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Office products crashed upon launch (0xc0000374 exception)

Anonymous
2010-08-31T10:24:43+00:00

Hi, I've had the following problem for over a month by now and still got no clue on how to solve it.

Problem:

When I tried to launch Word, Excel or Powerpoint, the application will crash

(sometimes on the splash screen, sometimes shortly after the main window showed up).

After the crash, the application will try to restart in Safe Mode, but it'll crash again

(Word had a rare chance of restarting successfully, but in that case it will force an unnecessary repair on the just-opened document, and eventually breaking that file).

All crashes have the following information listed in the Event Viewer:

  • Faulting module name: ntdll.dll
  • Exception code: 0xc0000374
  • Fault offset: 0x000c2913

Windows / Office Versions:

I've tried the following combination, and the problem occured on all of them:

  • Windows Vista + Office Pro Plus 2010
  • Windows 7 + Office Pro Plus 2010
  • Windows 7 + Office Ent 2007

All version numbers are listed below:

  • ntdll.dll: 6.1.7600.16559 for Windows 7 (forgot to jot down Vista's)
  • Word 2010: 14.0.4762.1000
  • Excel 2010: 14.0.4756.1000
  • Powerpoint 2010: 14.0.4754.1000
  • Word, Excel and Powerpoint 2007: 12.0.4518.1014

Approaches tried after crash:

I've tried the following approaches, but none of them solves this problem:

  • Using the "Repair" function in the installer
  • Launching applications with different documents
  • Disabling Windows Aero -> Some said that it might work, so I tried, but no luck.
  • Boot in Safe Mode and launch -> A dialog box will show up, saying "Microsoft Office Cannot Verify the license for this application. A repair attempt failed or was canceled by the user. The application will now shut down." In my case, Office was activated via KMS before launch.
  • Reinstall Office -> I've tried "reinstalling 2010" and "downgrading to 2007", but both attempts failed.
  • Reinstall Windows (clean install) -> The problem reoccurred after a short period of time.
  • Replacing ntdll.dll -> Got a BSoD for doing that.

I have a copy of the event log (System and App) on http://cid-06bae12f10e54033.skydrive.live.com/ .

Any help will be appreciated. Thank you.

P.S. I don't know if it's related to this problem, but I also had another (solved) problem on Remote Desktop that shares the same faulting module name, exception code and fault offset with this problem. The problem was that Remote Desktop crashes when connected to a Windows 7 PC, and I solved the problem by unchecking all boxes in the "Experience" tab.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Windows

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous
2010-09-01T05:35:45+00:00

The fault module ntdll.dll error related to Office applications may occur due to several reasons, among which the most common ones are listed below:

l  A faulty add-in enabled for Office applications:

n  You may use application safe for each Office application to open for example open Run (press Windows key + R), type winword /safe, excel /safe for Word and Excel respectively. If it works fine, disable the add-ins using File > Options > Add-ins for each applications

l  Incompatible printer driver:

n  Change the default computer printer to XPS Document Writer using Control Panel and verify the status.

l  Security software installed on the computer conflicting with Office applications:

n  EnableClean-boot then try to use Office application to find if any Non-Microsoft software is causing the issue.

n  Note: enable Normal Start-up after troubleshooting.

l  Corrupt Windows User Profile:

n  Create a newWindows Administrator user account and check if it prevents Office application crash.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-09-05T07:37:26+00:00

    The fault module ntdll.dll error related to Office applications may occur due to several reasons, among which the most common ones are listed below:

      

    l  Incompatible printer driver:

    n  Change the default computer printer to XPS Document Writer using Control Panel and verify the status.

    I've tried the options you provided and found out that this one is ths correct solution. Thank you!

    The steps I took to solve the problem:

    1. Changed the default printer; Office 2007 applications launched normally.
    2. Switched to 2010; also launched without problem.
    3. Checked printer (a Xerox DocuPrint 240A) and noticed that the driver I got only supports XP
    4. So I updated the driver and changed the default printer back. Problem solved!

    Thanks again!

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-07-09T13:53:17+00:00

    I reapplied my default printer and it worked.

    1. Changed default printer to another one.
    2. Set default printer back to XPS Document Writer.

    Lync now opens without crashing.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-12-02T02:44:45+00:00

    0xc0000374 this is the message I get

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