On my laptop running Windows XP Home and with Microsoft Office 2000 Pro fully installed, after 2 trouble-free years I have suddenly found it impossible to open Access, Excel or Word, either via the program shortcuts on the desktop or by clicking on the respective files in Explorer. Microsoft Outlook and PowerPoint are working normally. I have not been on-line for 2 weeks and the only system change was the installation of the latest Definition File for Ad-Aware SE Personal Build 1.06r1 (downloaded on my PC and copied across). I get the following error messages when trying to open each of the 3 named programs:
MSACCESS.EXE - Application Error
The instruction at "0x77f66709" referenced memory at "0x30d511d0". The required data was not placed into memory because of an I/O error status of "0xc000009c".
EXCEL.EXE - Application Error
The instruction at "0x77f66726" referenced memory at "0x30d511e4". The required data was not placed into memory because of an I/O error status of "0xc000009c".
Microsoft Word: WINWORD.EXE - Application Error
The instruction at "0x77f66726" referenced memory at "0x30d511e4". The required data was not placed into memory because of an I/O error status of "0xc000009c".
The following error message also appears after the laptop has booted:
OSA9.EXE - Application Error
The instruction at "0x77f66726" referenced memory at "0x30d511e4". The required data was not placed into memory because of an I/O error status of "0xc000009c".
I have done Ad-Aware and AVG scans (which found nothing) and tried System Restore (which undid the Ad-Aware update) but the problem remains. The OSA9.EXE file, dated 21 January 2000, is in C:\Windows\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office and is 65588 bytes. There is no file of the same name in C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System32 folder so I am sure there is no malware present.
I unticked OSA9.EXE in Msconfig/Startup but that didn't solve it. I ran the "Error-checking" tool in Windows to no avail and I tried using the Repair tool within Office 2000 but it won't run - I get the error message: "Run a DLL as an App has encountered a problem and needs to close."
Can anyone please suggest how to cure this problem? Would reinstalling Office 2000 perhaps solve it?
Regards
John

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