Hey, Wondering if anyone has run into this problem.

My Dad is running Microsoft Office 97, and recently Microsoft Word has stopped working. For Christmas I bought him new Memory to upgrade his Pc to 2GB of RAM. All was working fine, no problems with PC runningm but never thought to check Microsoft Word. Anyhow, He says that the error he gets is "Microsoft Word needs to re-install because the system configuration has changed." I dont really understand how changing memory can cause this, also, I did remove a bunch of things from his start-up, which shouldnt cause Word not to launch. He says that Excel and Access and Powerpoint all still work, Just Word.

Any thoughts

Thanks

Ok, Got a little more info from Mom, Dads away, but here's the scoop, Its actually Microsoft Word 2002, and for some reason, it says that the system configuration has been changed, and windows needs to re-activate Word 2002 (but not any other programs part of the Microsoft office 2002 Suite) Problem is, They cant find the CD to get source files, and I had her download the no-cd Service Pack 3 for Word, however it still prompts for a CD during the install of the service pack. Is there another way around this that someone may possibly know of. In addition to that, Does anyone know of a Product CD-Key viewer so that we can find out what Product Key they used to activate the Microsoft Office Suite?

Belarc will have all the keys.

I have had older systems require XP authenticating after a RAM upgrade.

Usually the message: "This system hardware has significantly changed. Please authenticate Windows".

It is strange that only Word would do this.

Awesome, Thanks for the link, program looks pretty good, i'll let you know after the weekend how i make out fixing that. Do you remember if finding the key and re-activating the copy of word requires me to have the CD? I am hoping not.

You shouldn't need the product key if Office (or Word) is only asking you to activate it. It just wants you to click the option to let it go online and connect to an activation server. It will usually only start questioning the product key if it thinks that you've already activated it too many times.

The hardware changes that cause re-activation are numerous. If you've already changed other hardware before, you might find that you accumulated a certain number of "points" in doing that and, by upgrading the RAM as well, that was just too much for Microsoft to let it slip by. They think that you've changed too much now and so it looks to them like you've cloned the installation onto a different PC.

I was having my mom go through a few steps that i found online through google, and when it was trying to "validate" the office program the tool says that their copy of Word was not geniune, which i know it is because i remember when dad got the computer and seeing the discs that came with it. Is this going to be a major issue?

Oh dear. Yes, that is a problem. Microsoft don't often make mistakes with licencing. Have you installed that licence on other PCs or made copies or let other people use it?

I think you should call Microsoft and try to get them to unblock your product key. Whilst it is blocked, you will never get it activated via Microsoft's servers using that product key.

I have no idea, the copy of word is 6 years old now and i think possibly my sister and brother may have used the discs to install it on their computers

if this is the case then it might even be a good idea to upgrade to newer version of microsoft office, it will have to be a decision made by my parents

Thanks for the info.

Thanks for the update Joe. Sorry I didn't reply sooner - I must have missed the notification email.

If you've installed it on other PCs, then Microsoft are right (to a certain extent) in that your parents are now running an illegal copy of the software. You'd be extremely lucky if they would activate it now. Sounds like buying a new licence is the only option. The cheaper Retail Upgrade version should be OK though - I wouldn't have thought that you'd need to buy a "full" product.

I'll close this thread off now then. If you want to discuss it further, just let a moderator here know and we'll open it up again. Thanks.

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