[Plant7575]

I think this is an Office 2001 problem, rather than an OS X problem, so I am starting here.

I am running OS 10.3.9 on an imac G5. I have set up multiple accounts for me (the administrator) and my family members.

We are running Office 2001 under the Classic Environment.

I can use Word 2001 in my account with no problem. If my daughter uses Word in her account after a clean boot of the whole computer, she has no problems. But once I use Word in my account, Word will crash in her account every time. I can go back to my account and still use Word without problems. The only thing that will allow her to use Word in her account is to reboot the whole computer. (Rebooting the Classic environment does not help.)

The same problem occurs with Excel.

The details of the crash in Word: The first time that she clicks on Word in the Dock, it boots the Classic Environment, then boots Word. She can open a file, but then Word freezes (except for mouse movement. After Force quitting Word and Classic (must quit both to unfreeze), if she clicks on Word again, Classic boots, then the computer freezes as it starts to boot Word.

The details of the crash in Excel: Every timne she clicks on Excel in the Dock, it boots the Classic Environment, then boots Excel, but as soon as she clicks on the File menu to open a file, Excel freezes.

I have used Disk First Aid to repair permissions. That did not help. I searched Microsoft's Support site, but found nothing on this. I don't know what else to do.

Any suggestions?

[wataru]

First of all, I suggest you upgrade to an OS X native version of Office.

Second, what do you mean "the computer freezes as it starts to boot Word"? Is it a kernel panic or is it just unresponsive? Did you try force quitting? Can you switch between apps? Just out of curiosity, how much RAM do you have?

Also, just a shot in the dark: Classic has a setting to determine whether prefs for Classic apps are kept in the OS 9 System Folder or separately for each user in his home folder. Whichever setting you're using now, try reversing it.

Another idea: Try rebuilding the desktop. You can do this from within the Classic prefpane.

Yet another idea: If you've customized your Classic installation, try disabling any extensions you've added, or try replacing your System Folder with a fresh one.

[Plant7575]

Originally Posted by wataru

First of all, I suggest you upgrade to an OS X native version of Office.

Don't have much extra $$$ available right now. Besides, Office 2001 does everything that we need. Heck, at work most of us are using Office 98. Besides, I have quite a few other useful OS 8-9 programs that I still use -- some of which were never upgraded to OS X.

Originally Posted by wataru

Second, what do you mean "the computer freezes as it starts to boot Word"? Is it a kernel panic or is it just unresponsive? Did you try force quitting? Can you switch between apps? Just out of curiosity, how much RAM do you have?

Computer freeze means that the mouse moves, but all keys and mouse clicks (inculding application switching do nothing. The only way out is to Force Quit. What is a kernel panic? And how is that different from "unresponsive"? 1 GB of RAM.

By the way, with all of the things that I have tried, the problem behaves somewhat differently now -- Now Classic never completely boots -- in the regular users accounts (boots fine in my admin account). The progress bar stops at 90-95%, but I can get out of this by clicking on the Stop button -- no need to Force Quit.

Originally Posted by wataru

Also, just a shot in the dark: Classic has a setting to determine whether prefs for Classic apps are kept in the OS 9 System Folder or separately for each user in his home folder. Whichever setting you're using now, try reversing it.

I have tried this both ways -- did not make any difference

Originally Posted by wataru

Another idea: Try rebuilding the desktop. You can do this from within the Classic prefpane.

Tried that, too -- no help

Originally Posted by wataru

Yet another idea: If you've customized your Classic installation, try disabling any extensions you've added, or try replacing your System Folder with a fresh one.

I had not done any customizations, other than to turn off a few extensions that I did not need. But the problem occurred both before and after I made this change. More recently, I switched to OS 9.2.2. (All) Extensions, but that also made no difference.

When I first posted this question here, I thought it was an Office problem. When I found that other OS-9 applications don't work in other user accounts, as well, I realized that this was a Classic problem. So I posted a similar question under the OS X forum. There have been several good suggestions there, as well. But none have solved the problem.

[Plant7575]

SUCCESS!!! I called Apple a second time, and this time got somebody who knew how to troubleshoot. (The last guy knew only a little more than me.)

The main problem turned out to be the Apple Menu Options Control Panel. Turning that off allowed Classic to boot in all user accounts. All of my OS 9 programs (except Excel 2001 – see below) now work in all accounts.

Excel continued to lock up in my daughter’s account, but worked fine in my (admin) account. Turning on “Use Mac OS 9 Preferernces from our Home” fixed the Excel Problem. Apparently, Excel had problems when the preferences were stored in one central System Folder, but when the preferences are stored in each user’s library, it works fine.

It is possible that some of the other things that I tried also contributed to this success. The thing I did just before zeroing in on Apple Menu Options as the problem was to repair the OS X preferences in ALL accounts. I had done this in my (admin) account, but I had not realized that this should be done in each account.

I found it interesting that it was Apple Menu Options was the problem. I vaguely recall a problem that I had several years ago (and a couple of computers and OS levels ago – maybe OS 7??) with intermittent crashes. I struggled for months with the problem until I read somewhere that Apple Menu Options was notoriously buggy. When I turned it off, my problems went away.

So this is deja vu. I continue to be impressed at how well Classic mimics the original OS 9 – bugs, crashes and all.

Thanks for your help. I am relatively new to OS X. I learned a lot along the way.

[wataru]

Repairing permissions has the same effect no matter which account you do it from. Who told you otherwise?

[Plant7575]

Originally Posted by wataru

Repairing permissions has the same effect no matter which account you do it from. Who told you otherwise?

The guy from Apple who helped me figure this problem out. He said that some of the permissions were different.

[wataru]

I'm skeptical, but I guess it's possible. Interesting.