Error message interrupts Word docs

Question

When I open documents in Word, I get a pop message: "We're sorry, but Word has run into an error that prevents it from working correctly. Word will need to be closed as a result. Would you like us to repair now?"

I have Office 2016, Student and Teacher, installed; I use Word all the time and this problem just arose last week. I checked, and all my Microsoft Updates are up to date. The suggested help articles do not address my specific error message.

I would appreciate some help, as I use Word constantly and this is getting to be a real problem. 

Thanks

Steven

Answer 1

Hello Doug

Thanks for these links. As I noted above, I ended up engaging the online "chat" tech support, which led to a somewhat expensive fix (199 dollars; one year subscription to tech support service) that temporarily fixed the problem, but then it happened again last night. I used the tech support, who made some adjustments (something about Safe Mode) which I observed. The technician wrote that this problem is due to a recent Microsoft application.

Tonight, I opened a document and the same error message popped up again. This time, I kept reopening and then clicked the "repair now" in the dialogue box and I was able to work on my document.

Here's my question: I'm worried I wasted money paying for this to be fixed and wondering if you have information on what is causing this problem. Like Chelsea's note (above), this just started recently. As an academic who does a lot of work from home, this is getting to be a real problem.  Does Microsoft have a "fix" coming for this? 

Note: I did uninstall and reinstall office several times before giving up and using the online tech support. Their fixes involved some complicated work that I didn't fully understand.

Sorry for the long reply. I looked over your links. The first one seems most applicable.

Steven

Answer 2

See the Article “Why do I get a "stopped working message when I start my Office application at:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/why-cant-i-start-my-office-2013-application-HA104011864.aspx

Or

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3091375

If that does not help, then you might remove all traces of the Office installation by downloading the fixit from the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2739501

saving it to your computer and then running it.

Then, after re-starting your computer, reinstall Office by logging into www.office.com/myaccount with your registered email address and click Install Office.

BEFORE REMOVING THE OFFICE INSTALLATION,  MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO LOG INTO YOUR ACCOUNT AND THAT OFFICE IS ASSOCIATED WITH IT!

If you actually have Office (locally installed) rather than the subscription version provided through Office 365, then you can't get Office through your Microsoft Account. Instead, see

https://products.office.com/en-us/download-back-up-restore-microsoft-office-products

Answer 3

Hi, I'm having the same problem as the above person with my Office Product as well. Mine is Office 2016 Home and  Student. Like the above poster, I haven't had this problem until recently, and use Office, especially Word, quite frequently.

Opening existing files or opening blank ones both trigger the same pop up, and it pops up the same way when opened in safe mode as well. Other than trying safe mode, different files, and blank files, I also tried turning my computer off and on again with no luck and hitting the 'repair now' option in the pop up box.

My computer just updated a few days ago, which also happened to be the last time I used it until today. Could the update have something to do with my Office suddenly not working? Or is something on my computer bugging out? It's got me really worried.

Thank you for any help you're able to provide.

Chelsea

Answer 4

In my attempts to get this resolved, an online support dialogue box popped up and, over the course of an hour, and 199.00, the online technicians resolved the problems, which were way beyond anything I could have figured out on my own. It's unfortunate that I had to pay to fix something I already paid for, but this error message popped up in every application, including Excel.

Answer 5

Hi Steven,

We would like to know more about your concern. Please provide the following:

• Are you also getting errors when opening documents on other Office programs (e.g. Excel, PowerPoint)?
• Have you already tried opening the documents on a different computer and checked if the issue persists?
• What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

We're looking forward to your response.