[Duxgrl]

I have a Dell Dimension 8200, running Office XP, and I use Microsoft Office Professional 2002. (I bought this computer in 2002)

I have been having a problem for several weeks, ever since I had a number of viruses and other bad things going on with my computer which have since been resolved.

I can't open documents that I had previously created with Microsoft Office. (Word and Excel) When I try to do so, I get a message at the bottom of the screen that says "requesting virus scan" and a timer comes up, but then nothing happens.

I have tried a number of things, including uninstalling and reinstalling Microsoft Office Professional, going to the Help Menu (Detect and Repair) when I open Excel or Word, and nothing works. I was having trouble even opening Word...it would only open in Safe mode every other time I tried to open it, until I read another helpful hint in this forum today about renaming normal.dot. I am hoping that someone will be able to help me with this problem as I am pulling my hair out.

I had someone come to help me clean out my computer when I was having all my problems several weeks ago, and he was not able to figure this one out, either.

[dan_mccartney]

The only thing i can think of is maybe download Open office and try to open them with that. Or maybe upload the files to an email and email them to yourself and see if you can't open them that way. Other than that I have clueless. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[Duxgrl]

Thanks, Dan. The person who had helped me with my computer helped me install Open Office (I had never heard of it before) and I have been able to open them using that. I will also try your suggestion about e-mailing them to myself here and see if that works. (I have been able to e-mail them to work and open them) It just seems like there should be another way to open those files!!! How frustrating!

[cwwozniak]

You might also consider uninstalling and then reinstalling whatever anti-virus program you are using. It is possible that one of the viruses managed to break the document scanning capabilities of the anti-virus program or the person that cleaned up your computer removed a file needed by the program.

[Duxgrl]

Chuck,

Thank you for your reply. He actually installed a temporary free version of a different anti-virus program than the one I had been using. I have upgraded since then to a premium version of the same program. (I had to uninstall what he installed and then reinstall the new version) Do you think that there is anything within the program that I should check that may not be happening that should be happening? I have tried right-clicking on some of the documents under My Computer and asking the anti-virus program to scan them, to see if that would make a difference...if I could open them after that. It still won't let me open them as Microsoft Office files...only as Open Office files.

[slurpee55]

What anti-virus are you using? That might be helpful to know....

[Duxgrl]

Slurpee55,

Thank you for your reply!

I was using Norton, but I am now using Avira Antivir Premium.

[bearone2]

did you remove norton? you should only have one av.

[slurpee55]

Also, Norton is somewhat of a pain to get rid of entirely - you may want to download and run HijackThis and see if there is any Norton/Symantec junk left in your PC

[Duxgrl]

bearone2 and slurpee55,

I have actually not removed Norton. Maybe I should try that next. Thanks for your suggestions.

[Duxgrl]

Guys,

I tried removing Norton, and even befpre it was all removed, I was able to open my old documents!!!!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[slurpee55]

Originally Posted by Duxgrl

Chuck,

Thank you for your reply. He actually installed a temporary free version of a different anti-virus program than the one I had been using....

That person who "helped" you should have known better than to install two av programs, if he was any sort of tech specialist. They will interfere with one another and often see the other one as a virus even, due to how they access your PC.
Glad this got fixed!

[Duxgrl]

I am surprised that he did not remove Norton, or think that it was possible that the fact that we didn't could be causing this problem.

[Morny]

Me too. The first thing I would have done was to remove Norton (ugh!) even if it meant entering the registry to completly remove it. Glad it is now sorted though. Years ago I had a couple of Word docs that wouldn't open after I had formatted my HD (mid 90s). I contacted Microsoft and sent them the file but even they couldn't sort my problem.

[EBSchrader]

Too bad I didn't see this post right away -- I would have suspected Norton immediately and told you to either (1) turn off the virus checker for documents or (2) get rid of Norton. Glad it finally worked out for you.