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2007-07-14

Microsoft Office 2004 broken: dead as a parrot

Quicktime 7.2 update breaks Office 2004 on Intel Powerbook

For solution, see below

If you haven't yet installed QT7.2, my advice is to wait!

Here's what happened to me:

  • Office Update 11.3.6 refuses to launch.
  • MS Word refuses to launch!
  • MS Powerpoint refuses to launch.
  • MS Excel refuses to launch.
  • decide to remove Office, and reinstall!
  • MS Office refuses to install—the installer won't run.
  • Remove all traces of Office in preferences etc.!
  • MS office installer won't run.
  • !

macfixit has some suggestions these didn't work for me.

It seems that the prebinding of the java libraries is at fault!

Steps to Fix:

Remove Java 6

> su Administrator
> cd /Library/Receipts/JavaSE6Release1.pkg/Contents
> lsbom -s -f Archive.bom > /tmp/file-list
Edit /tmp/file-list to replace all " " with "\ " and all "./" with "rm /" (I use emacs for this.)

> sudo bash /tmp/file-list
> rm -r /Library/receipts/JavaSE6Release1.pkg
> sudo update_prebinding

I removed the following

sudo rm -r /Library/Receipts/JavaForMacOSX10.4Release5.pkg
and installed it again. (From http://developer.apple.com/java/download/)

12 comments:

///MM said...

You are the MAN!

I tried every other fix that you did, and even repeated it in safe mode. Then took my MBP to the "genius" bar at the apple store and they couldn't even figure it out.

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Had the same problem on my poor Mother's MacBook, and downloaded/installed latest version of Java, and it fixed it for us, too!!! Here's the link:

http://www.java.com/en/download/apple_manual.jsp?locale=en&host=www.java.com

Fabrice Medio said...

You rock. Thank you so much.

Amanda said...

Thank You! My dead office (which I hate but need) is back in action.

Anonymous said...

I followed these instructions and Office was able to run, however, I upon launching, I get an error that says:

An unexpected error occured while trying to load the Microsoft Frameworks library.
OK

Any ideas?

Anonymous said...

Reinstalling Office solved the Framework library problem that I mentioned in my last post.

Anonymous said...

Java didn't fix mine. I booted in safe mode (hold shift when booting), reinstalled the 10.4.10 update and that fixed it right up.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the java tip. Fix (download of latest version of java) was quick and easy and my office is now working again *whew*

Unknown said...

i am having the same problem with my macbook. the only problem is, i haven't been using it for long and im very confused with the instructions given to fix Office. this may sound really annoying but could anyone explain this a little simpler? do i need to use terminal? i've tried everything else to fix Office that i've found on the internet to no avail
any help would be appreciated. thanks, matt

Anonymous said...

You just saved my day! Thank you so much! I would have never thought that the java 6 beta from apple was responsible for this...

Cheers,
Jakob

Anonymous said...

So i have leopard and office 2004. automatic download updated something in office and now it literally takes an hour to open an application from Microsoft and it stops all other applications from opening. All of office is corrupt! ahh. Did a full reinstall of leopard thinking that was it. nothing. i have given up! any ideas?

Anonymous said...

So i have leopard and office 2004. automatic download updated something in office and now it literally takes an hour to open an application from Microsoft and it stops all other applications from opening. All of office is corrupt! ahh. Did a full reinstall of leopard thinking that was it. nothing. i have given up! any ideas?

I'm currently having the same problem. None of the Office Suite will open, along with Safari?! I tried "repairing permissions." That didn't work. Now I'm looking for other ideas.