Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hello to all;
I see there are a great many others having problems with this program. I run WinXP and use a firewall from MS. I have tried to download OpenOffice 3x and each time it gets all the way to Install when the blue screen of death pops up. There is, however, an icon placed on my desktop but I suspected an incomplete download. When I right click on the icon and then left click Open on the menu, all I get is a complete list of all of the files that were downloaded and not the program itself. Going to Control Panel>Add or Remove shows nothing to UNINSTALL. Nothing. How do I uninstall this thing???? I will try to download it again but do not want to until I unstall the partial program I think I have loaded. It is weird.
Thanks.
Tony/tthan43

I split your topic to a new one since your problem is quite different to the topic you posted in.

First on the error you are getting (you posted more details to the email you sent to the Administrators). Win32k.sys errors like you describe are a known problem with Microsoft Windows XP (and is likely completely unrelated to OpenOffice.org). See here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329052 Microsoft also does not have a solution other than reinstall WindowsXP. Some people report success with slowing the RAM timing (in the BIOS), others track the problem to drivers. So, it could be an existing hardware issue or a driver problem that is triggered when you attempt to install OpenOffice.org, but it is highly unlikely that the actual cause is OpenOffice.org. I don't have any other suggestions... maybe this extra info about the error may help someone else provide a solution.

Under normal circumstances for MS Windows, you download a single large executable file. You click on it to launch the installer. You follow a bunch of installation wizard steps, and OpenOffice.org is installed. You launch it by going to Start > Programs > OpenOffice.org where you will find all the different components. As part of the install, there is a directory placed on your desktop. This directory can safely be deleted after a successful install.

You can validate your downloaded file by checking the MD5Sum (think of it like a software fingerprint). You said you downloaded the OpenOffice.org Beta version, so you find the MD5Sums for that version here: http://download.openoffice.org/680/md5sums.html (this is from a link on the OOo3.0Beta download page) You can use any of many MD5Sum checking software such as: http://www.blisstonia.com/software/WinMD5/

tthan43 wrote:How do I uninstall this thing???? I will try to download it again but do not want to until I unstall the partial program I think I have loaded.

I suspect the application has in fact not been installed, so there might be no need to uninstall anything.
Has the folder C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3 been created?

KR, phil

tthan43 wrote:it gets all the way to Install when the blue screen of death pops up

A BSOD indicates a serious fault with your system. There is generally nothing a software application can do to prevent or to provoke it. It sounds like the error happens during the time Microsoft's Window Installer is running, so OpenOffice.org is less to blame there.

The error code on the BSOD could give you a clue, but one common reason for BSODs is bad drivers. Try updating your video drivers. Also you might run the Windows utility for checking for disk errors.

The BSOD is what you need to focus your effort on. Do you ever get BSODs with other use of your system?

There is, however, an icon placed on my desktop but I suspected an incomplete download.

There should be one or two. You can see an example in "How to Start OpenOffice.org" at the end in the section "How not to start OpenOffice.org."

When I right click on the icon and then left click Open on the menu, all I get is a complete list of all of the files that were downloaded and not the program itself.

In that folder, run the setup.exe program.

Going to Control Panel>Add or Remove shows nothing to UNINSTALL. Nothing. How do I uninstall this thing????

As Phil indicated, it's not installed yet.

I will try to download it again

If you have the yellow OpenOffice.org icon (a folder) on your desktop, then your download is fine. Don't bother unless you have an old OpenOffice.org version. OOo version 2.4.1 recently came out.