PowerPoint 4.0 - Causes CHK Error & Crashes OS 8.1

[Concorde1993]

I was able to find a sealed complete copy of Microsoft Office 4.2.1 on eBay awhile back. Not the most popular version of MS Office for the Mac by any means, but I wanted to have a clean install of this version to replace a previous owner's butchered version on my IIfx.

The main problem I've been experiencing with 4.2.1 (I have revision "b" if that makes any difference) is PowerPoint 4.0 loves to crash my IIfx under 8.1. I typically get a CHK error and System Bomb when trying to open a PP document from both a cold boot and when the computer has been running for sometime (there are moments when I get a error -7 and a System Bomb). Oddly, Word 6.0.1 and Excel 5.0a, which came bundled with 4.2.1b, do not exhibit these abnormalities. Norton Utilities did not find any errors with my HD nor any corrupted files.

I also have Word 5.1 and PP 3.0 installed on the IIfx. These work fine, but if I open an older doc that was created with these two (I had a bunch of Office docs from my PB 160 HD), Office 4.2.1 automatically opens these docs with the "newer" Word and PP versions from 4.2.1b

Thoughts? I've read Office 4.2 was extremely buggy upon initial release. 4.2.1 (and later iterations) supposedly "fixed" whatever ailed it. If there's no solution to eliminate these system errors, I'll just delete PP 4.0 and leave version 3.0 and see what happens.

 

[Forrest]

According to Apple, the last supported OS for the MacIIfx was 7.6.1

 

[Nixontheknight]

According to Apple, the last supported OS for the MacIIfx was 7.6.1

that is where resedit trickery comes in, my guy. There's an article on how to get Mac OS 8.1 to run on 68030 Macs, even back to the Macintosh iix

 

[Nixontheknight]

I was able to find a sealed complete copy of Microsoft Office 4.2.1 on eBay awhile back. Not the most popular version of MS Office for the Mac by any means, but I wanted to have a clean install of this version to replace a previous owner's butchered version on my IIfx.

The main problem I've been experiencing with 4.2.1 (I have revision "b" if that makes any difference) is PowerPoint 4.0 loves to crash my IIfx under 8.1. I typically get a CHK error and System Bomb when trying to open a PP document from both a cold boot and when the computer has been running for sometime (there are moments when I get a error -7 and a System Bomb). Oddly, Word 6.0.1 and Excel 5.0a, which came bundled with 4.2.1b, do not exhibit these abnormalities. Norton Utilities did not find any errors with my HD nor any corrupted files.

I also have Word 5.1 and PP 3.0 installed on the IIfx. These work fine, but if I open an older doc that was created with these two (I had a bunch of Office docs from my PB 160 HD), Office 4.2.1 automatically opens these docs with the "newer" Word and PP versions from 4.2.1b

Thoughts? I've read Office 4.2 was extremely buggy upon initial release. 4.2.1 (and later iterations) supposedly "fixed" whatever ailed it. If there's no solution to eliminate these system errors, I'll just delete PP 4.0 and leave version 3.0 and see what happens.

try installing a later version of office

 

[Phipli]

These work fine, but if I open an older doc that was created with these two (I had a bunch of Office docs from my PB 160 HD), Office 4.2.1 automatically opens these docs with the "newer" Word and PP versions from 4.2.1b

That's just a Mac thing. The file types are owned by one of the programs. The only real way of dealing with this type of issue is to not have two different versions of the same program installed sadly.

PowerPoint 4.0 loves to crash my IIfx under 8.1

As has already been mentioned, this isn't supported, so incompatibilities can be expected. Have you considered running Mac OS 7.6.1 with Appearance Manager installed instead? There isn't a huge difference, other than no HFS+ support.

Does it work properly if you boot from 7.6.1 or earlier?

I've read Office 4.2 was extremely buggy upon initial release. 4.2.1 (and later iterations) supposedly "fixed" whatever ailed it.

Perhaps its worth finding the update patches?

 

[Concorde1993]

try installing a later version of office

Office 4.2.1 was the last version of MS Office to be supported on a 68k Mac. Can't go any higher than that on the IIfx (next Office edition was 98, which required a PPC processor).

Perhaps its worth finding the update patches?

I think I have the highest revision for 4.2.1 (my installer came with the "b" revision).

Does it work properly if you boot from 7.6.1 or earlier?

I had someone else's copy of 4.2.1 on my external Apple 1.2GB drive, which is running 7.5.3. It worked fine for awhile, but I started getting "could not boot Microsoft OLE extension" errors so I opted to delete that once I found a brand new NOS copy of 4.2.1

 

[Concorde1993]

According to Apple, the last supported OS for the MacIIfx was 7.6.1

I did the ResEdit hacks to get the IIfx to run OS 8.1

 

[Nixontheknight]

I did the ResEdit hacks to get the IIfx to run OS 8.1

I did the same thing to get 8.1 onto my LC III

 

[Forrest]

I’d guess Microsoft never tested that version of Office on a Mac IIfx running OS8.1. Maybe you should revert to an official MacOS release for more reliable results.

 

[Phipli]

but I started getting "could not boot Microsoft OLE extension" errors so I opted to delete that once I found a brand new NOS copy of 4.2.1

That sounds like a different issue. Does this version work if you install it on your 7.5.5 setup?

 

[Concorde1993]

I’d guess Microsoft never tested that version of Office on a Mac IIfx running OS8.1.

It’s compatible with any OS from System 7 to 8.6 with a 68020 or faster processor. It will not run in OS 9.

 

[Phipli]

It’s compatible with any OS from System 7 to 8.6 with a 68020 or faster processor. It will not run in OS 9.

But not on 8.1 on an 030. Because 8.1 doesn't officially support the 68030.

 

[joshc]

Yeah, you're mixing software/hardware that was never officially tested. Apple never officially supported OS 8 on the IIfx. They would've never run any tests in their labs with that combination, so errors are to be expected. And likewise, Microsoft wouldn't have tested their software with that combination either, so again not surprising there are problems running it in that scenario.

Run a reliable known setup if you want ... a reliable known setup.

 

[Concorde1993]

They would've never run any tests in their labs with that combination, so errors are to be expected. And likewise, Microsoft wouldn't have tested their software with that combination either, so again not surprising there are problems

Yeah. It’s just odd that PowerPoint seems to be the only problem child. The rest of the office suite is fine.

 

[Concorde1993]

Uninstalled PP 4.0 using Microsoft's Office Manager. Kept the ClipArt images (they work in 3.0) and some templates. IIfx doesn't seem to be crashing anymore.