The file is not available AGAIN!

[Guest]

I'm getting the "THE FILE ... IS NOT AVAILABLE" error when starting Word 2003 and trying to open either an old Word doc OR even a new one! Meaning, if I type something, save the file as "test" and close it, then try to reopen it, it says "THE FILE TEST.DOC IS NOT AVAILABLE".

This was an upgrade from Office XP so this is what I have tried on my XP Pro Dell machine

1. I uninstalled Office 2003 and then uninstalled Office XP.
2. I re-installed Office 2003, same thing happens.
3. I uninstalled Office 2003 and ran the RESOURCE KIT's "REMOVAL TOOL" that is supposed to completely remove all traces of Office. After it was done and I rebooted I installed only Word 2003 and the same problem happens

I looked at the previous postings about Norton Antivrus but they don't apply. The only hint at something wrong is the message "can't open this document template pdfmaker.dot!". This used to be a toolbar in the old Word XP but the message keeps appearing even after using the removal tool resource so I think I still have leagcy issues here

Suggestions are welcome but please don't tell me to reformat... Thanks

 

[John Jennings]

I have exactly the same problem, previously reported to this group mid-Nov.
Replies from 2 people re updating Win XP and disabling Norton didn't make
any difference, even after reinstalling Office 2003 with Norton disabled
Any other suggestions please?

I'm getting the "THE FILE ... IS NOT AVAILABLE" error when starting Word

2003 and trying to open either an old Word doc OR even a new one! Meaning,
if I type something, save the file as "test" and close it, then try to
reopen it, it says "THE FILE TEST.DOC IS NOT AVAILABLE".

This was an upgrade from Office XP so this is what I have tried on my XP Pro Dell machine:

1. I uninstalled Office 2003 and then uninstalled Office XP.
2. I re-installed Office 2003, same thing happens.
3. I uninstalled Office 2003 and ran the RESOURCE KIT's "REMOVAL TOOL"

that is supposed to completely remove all traces of Office. After it was
done and I rebooted I installed only Word 2003 and the same problem happens!

I looked at the previous postings about Norton Antivrus but they don't

apply. The only hint at something wrong is the message "can't open this
document template pdfmaker.dot!". This used to be a toolbar in the old Word
XP but the message keeps appearing even after using the removal tool
resource so I think I still have leagcy issues here.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Have you tried reregistering Word?

Start | Run: type

winword /r

and press Enter.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[John Jennings]

Yes thank you Suzanne - no change.
John Jennings

Have you tried reregistering Word?

Start | Run: type

winword /r

and press Enter.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I assume you have activated Word/Office?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

I did the re-registering (WINWORD /R) and it completed without error but still no solution to the problem. The product has also been activated properly

Once again if I create a new document - save and close, it cannot re-open it. The message "The File .... is not available" appears. Now the only other thing that appears unqiue on my system is when I then try to close Word, it says "The file NORMAL.DOT already exists, do you want to replace it?". I have to replace it every time to get Word to close

Both of the above situations happened immediately after the upgrade from Offce XP Pro on a Windows XP Pro machine.

Please keep the possible solutions and ideas coming!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The problem is almost certainly with an add-in. Have you checked the Word
and Office Startup folders? Also, see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm for
information on how to check on COM add-ins. If you have the Norton Office
Plug-in enabled, disable it.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

I did the re-registering (WINWORD /R) and it completed without error but

still no solution to the problem. The product has also been activated
properly.

Once again if I create a new document - save and close, it cannot re-open

it. The message "The File .... is not available" appears. Now the only
other thing that appears unqiue on my system is when I then try to close
Word, it says "The file NORMAL.DOT already exists, do you want to replace
it?". I have to replace it every time to get Word to close.

Both of the above situations happened immediately after the upgrade from

Offce XP Pro on a Windows XP Pro machine.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Susan for the continued help but it's still not working.

I don't have Norton or McAfee installed anymore. I uninstalled Norton Antivirus Enterprise Client Edition out of the system days ago. I cleaned the system with their cleaner and verified that nothing appears with a "norton" or "symantec" name in the add/remove program list or in my taskbar, programs, startup, etc.

I looked at the Word startup section and com components as suggested. I had no startup files except it wanted to load "pdfmaker.dot". I removed that but the problem still exists.

I also looked at TOOLS - MACRO - SECURITY and found it says "Virus Scanner Installed". I assume this meant it detected a 3rd party virus tool like Norton???

So I uninstalled Office completely, ran the Office 2003 Resource Kit's "Removal Wizard", and made sure the computer had no trace of either Office or Norton or Symantec anything. I rebooted and installed only the Word program. Didn't work. It still says "The file is not avaialable" and when I try to exit it says "the document normal.dot already exists". Word's MACRO - SECURITY also says "virus scanner installed" again if that means anything.

Please keep the ides coming!

 

[Guest]

It works! Here's the scoop in hopes the following helps someone else in my situation.

At some point in it's life, Norton SystemWorks had been installed and then uninstalled from the computer. At a later date, Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition (NACE) was installed and then I uninstalled it a few days ago.

It seems that NACE was uninstalled properly but the old Systsmeworks had legacy files hanging around. It took several Symantec bulletins (sorry I did not keep the article #'s) but I had to run combinations of their SYMCLN.EXE removal tool plus their RNAV2003.EXE removal tool. The SYMCLN would always say nothing was found (it fooled me) but there was. The RNAV2003.EXE tool would crash toward the end indicating to Symantec that it must have actually found some goodies left in the system. I then had to execute the command "msiexec /q/x {OEFC6259-3AD8-4CD2-BC57-D4937AF5CCOE}" which gives no feedback but does something.

After reboots each time and a final sweep with RNAV2003.EXE (after the above msiexec), did the trick and Word opens perfectly!

I'm trilled but at the same time sorry that I ever tried to upgrade to Office 2003. Office XP had worked fine even with all the legacy Symantec stuff so caveat emptor to those unsure of your PC's past antivirus history. This gave me an education as to the deep roots antivirus products can leave but costs me tons of time sorting it all out.

Thanks again for your help Susan - it's nice to know someone is out there offering things to try.

 

[Guest]

Last item I forgot to mention about the above problem. Even after the problem was solved, it still says "virus scanner installed" in the Tools - Macro - Security area without any 3rd party antivirus software installed so I'm not sure what that means - if it's internal to Office or if it still sees some evidence of Nortons past. Just an FYI for others going down this road...

 

[Guest]

I had the same problem and spent 4 hours trying to fix. THANK YOU for the info on how to open files in office 2003. IF YOU HAVE EVER INSATLLED NORTON THEN YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE THIS PROBLEM. I have the uninstall log, if anyone would like to see, that shows what was unistalled when using Rnav2003.exe.
This is what fixed my problem with the "file not available" issue.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the insite, i went the manual way and deleted all of the Nortons registry entries, it worked. I to spent many hours researching this until I found your conversation thread. Thanks it helped a lo

 

[Guest]

Hi Rick, I tried everything you suggested in the thread but I am having no luck. My files would not open. I regret putting this program on my computer.