[pendragon]

On my daughter’s 20” iMac G5/2 GHz/1 GB RAM/10.4.2, she claims that she can launch Word 2004 or access the Internet via Comcast, but not both at the same time. To access the “other”, a restart is always required.

She is a newbie living 2000 miles away and so a better diagnosis is still in the (painful) process.

I’m presuming the problem is a conflict somewhere in the startup processes, but even that is a guess. It sounds quite bizarre to me.

We will run DiskWarrior this weekend as well as Repair Permissions, Safe Boot, and trash Word’s preferences. Beyond that, any suggestions?

I have researched a bit and can find no similar case. Any help most appreciated.

[amazing]

There shouldn't be any conflict between Word and Comcast, as you know. There's 2 simple things she could try:

--move the user prefs to the desktop, restart and see if the problem persists.

--establish a second admin user and login as that user to see if the problem goes away.

(presumably she has all the updates to whichever version of Office she's using??)

[pendragon]

Originally Posted by amazing

There shouldn't be any conflict between Word and Comcast, as you know. There's 2 simple things she could try:

--move the user prefs to the desktop, restart and see if the problem persists.

--establish a second admin user and login as that user to see if the problem goes away.

(presumably she has all the updates to whichever version of Office she's using??)

When you say "user prefs", are you referring to ~/library/preferences/Microsoft Folder?

FWIW, I am certain Office 2004 is up to date.

BTW, she has added an old Imation Super Disk Drive (USB) to her system. Do you think that peripheral could be causing the problem?

[larkost]

How exactly is she not able to do it? Error messages are good things to know.

[amazing]

The shortcut is to move the entire prefs folder to the desktop. If the problem goes away, great, it was related to some 3rd party pref that generated a conflict. All she'll have to do is re-create some stuff like dock placement, etc. She can always replace the prefs folder if the problem doesn't go away.

Logging in as the second admin user tells you essentially the same thing, although it's more than the prefs, namely that something installed in the original user is conflicting (could be some hack she installed and doesn't remember.)

[Apfhex]

I can't imagine how Word could in any way limit internet access, or vice versa. And by "access the internet," what exactly is meant? Safari (or other web browsers) won't connect to any sites? And if an internet app is open, Word won't launch or something? Like larkost said, more info is needed... I think the problem must be something a little different from what's been described so far...

[pendragon]

Thanks all. You have given me sound ideas. Alas, I too am still begging for details, error codes, dialogs etc.) as I can not see how/why the two should conflict.

AFAIK, a bit of operator error may be involved.