[Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Issues with installing under all versions of MS Windows
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turkris63
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[Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by turkris63 »

I have been using Open Office for several years and I love it! Up until a few weeks ago, that is!

Everytime that I try to work in it, I get a message that OpenOffice has crashed and a report has been sent to determine why it has crashed. It then offers me the opportunity to restore the docuement, but after a minute or so (sometimes as soon as I start to work in it), I get the same result. This is happening in documents that I have used numerous times before as well as new documents that I am trying to create. Sometimes after several times of recovering the document it will start working correctly but other times it does this continuously. I have a direct sales business as well as do a lot of advocating for a son who has autism and a boyfriend who is disabled after 21 years of Army combat service.

What could be causing this to happen? I would really hate to have to switch to a different program. Thank you!
Last edited by MrProgrammer on Fri Sep 06, 2019 5:29 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Mark as [Solved] and add green checkmark; Moved from Install, Setup and Troubleshooting forum to MS Windows
OpenOffice 4.1.3 Windows 10
thomasjk
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Re: OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by thomasjk »

Try resetting the user profile viewtopic.php?f=74&t=12426
Tom K.
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acknak
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Re: OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by acknak »

Greetings and welcome to the community forum!

When OO suddenly starts acting strangely, it's often cured by a fresh OO settings profile. This just means exiting OO, renaming (or removing) the folder where OO stores all its settings, then restarting OO. It will then create a new settings profile folder.

For details, see: [Tutorial] The OOo user profile

PS: Oops! Too slow.
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turkris63
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Re: OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by turkris63 »

Thank you both! My boyfriend sat down on my laptop and reset something within our malware software settings and that also seems to have taken care of it! I just completed a 4-page document with no issues. However, I am keeping the info you provided for future reference!

It is so good to know that there are people out there willing to help! Thanks again!
OpenOffice 4.1.3 Windows 10
thebeacondeacon
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Re: [Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by thebeacondeacon »

Even though this is a viable work around, it also means losing one's preferences and custom settings.

Can the Apache developers' group come up with either a series of error traps within Open Office to neutralize the consequences of the detection of these errors or a way of storing the user preferences, so that they can be copied to the new profile folder?

This issue is more than five years old, and it is worthy of a fix at this point.

Best regards,
Michael Eisen
OpenOffice 4.1.3 on Windows 10
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Villeroy
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Re: [Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by Villeroy »

thebeacondeacon wrote:Even though this is a viable work around, it also means losing one's preferences and custom settings.

Can the Apache developers' group come up with either a series of error traps within Open Office to neutralize the consequences of the detection of these errors or a way of storing the user preferences, so that they can be copied to the new profile folder?

This issue is more than five years old, and it is worthy of a fix at this point.

Best regards,
Michael Eisen
OpenOffice is almost dead. https://libreoffice.org/ is its legitimate successor.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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John_Ha
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Re: [Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by John_Ha »

thebeacondeacon wrote:Even though this is a viable work around, it also means losing one's preferences and custom settings.
Not so - just copy back the rest of the profile ignoring \config an registrymodificatons.xcu.
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See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

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robleyd
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Re: [Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by robleyd »

For more information on the user profile and what it contains, see [Tutorial]The OpenOffice User Profile
Cheers
David
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misitu
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Re: [Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by misitu »

re
" My boyfriend sat down on my laptop and reset something within our malware software settings and that also seems to have taken care of it!"
Yup I had this problem for a while, first a large spreadsheet crashing a few seconds after opening, then the main database doing the same thing. But after a few hiccups, managed to run

I tried the "corrupt user profile" cure but found I'd already tried that a few months back (evidence: saved user profile folder).

However this malware detection issue had some promise.

I went into my malware sys (Emsisoft: will be logging this with them) and change the behaviour blocker setting all the AOO exe files to TRUSTED and DON'T MONITOR. So far, a few hours down the road, good stuff.

There was a clue somewhere else about AOO not liking other active processes poking its components. We have a legal term for that over here, it's called "Acoso".

Cheers and many thanks to turkris63
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opensezame
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Re: [UNSolved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use i

Post by opensezame »

I have been plagued by progressively frequent AOO crashes with LOSS OF UNSAVED DATA for months now.
both in my OSX and Win10 machines
It simply lacks reliability and I can only use it when interoperability as a alternative to online or MSoffice for a family of my machines.
that coupled with format issues with Pages and Word and Xcel make it minimally useful
Worst is with cut and paste web pages, so will see if malware settings are worth the time to address
More "helpful" automation making life "better" from the feature creeps
Increasing complexity decreases utility.

Makes the thought of going back to Notepad look better every day
OPenOffice v4.1.2 on win10
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misitu
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Re: [Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by misitu »

My belief is that there is a race condition which, whether or not it's that, is most prevalent at startup (opening calc or base). That term applies to two parallel processes which do not synchronise but should. If the wrong one gets there first you can have a problem. I believe the term "thread-safe" would be a desirable aim if my guess is correct. But this may well be an unexpected side-effect of poor memory management because in the past (IIRC !!) I have upped the memory in the java start command. So there are two things to consider if any of the sys engineers from AOO happen to be passing at the moment.

I only use AOO base for data entry, most of my procedures and functions are written in HSQL. Even so, there can be issues so frequent backups are the way to go. AND don't mix dev stuff with data entry (like I do sometimes). If your dev code goes wrong you are liable to lose recent data. Backup every session, and don't do dev work until you've saved your data entry, is what I try to live by, unless I forget...

A big plus for reliability is to separate the database out from the openoffice front end (see Villeroy et al). Even better is to run the database as an HSQL server and just have the openoffice front end talk to that.

OK, that's all for now, "TTD,PTG,PTS,MTS"
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RoryOF
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Re: [Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by RoryOF »

Try starting Windows in Safe mode, then run OO. If OO runs stable in that mode you should look for some program/driver that runs in Windows normal mode that interferes with OO.
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misitu
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Re: [Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by misitu »

@RoryOF
"Try starting Windows in Safe mode, then run OO. If OO runs stable in that mode you should look for some program/driver that runs in Windows normal mode that interferes with OO."

Yup, I did think about this. But then I thought about it a bit more and wondered how much work it would be, and how much expertise I'd need that I don't have ready to hand.

In my case I do have a suspect because when I <START> calc [usually, with a specific sheet], or base [sometimes] I will get a crash. With base I cannot pin it down, except that [sometimes] it will fail with a specific spreadsheet already open. With calc if I move the sheet to the second screen and max it then I get about one change before oo disappears.

I don't have a clue as to how to start looking at this because it is a situation that does not occur absolutely predictably.

I'm quite prepared to live with this until I can replace my machine but to be honest it does look to me as if I, inter alia, have exposed some sort of thread weakness in apache open office that those closer to the program really should find it in their hearts and schedules to have a proper look.

I am committed to remaining a user of HSQLDB (functionality etc) so maybe I should change to an alternative front end. But, then, would changing to Libre make a difference? if the underlying engine is the same, maybe not.

Are there any other alternatives? - am using base, calc, and writer. The uno programming stuff is useful, very useful.

As I said, I don't really mind continuing with a flawed setup but maybe it WOULD be worth a look..

David D
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John_Ha
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Re: [Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by John_Ha »

misitu wrote:@RoryOF
"Try starting Windows in Safe mode, then run OO. If OO runs stable in that mode you should look for some program/driver that runs in Windows normal mode that interferes with OO."

Yup, I did think about this. But then I thought about it a bit more and wondered how much work it would be, and how much expertise I'd need that I don't have ready to hand.
It's trivially easy.

Google safe mode and start the PC according to the instructions for your OS. Open the spreadsheet which always crashes. Does it do so now?
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grayghost27053
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Re: [Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by grayghost27053 »

For anyone still having this problem,it appears Malware-Bites is the culprit. It could be other similar software. I was :crazy: plagued by the same problem as others, I uninstalled and reinstalled both packages only to have the same problem. Until I removed Malware-Bites.

Sorry for the above post, it was wrong. It is only after you remove everything that makes a computer good and somewhat secure, that you get to use your software to do anything. Even have to remove all the updates from microHump. Thanks microhump, or whoever is responsible! I now have a 2000 dollar computer that SUCKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSASSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!! :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :bravo: !
Now I get to set here for days trying to find out what I can and can not run :bravo: :bravo: again
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Kingcharle
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Re: [Solved] OpenOffice keeps crashing when I try to use it

Post by Kingcharle »

Villeroy wrote: Sat Feb 03, 2018 1:50 am
thebeacondeacon wrote:Even though this is a viable work around, it also means losing one's preferences and custom settings.

Can the Apache developers' group come up with either a series of error traps within Open Office to neutralize the consequences of the detection of these errors or a way of storing the user preferences, so that they can be copied to the new profile folder?

This issue is more than five years old, and it is worthy of a fix at this point.

Best regards,
Michael Eisen
OpenOffice is almost dead. https://libreoffice.org/ is its legitimate successor.
Yes because libreoffice expanded itself to 64-bit. :P
OpenOffice 4.1.5 on Windows 10
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