Computer help needed again!

[MillyFan]

I posted a similar message at another board, but I thought I'd see if anyone here could help either. As you can tell, I'm really annoyed at my PC right now.

Can someone help me with this?

Over the last day and a half, I have had a totally exasperating problem with WordPerfect 10, the main writing and HTML text formatting program I use.

The problem is as follows: the program hangs whenever I attempt to open absolutely any file aside from creating a new document in the program. If I try to open, say, the thing I've been writing for the last day that has two paragraphs finished but needs more work, then it completely freezes.

However, I *can* open all files if I directly run the filepath or if I enter "My Documents," click on the file, which causes the WP10 program to automatically open and somehow avoid the bug-for now.

I run Windows XP on a refurbished 2002 Compaq Presario desktop, for those of you who don't know that already. I have 480 MB of RAM and only run two programs at once when I'm writing: WP10 and Norton System Doctor.

Attempted fixes I've tried:

First of all, since the problem started after I had installed the East Asian languages pack included in Windows XP, I uninstalled the pack. That helped the problem for yesterday-but when I booted up the PC and WP10 today, the problem was back even though the pack was uninstalled.

Since it's been really hot here for the last two days (100+ Fahrenheit in the daytime, and although our house is air-conditioned, I don't have an air conditioner directly in my room) I thought that the CPU or hard drive might be frying. . .so I only use the computer when my room temperature is at least 82 or lower. That seems to be of no help at all in preventing the problem.

As a last-ditch effort to solve this without having to do something like reinstall the program or whatnot (which I have already had to do twice in the past due to a nice little problem with it rebooting my PC), I edited a lemony ending to a story's chapter to something much less so and prayed. So far, that hasn't solved my problem either, although I feel slightly better about my ethics.

Thanks for reading. . .and I will give you an honorable mention in my next posted writing if you solve all my WordPerfect problems. -^.^-

[Gypsy]

*shrugs* I'm not very familiar with Word Perfect anymore - I just use Word now. Sorry I can't be of much help. I assume you keep your comp nice and defragged, right? Sometimes that fixes multiple tiny bugs that seem to pop up everywhere.

[Psycho Ann]

Same with Gypsy, WP10 doesn't agree with me (I'm a XP user too) that I changed to Word. You could try looking up in the internet if they released any patches/upgrades you can download. Oooorrr... try virus scanning your PC--they sometimes help against those small bugs.

A while back a few programs were kinda awry and after cleaning up, defragmenting, and virus scanning, the problems went away ^^

[LorentzForce]

1) if it's XP home, then convert now into professional or into 2000. XP home is evil...

2) heat shouldn't give too much problems if it's not affecting any other programs.

3) did it work flawlessly before XP? if it did, then it's the XP's fault. in this case, the only option would be to reinstall Windows to something earlier. not pretty...

4) conclusion; it predict it's a compatibility problem, possibly caused by NTSF system.

5) oh yeah, try using Word. and don't trust Microsoft.

[MillyFan]

Yeah, I defragged (less than 3 days ago actually), ran WinDoctor, and since that PC has never been online and I'm a stickler about never sharing discs or programs that could be infected, I don't think it has a virus (my antivirus IS outdated, but considering my level of caution, I don't think it has a virus problem)

[Link Antilles]

Yeah, I defragged (less than 3 days ago actually), ran WinDoctor, and since that PC has never been online and I'm a stickler about never sharing discs or programs that could be infected, I don't think it has a virus (my antivirus IS outdated, but considering my level of caution, I don't think it has a virus problem)

Hmmmm.... what's your processor speed? Is this the only time it freezes? Wait, your running Norton on your offline computer? If so, turn it off and see if it works.

[Mithrandir]

I can't imagine it would affect WP, but you may try looking at my w32.blaster post in general and see if you may have that. It started around the time frame you are talking about....

[MillyFan]

I just uninstalled and reinstalled WordPerfect10. That did no good-it still has the problem Where is that post?

Edit, nevermind, my writing PC has never been on the Internet. I borrow my sister's PC here to go online.

[Technomancer]

WP worked fine before you installed the language pack right? It sounds like something in the package conflicts with WP. Try checking your registry to see if there are any files associated with the language pack that the uninstall might have missed (hopefully they'll be convenietly titled, if not check the creation dates). Also you might try to see if the WordPerfect people (or whoever owns them these days) have a troubleshooting site.

[Link Antilles]

I still say you should try and turn Norton off. My friend has a brand new computer with Norton installed on it and it cuts his perform down by a third. Remember: you can always turn it back on.

WARNING: I really don't recommend this, but you could reinstall XP or Backup your data and FDisk the harddrive. This is one of those last case senerios.

I'll ask some of my Tech buddies.

[MillyFan]

I'm not smart enough to get into the registry and actually find something without crashing my entire PC.

[LorentzForce]

you should be able to get used to registry after some browsing around. it's not hard to figure it out.

and defragging sometimes does cause troubles, escpecially if you do something memory or CPU intensive while you're defragging. that includes browsing the internet. that kind of application can ruin the hard drive.

anyway, good luck

[MillyFan]

I read the technical data on the "error report" listing (although I cannot file a report since it's offline) One of the problem files ended in "app.compat" or something similar, so I used the Program Compatibility feature. The Program Compatibility modes for NT didn't work at all, neither did 2000 (although both were listed as compatible on my WordPerfect 10 package).

I finally tried the mode for 98/ME, and my original problem is solved: I can now open files directly in WordPerfect 10

However, the entire WordPerfect 10 program now freezes and crashes one out of every two times I open it.

Computers. . .I don't know whether to or

[ShiroiHikari]

I have the saaame problem with the computer at my "work". 'Sep it's with Photoshop, Illustrator, and this other one called FlexiSign Pro. Even Word is getting kinda screwy.

All three programs are pirated. Blame my bro-in-law, not me, I was against that whole idea. Anyway <.< >.> It has XP Pro. I don't remember the exact specs, so..

I defrag the machine often. I try to keep things clean. Could it just be because it's pirated software? ::boggles::

[Link Antilles]

I have the saaame problem with the computer at my "work". 'Sep it's with Photoshop, Illustrator, and this other one called FlexiSign Pro. Even Word is getting kinda screwy.

All three programs are pirated. Blame my bro-in-law, not me, I was against that whole idea. Anyway <.< >.> It has XP Pro. I don't remember the exact specs, so..

I defrag the machine often. I try to keep things clean. Could it just be because it's pirated software? ::boggles::

That or the system could be a little slow or a number of other reasons.
PCs sometimes make me dizzy! PC = Personal Confuser


Mac people have it way to easy!

[Technomancer]

This why I didn't go into Computer Science; I got sick of all the fiddly bits. Things are much nicer when everything's just math.

I still think your problem is likely to be traced to your registry. Back up your registry and do some simple browsing (although very definately you should look for troubleshooting info). If you still can't find anything, or aren't confident enough to change what you do find then you should probably reformat and start from scratch. Given that your primary tool is WP, having it crash half the time is no good.

[MillyFan]

I did find the files the error was detected in. Let me get those file names for you and see if you can help me out.

C:\DOCUME~1\PREFER~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER12.tmp.dir00\wpwin10.exe.mdmp

and

C:\DOCUME~1\PREFER~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER12.tmp.dir00\appcompat.txt

[LorentzForce]

eek, they are in FAT32 mode when WinXP HATES FAT32 change immediately to NTFS by typing 'convert c: /fs:ntfs' without the quote marks in the command console.

[MillyFan]

LOL, if I had any idea of what I was doing I would do that. For now, the Program Compatibility thing works. . .-^.^-

[LorentzForce]

if it works, then all is right with the world.