6

We are finding that Word 2007 (with SP2) crashes when used on a Windows 2008 R2 terminal server. Typically it crashes when you click File/Open or File/Save, but not every time. Maybe one time in four, and just to be really confusing, on a test server in my office I can't make it crash. I have just today set up a brand new shiny 2k8 R2 terminal server with as simple a setup as possible, e.g. no anti-virus to confuse things, and we're still seeing crashes.

My question is has anyone else seen this, and if so any clues on what's happening?

We have a support case open with Microsoft, and the MS support engineer has conceded it's happening, but has so far been unable to find the reason.

On possible factor is that all the 2k8 R2 terminal servers I've seen this on have been Hyper-V VMs (running on a 2k8 R2 host). I'm about to put in a physical 2k8 R2 terminal server at the customer where we're seeing the most crashes, in case this is relevant. More news soon.

Sorry if this posting seems a bit vague, but this has just bitten us and is causing a lot of pain and sleepless nights :-( If anyone can help I'll be enormously grateful!

Update: we've given up and gone back to 2008 pre-R2. Both Office 2003 and 2007 both work fine now.

I think there are some problems with TS in R2. Googling doesn't find much, so I thought it was just me. It's reassuring to find that someone else has seen the same problem.

Jeff Atwood
  • 12,994
  • 20
  • 74
  • 92
John Rennie
  • 7,756
  • 1
  • 22
  • 34

9 Answers9

6

I think i've made progress! Microsoft recommended i add WINWORD.exe, EXCEL.exe and Outlook.exe to DEP (Data Execution Prevention). (Silly I know considering it's a microsoft product!)

So far so good - havnt had a crash for 6 hours considering we would have up to 12 crashes in 1 hour. I'll keep you posted.

If you wish to test for yourself follow the instructions below.

  • Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
  • On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
  • On the Data Execution Prevention tab,
  • Make sure The option "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select" is selected
  • Example: Add: c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\excel.exe
  • Add all exe files for Outlook, word and excel.

* UDPATE *

Just to let you all know im confirming the above solution has resolved our problems with Word/Excel etc freezing up.

2

Try removing KB977724 That seems to have resolved the issue.

1

Here is an update from MS. Contains an update for the KB977724. http://blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2010/03/11/issues-with-office-after-installing-kb977724.aspx

1

We should have thought of this earlier, but running Word 2007 in XP compatability mode stops the crashes. This is a workaround, not a solution so I'll leave this open for a bit in case anyone else has a better solution.

The fact that Word runs fine in compatability mode suggests that this really is an issue with 2008 R2, and not a quirk of this particular installation.

JR

John Rennie
  • 7,756
  • 1
  • 22
  • 34
1

I wanted to provide an update on this issue.

Microsoft analyzed a dump file created during the word crash and they said it is probably a known problem. Fixes for Server 2008 R2 and Office 2007 are in the making, but they cannot tell any release date.

They told me to run Process Monitor during a crash which i will do today to further analyze the problem.

update: I think i have found something which is worth testing.

In Hyper-V Manager i allocated 4 CPUs for the Terminal Server Virtual Machine to improve performance.

We have another Terminal Server 2008 R2 with less users than on the problematic one but also with Office 2007 SP2 installed. 4 Weeks ago i changed the CPU Ressource Allocation on that Terminal Server in Hyper-V Manager to use only one processor.

Since this change i have not noticed any word crash on that Terminal Server.

So i will try to set cpu back to one on the problematic server to see if this is the problem.

Jeff Atwood
  • 12,994
  • 20
  • 74
  • 92
0

We had the same problem, turning on DEP was a good workaraound for us.

sysadmin1138
  • 131,083
  • 18
  • 173
  • 296
0

I Think it is a disaster that Microsoft don't see the need to fix this problem.

I have the same issue on several R2 TS installations, and I am quite frustrated about it, to say the least.

No fix, no help, and suggestions that seems to temporarily fix the problem (DEP) but then it returns after a couple of weeks, and now I cannot work around it anymore.

installing 2003 will be the solution if there is not a fix available soon...

0

Thanks for the info about KB977724, but that cannot be the issue that people here have complained about as it was only released on the 9th of March. The first post on this thread is on December 21st 2009.

Kieran Walsh
  • 908
  • 7
  • 14
  • 31
0

I encountered the same problem with Server 2008 R2 and Office Ultimate 2007 SP2 in the last few days. KB72224 was not listed as an installed update. I resolved the problem (at least for now) by setting Word to compatibility mode for Server 2008 R1. I also made sure users had full file control and rna it as administrator in case it was bombing while trying to open a read only file in wrtie mode.

My situation may be uiniques because I am running on a MAC PRO under Server 2008 R2 with no MAC operating system.