Normal.dot corruptions

MindPhuck

Hiyahs,

This is a weird one.


I've a staff member who keeps getting error messages on her w2k (office 2000 pro) pc. Normal.dot is corrupt, do you want to perfom a repair.. (or close to that). She says that now and then, the documents do not save what she put in them (though, I havn't seen this happening yet).

Now, I would normally just delete the normal.dot file and problem goes away. However, I've tried lots and lots of different things.

Its now at a stage that I have given the staff member a brand spanking new pc, with a fresh install of office 2k pro, all the windows service packs, all the o/s security updates, all the office updates. Normal.dot is password protected.... And the Error still occurs!!

The network and each pc is covered using norton anti-virus enterprise and its up to date, so I can't see how its a virus. I think its got to do with her documents, none show up as having virus's and they dont appear to be corrupt as I can open them with no problems.


Sooooo... if anyone has a good idea what this is, or any utilities to check for corruptions, please let me know.

Renton

It wouldnt be a group policy problem or something would it ?

Renton

You dont reckon that shes doing it for the laugh do ya ? Or to get an even brand spankin newer computer off ya do ya ?

haa ? Do ya haaa ?

Renton

MindPhuck

No - Its not a group policy.
No - Shes not taking the p1ss. She HAS the new pc and she IS getting the errors on the new PC. She would hardly 'create' the errors again to get yet again, another new pc.

_CreeD_

Do your users have a personal network folder for storing MsOffice docs by default? You may have deleted the local copy of Normal.dot but left the one it's actually reading from on the network.
Failing that try and delete her profile, open a blank Doc to make sure everything is okay, then stand there as she opens normally problematic docs. If thats all fine tell her to come to you as soon as it happens again and find out what she opened last. The ones that are opening okay for you might be fine, but there mught be one form/document with macros that's messing the template up and throwing all the others off in the process.

sceptre

If normal.dot is actually corrupt and asks if you want to repair it

AND

normal.dot is password protected/read only

you'll be seeing that message forever unless one of the above two conditions changes

MindPhuck

Sceptre,

Yes. I know this.




Creed, yeah, I tried similiar. Theres no normal.dot template on the entire network. Just on her pc.

WhiteWashMan

normal.doc is just rebuilt when you open word.
i would say that it is one of her files that is corrupting it
it would be interesting to see which word files she used last prior to the error happening.
just keep deleting the file, its all you can do, coz the only constant in the scenario is network access, and probably netowrk files.

zAbbo

The normal.dot is the default Word document template, so if you open Word and have the normal.dot deleted try saving the blank file in word as normal.dot, presuming that there is no other normal.dot already there(as you have just deleted it).

As far as i know the normal.dot will be stored in profiles>>application data>>microsoft>>templates.

This should sort the problem, if not then some other program is altering the .dot file. Also the normal.dot must have archive properties and not read only or hidden.

Edser

Couple of suggestions, are there Multiple users / User profiles on the machine?
Are there any other template files on the pc that may be being used, or has the user saved any regular documents as a template?
I'd also double check for macro viruses

Ed

MindPhuck

Thanks Lads


Not alot here that I havnt tried. I think everything points to the files that she is using more as to an issue with the machine setup. I think its 'burn files to cd time'. Ive no idea how thats going to fix things, but if she starts with fresh new documents then it may help.

Saruman

Originally posted by WhiteWashMan
normal.doc is just rebuilt when you open word.
i would say that it is one of her files that is corrupting it
it would be interesting to see which word files she used last prior to the error happening.
just keep deleting the file, its all you can do, coz the only constant in the scenario is network access, and probably netowrk files.

Probably whats happening here, i have seen it before.. you fix a problem and then a L-user just recreates it by doing exactly what caused it in the first place! She probably has a document that corrupts normal.dot every time it is opened! Its the only explanation... you use that pc for a day using only your own documents or new documents and see if the problem occurs again after deleting dormal.dot

MindPhuck

Okay,

lets just say that it is the actual documents thats fubarring the normal.dot up. Any ideas on proggies which can fix the problems within these documents ?

Saruman

there is probably some utility hidden away on the microsoft site.. maybe even one built into office 2k.. if you can find what document it is you could have her save it in a different format.. say an older word format.. or wordperfect.. then resave it in normal word format! might work..

MindPhuck

Yes.

But, this might be a painstaken problem as there is over 2000 documents to go through.

Saruman

lol have phun!

sorry could not resist!

zAbbo

Insert your Office2000 CD and select repair ans this may fix any problems...

Hobbes

Originally posted by MindPhuck
No - Its not a group policy.
No - Shes not taking the p1ss. She HAS the new pc and she IS getting the errors on the new PC. She would hardly 'create' the errors again to get yet again, another new pc.

Maybe she fancies you?

Have you tried msdn or google?

Word will report normal.dot as corrupt if its temporary file ~$Normal.dot
has not been deleted - either through a crash or through not closing Windows
properly. If you then tell it to rebuild, it will create a new default
version - so check your templates folder for filenames beginning '~' and
delete them - same for your Word startup folder. Delete everything in
c:\windows\temp. Next time you get the message, answer NO. Shut down word
and restart it.

Renton

I agree with Hobbes, She does fancy you.

Also, to take a roundabout way of sorting it out, you could put a batch file in the startup to find and delete the normal.dot's

Tis a suggestion ...

Renton

WhiteWashMan

burn all files from her network share onto cd.
then do a very high level virus scan on the files on the network
and then save them onto another cd.
then delete all files.
give her second cd. and see if she gets problem again?

Saruman

eh just one thing.. dissable the antivirus software to make sure its not that thats causing it..