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Fri 17 Mar, 2006 11:29 am
Well I have a new problem and I'm really at a loss as to even how to start investigating it.
After my successful forays into the boot sectors of my hard drives I thought this might be easy to crack but I can't find anything on the web that makes any sense so I'm here again.
I'm running WinXPPro-SP2, P4, 1.5Gb RAM, absurd amounts of HD space etc...
The issue is this :
When I manually start Word2003 it seems OK. Until I use the WordArt facility. As soon as I do it reboots the computer. No error messages, no clicky boxes, no warning. Just ZAP ! Off with the power.
When I double click a Word2003 document in either an email or from the hard drives it loads Word up and ZAP ! Power loss and reboot again.
When the PC comes back up I get a Windows error box saying that the system has recovered from a serious error.
I never send any data to MicroTosh even though I have a genuine copy of WinXPPro-SP2 that's fully up to date.
I know this isn't a virus issue as my security is very tight and in any case none of my scans in either Windows or DOS reveal any virus-like issues.
So there you go.
Anyone got any ideas why my PC spontaneously reboots when I run Word ?
hi Heliotrope, sounds like you have error reporting for this kind of problem turned off. You can check by going to the properties for my computer then the advanced tab and then error reporting button at the bottom. Here you can turn on the error reporting which will hopefully give you some more information.
you might also find some information on the application atab of your computer event viewer.
Aye, the event viewer was my first port of call but there's nothing there, just the usual stuff and then the restart.
The error reporting I have switched on but there's nothing in the logs and there are no errors reported by the application. Just the one that XP gives me saying that it's recovered from a serious error.
Actually the plot thickens...
I can use Word now without the machine rebooting but only after I'd used a couple of of the Office applications. I was actually using FrontPage (I know, I know but it's easy and I couldn't be bothered installing DreamWeaver for what I needed to do) and now Word seems to be working OK.
At least I can use the application without the PC spontaneously rebooting anyway.
So I think this may have been some sort of registry issue but I don't know what.
Any ideas ?
I actually solved this problem about 2 months ago after much head scratching.
It turned out to be a problem with the drivers for my video card.
There is an awful lot of detail I'm missing out here but it was basically because my panel wasn't reporting back to the PC because it was getting gibberish from the PC when Word started. So the PC freaks out.
So, one swift update to the latest deivers and the problem went away in a puff of logic.
Splendid.
Missed this when it was fresh - the "Spontaneous Reboot" thing, along with lotsa other boot/shutdown issues, very often stems from a driver issue, with video cards leading the parade, and soundcards are not far behind.
It's bizarre isn't it ?
The whole Word thing completely threw me.
I just never expected anything like a word processor to reboot the PC.
Weird hardware, daft installations, silly settings, registry screwups ... all yes. But Word ? No way.
Had me completely foxed for ages.
Ain't Windows wunnerful? Laugh-a-minute stuff for sure
test by clicking "Start/Run"
then type "Winword /a", click ok (No speach marks)
This will test word without your template
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