer readable in Access 97.

We have over 300 machines on our network and it is just not feasible for us to do a major overhaul all at the same time.

However, I agree, in theory..Office 97 is just not state of the art anymore and is probably not compatible with Win2k. In reality, it's still my job to make sure things work with the software I have!

By the way Mike, I have several machines having problems with their time too. I have replaced the CMOS battery on all these machines and it doesn't seem to help. Once of the machines having time keeping problems is one that is running Office XP..the rest are running 97. The time in the BIOS and in DOS is correct, it's the windows time that is off.

Sharyn

 

[Rohdem]

You are totally right, Pbxman. However, the president of the company doesn't always see it that way.

We have several Access 97 databases that we use heavily throughout the day. Converting to Access 2000 or XP might be an option if we had the manpower, but we simply don't. As we add systems to our network, I don't want to install NT 4 or Win98 on them when there is an operating system that is much more stable and easier to set up.

It kind of reminds me of those CDW commercials. They crack me up!!!

Executive calls up the IT department........
"Why can't we use these old P-166 's to run our webserver"
LOL Mike Rohde
"I don't have a god complex, god has a me complex!"

 

[YO123]

A new upgrade of Office 97 is not just that easy. A number of databases in access run on it with a VB Front end. This bring a lot of work along to convert all this and why go to a new version if more than 95% of the users only use less than 5% of the possibilities of office.

MS should have taken this into account and I blame them completely. But what do they care of one bug more or less.

La Devina Comedia

YO

 

[pbxman]

Lol Rohdem - that last comment you made is 100% my boss! His solution is to move old hardware around to fill new demands - he just doesn't get it...ahaha
he's big on the P-166's, too..thinks they'll run Win2K fine with 64 MB RAM!!..uhhhhh..
lol

Anyway - I agree with Sharon's statement about cost & manpower..I hear that all the time at my place of work. But - it gives me an upper-hand when the company wants to pinch pennies as well as try to take advantage of the new technology - you just can't get both. We need the tools to do our jobs properly, and that is expensive in the IT industry.

If I were you, i'd say something like "look - nobody's using new OSes unless we're equipping them with the software they were designed for. If you want Access 97 - you're gonna get 98 or NT4. I cant spend all day supporting incompatibility issues between the two.."

easier said than done, i know.

Still - Im leaning more towards some sort of hardware issue as well as the cause, as I know people running W2K and Office 97 seamlessly - however, they are not very adept Office users - just light email, word and excel useage.

Im stumped.
Pbxman
Systems Administrator

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[sharyn]

The fact that there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this makes it very tough to troubleshoot.

We are a Dell shop here..most of our machines have the exact same hardware and configuration, the exact same software, etc, however only a very few are having this problem..and not all the time!

We'll keep plugging away

Thanks everyone!
Sharyn

 

[techshoot]

Just a little input but I've heard of some problems with Win2K apps when using McAfee versions prior to 4.5. Nothing on these specific lines, but might be worth a look.

http://www.ktech-usa.com

 

[sharyn]

These machines have McAfee 4.5 and 4.51 on them, both designed to run on win2k.

Thanks,
Sharyn

 

[cyklop0]

Well,

I have the same problem as well as you guy. We have test the compatibility across the state. It seem to working fine. Once i start to deploy the new machine. It's start acting up. One problem I have is " Double click on Word shortcut icon on the desktop, and nothing respond, but it it does run in the tasklist" Have you guy resolve this problem or heard anything from microsoft?
FYI
It run on P4 1.4ghz, 256 RAmbus, 18 gig scsi harddrive, and they are on 100 full duplex Lan connection

 

[sharyn]

Yep, we resolved the problem all right. We gave up! We are installing Office XP pro on all new machines and our Access 97 apps are being run through Citrix on a terminal server.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear, but the fact is, office 97 IS obsolete and I was tired of troubleshooting an app that wasn't really designed to run on Win2k anyway.

By the way, I am NOT a guy!
Sharyn

 

[MikeRG2]

If the problem is saving the Excel files, Excel 97 and Win2K Pro can have a simple conflict that can be solved by opening Excel, go to Tools, Options, and select the General Tab. Uncheck the "Ignore other applicaitons" box. This box is controls the DDE process to allow the Excel spreadsheet to be put in a Word document. Windows 2K now uses OLE to do this, and the two conflict

 

[SgtPepps]

We have exactly the same problem on most of our Win2K PCs. None of them are running McAfee and few of them Norton, only Word & Excel are installed. They are not Dells and all have over 256mb RAM. I've used Win2K sp2 & Office 97 sr2 upgrades but still the problem continues. Has anyone managed to solve this yet?