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My Mac is not cooperating

S

SentaiLavender

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 8, 2011
4
0
Hello, all. I'm a fairly new Macbook Pro owner, and I was wondering if I could get help with a problem here.

I have a Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard. The system came with Microsoft Office 2004 as a deal with my university. Word worked just fine to begin with, but now, about half a year later, it has started doing some stupid things.

When I went to open Word today, it didn't work; it just randomly crashed (sorry, but I don't have the error message saved) before it would open. I then tried to run Microsoft Autoupdate in an attempt to fix it, but it said there was "a problem" while updating about halfway through. When I tried to update again to fix this, it simply told me there are no updates available. Now a "?" simply appears over any Microsoft Office icons if I try to open them.

I'm not really sure what to do. I'd reinstall Office, but I don't have the CD since it came with the computer. I've run a virus scan, but found nothing. As mentioned before, autoupdate fails miserably. I'd really like to get this worked out before I get off break and go back to college in a few days -- Word is rather important for papers.

Thanks in advance.
 
It sounds like the Office files are missing or gone. I suggest getting Office 2011. Its much faster the 2004 on Intell based Macs. Check if your uni has any discounts or such with Office 2011.
 
Intell said:
It sounds like the Office files are missing or gone. I suggest getting Office 2011. Its much faster the 2004 on Intell based Macs. Check if your uni has any discounts or such with Office 2011.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice.

Do you think there's any way to work around this quickly? Like I said, I'm a college student, and shelling out $150 to buy Word 2011 so I can fix a problem that just popped up today and needs to be fixed ASAP isn't really going to work out for me.
 
If you can't access the original Office 2004 files (check CD's? university intranet?) and buying Office 2011 isn't an option, have you considered either using free Office software (e.g. OpenOffice) or cloud-based office software (e.g. Google Documents)?

Watch out re: Google Documents as some universities do not permit use of cloud facilities to store assignments/etc and could constitute academic misconduct.

ps. I personally bought Office 2011 through a university program. It was a great deal and half the retail price of a student version at www.itsnotcheating.com.au . I'm not sure if the US has something similar but hopefully someone else on here from the States can offer insights.
 
Windows Live

Setup a hotmail or live account. You get a 25gb sky drive and the use of word, excel, power point and one note at no cost. Plus you have an enterprise class solution, and although your in school and not in the business world per se, if you send the document to someone with office, your formatting will remain. Not sure if that's the case w/ Open Office or not.
 
My Mac is not cooperating

I originally posted here about a problem my Mac was having (please read). Basically, Microsoft Word just randomly crashed every time I opened it, and it won't start. I tried to run Microsoft Autoupdate, but it "failed" in the middle and then told me there were no updates when I tried again. When I first posted, I thought it was a problem with Microsoft Office being stupid...but it's not.
Now everything is starting to act the same way. I opened iTunes, only for it to instantly close. Later in the day, the same thing happened to Symantec Antivirus. Shortly thereafter, VLC Player started crashing every time I two-finger click /right-click in it. I'm starting to think, obviously, that it isn't Microsoft's fault.
I've run a virus scan (fairly unlikely to be a virus anyway, I'd assume), but found nothing. It all just came out of nowhere today, and I'm not sure what to do, being a fairly new Mac user. If anyone could leave some advice, I'd appreciate it. Thank you very much.

EDIT: Now ClamXav is doing it, too. Just so you know. And furthermore, my flash player isn't working.
 
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SentaiLavender said:
But it's not the same issue. It's something totally different than what I originally thought.
Click to expand...

In that case, report the thread and ask for it to be moved. Update the title if necessary, and add any information to the thread that will help others diagnose the issue. Starting a new thread is not the proper way to go.

I would suggest try making a new user account and see if things work there. If not, you may need to reinstall your operating system.
 
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