Technical question

[+ Charlie]

I have an eight year old Gateway 3000 pc. Suddenly, I can't access any of my stored documents, all of which I wrote in Microsoft Word 2000. When I try to open a document, the whole computer just hangs up. I also can't open Word to write a new document. The machine seems to work fine for anything else, including making this post.

 

Does anyone have any ideas about what's wrong or how to get at the documents, which include 64 pages of a memoir in progress?

[Kevin Slater]

First thing, back up your data. (That would be my first bit of advice for a hangnail or concerns over Sino-Soviet relations as well. Hell, just always backup.) Once these things start to get funky, I worry for everything stored on that PC. It's pretty easy just to email files to yourself; Gmail is great for this (lots of storage space and large attachments work fine).

 

I'm assuming you don't have the disks to reinstall Word, right? Do you have access to some other PC to try to open one of the files on? Or a friend to whom you can email one? All versions of Word should be backwards compatible, so just because some other PC has a newer version does not mean that it cannot open these files.

 

Oh, one last idea. Try right-clicking on the file and see if you can open it in Notepad or Wordpad. You'll lose most the formatting, but perhaps have access to the text.

 

Hope some of this helps.

 

Kevin Slater

[Guest Tristan]

This is a longshot. What version of Windows are you using? With an eight-year-old computer, I would guess it's Windows 98, unless you upgraded. I'm asking because on Windows XP, there is a function called "System Restore." That lets you reset the system to an earlier date when things were working well, hopefully removing any problem that developed. I recently had a problem opening WORD. I used System Restore, and WORD was as good as new. Have not had a problem since then.

 

I have one other thought. If you're using a Shortcut icon on the Desktop, try going directly to the program using the "Start Menu." Or, if for some reason WORD is not on the "Start Menu," try going through:

 

My Computer/Program Files/Microsoft Office etc. and click on the WORD program. In Windows XP, WORD comes under Microsoft Office. Don't know about earlier versions. If something happens to Microsoft Office, you lose WORD.

 

Kevin had a good suggestion for uninstalling and reinstalling WORD, but assumed you no longer have the disk. If you do, you're in luck. I keep all disks that come with the computer and all disks that come with software that I buy later.

 

Good luck.

[rvwnsd]

In addition to Kevin's suggestion of first backing everything up (including the memoir) and then trying to get your hands on MS Word, another option is to first backup everything and then download Open Office, the free open-source office suite. It should be able to open your Word documents. Here's the link:

 

http://www.openoffice.org/

[+ Charlie]

Thanks for the advice. I will try some of these suggestions. I have Windows 98, and I don't think I have the discs any longer.

[+ Charlie]

Well, none of these worked. The machine hangs up when I try to do any of them.

[whipped guy]

Charlie... this is a long shot... and this is probably not going to work as well... but it did work for me on an old Dell laptop and sometimes simple solutions are the answer.

 

Do a "Search for Files and Folders"

 

Type in: normal.dot

 

If a file named "normal.dot" shows up delete it... if not then this was not the solution to the problem.

 

As I said it did make Word work on an old computer.

[+ Charlie]

Thanks, but it wasn't there.

[Lookin]

Mac guy here, so no special insights, but here's a Microsoft troubleshooting link for this problem:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307814

 

It points to the normal.dot file that whipped guy mentioned and tells you how to find it and what to do.

 

With an older computer, you may also want to check how much memory and hard drive space you have left. Getting low on resources can cause problems, as it certainly has for me from time to time! ;-)

 

Good luck!

[+ Charlie]

Bless you!! As you and whipped guy suspected, the problem involved Normal.dot, and the page you sent me to explained exactly how to correct it. Not only has everything been recovered, but Word seems to be working normally again. But it is time for a new computer.

[Lookin]

Excellent!

 

And now, one's attention can't help but be drawn to those memoirs that came so close to extinction. Do you think we may one day look forward to reading some of the juicier parts right here in The Lounge?

 

Or are they already promised to Oprah?

[+ Charlie]

I could only print snippets here if all the names and places were blacked out. The work as a whole can't be published until I am safely in the grave.

 

Well, OK, here's just a taste from page 49, when I was 23 years old, and went home from a local bar with a big, "black Irish" handsome young biker named Danny, whom I had shyly admired from a distance for several weeks:

 

"When we got to his apartment, he surprised me with a kiss that took my breath away. Then he told me to strip. I fumbled frantically out of my clothes, and turned around to find the rumor was true: he WAS hung like a horse. He clamped handcuffs on my wrists, pushed me to my knees and told me to lick his big, hairy balls, and while I did, his already monstrous cock got even larger. Then he put his huge hand on the back of my neck, pushed my face down onto the floor, and told me to lick his boots. I did as I was told, wondering where this was leading. Suddenly, he picked me up like a child, and told me to put my handcuffed hands behind his neck and wrap my legs around his waist. As we stood there in that strange position, my ass almost balanced on his rigid dick, he began roughly fingering my asshole with one hand while pinching my nipple really hard with the other. I was shaking with fear and practically crying, as I anticipated my semi-virgin ass being ripped open by that enormous cock--he outweighed me by at least a hundred pounds of muscle, so I couldn't possibly prevent him from doing whatever he wanted. He must have seen the terror in my eyes, because he suddenly gave me a brilliant smile, laid me on the bed, and took me soothingly in his arms. The rest of the scene was gentle vanilla. I was immensely relieved...and terribly disappointed."

[Lookin]

G :P d (.) G s h !

 

If that's the part you can share, I’d love to hear some of the rest!

 

Hopefully while you're still above ground, in case there are any questions.

 

Like when’s the next installment? :9

[+ Charlie]

I think that would have to be a private publication--very private!