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2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

An issue has recently been discovered in PowerPoint 2007 where the application will hang while working with a 2007 chart object (not the legacy MS Graph chart). The PowerPoint product team is aware of this issue and a fix is planned for the August timeframe.  Please be advised this date can change based on a number of factors. 

 

The hang occurs as a result of the following behaviors after installing Service Pack 2:

1.       Clicking very fast multiple times in a chart object

2.       Using the arrow keys on the keyboard to quickly navigate through the object

3.       Quickly copying and pasting entire charts or chart elements

 

The error signature for this hang may include references to OfficeLifeBoatHang as the Event Type.

 

There's an updated hotfix, the KB article is:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975021

 

To get the hotfix click on  View and request hotfix downloads at top of that KB article, accept terms, fill out form and submit.
Published Wednesday, May 27, 2009 1:17 PM by Aaron Rykhus

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Thursday, August 06, 2009 11:05 AM by Guy Whistler

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

We are experiencing this also.  However, when we uninstall SP2 it just causes other stability issues. For example we can then not copy and paste a chart from one pptx to another without Powerpoint hanging or crashing.

Is there any update on a hotfix?

Thursday, August 06, 2009 12:10 PM by Aaron Rykhus

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

You could try disabling add-ins. Or just completely uninstalling Office and re-installing. As I mentioned if you need further assistance contact support at 800-MICROSOFT or http://support.microsoft.com.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009 12:52 PM by Matt

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

No Aaaron, disabling add-ins doesn't resolve the issue.  Considering that seemingly a lot of people have that issue, it sounds sort of silly to suggest that each single person should contact MS for support of an issue that they are not able to fix.  Sorry if I sound snappy, but let's be honest: this is a major bug since for many users it renders the product useless and instead of talking to people on the phone finding workarounds like disabling add-ins (which we need), MS should rather work on resolving the issue.

Thursday, August 27, 2009 7:28 AM by Robert

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

We have same issue here.

It's not related to document size and type of content.

It can be easly reproduced by opening blank presentation, inserting default chart with default data suggested by PPT and then clicking fast inside chart, selecting and/or moving objects belonging to chart.

PPT would freeze after several clicks.

Thursday, August 27, 2009 7:51 PM by Antonio Bravo

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

when is this going to be fixed????? I have lost a lot of work due to this problem.  I know a lot of people with the same problem.  

!

Thursday, September 03, 2009 12:46 AM by Jim

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

I hate you for this. This makes my life miserable.

Friday, September 04, 2009 7:07 PM by BV

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

Yes I completely agree. I don't know why this is taking so long to fix, this is a MAJOR bug! It's good to know at least I'm not the only one with this problem and that is known by Microsoft but there seriously needs to be something done to fix this issue. I have re-run powerpoint (on a good day) about 40-50 times!

Monday, September 07, 2009 10:57 AM by L Fitzgerald

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

Office 2007, SP3 -- Experiencing same crash issues described.  Ran Diagnostics, installed all updates, the usual.

Concur about multiple, quick clicking and use of arrow keys to navigate. I've had days where I've crashed at least 30 times.  

Microsoft:  please fix.

Monday, September 07, 2009 10:57 AM by L Fitzgerald

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

Office 2007, SP2 -- Experiencing same crash issues described.  Ran Diagnostics, installed all updates, the usual.

Concur about multiple, quick clicking and use of arrow keys to navigate. I've had days where I've crashed at least 30 times.  

Microsoft:  please fix.

Friday, September 11, 2009 12:59 PM by Aaron Rykhus

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

We now have a hotfix that you need to contact support to obtain, 800-MICROSOFT or http://support.microsoft.com/oas, you won't be charged if you're just requesting the hotfix.

Aaron Rykhus

Support Engineer, Microsoft

Friday, September 11, 2009 5:43 PM by DR

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

What is the KB number for the hotfix? I have contacted support and they don't know what I'm asking for without a KB to reference.

Monday, September 14, 2009 10:41 AM by Aaron Rykhus

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

The KB article should be here early this week. We should still be letting you submit a support case on this even without a KB article #, unless I'm missing something. If you still can't get through to support use the Email link (http://blogs.technet.com/arykhus/contact.aspx) on the upper left hand side of this blog to send me an E-mail and I'll look into it.

Aaron Rykhus

Support Engineer

Microsoft Corporation

Monday, September 14, 2009 3:12 PM by Mike

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

I ran into the same issue, being asked for a kb number I did not have. But on my second phone call the microsoft rep put me on hold and did some investigating. I was sent kb975021, so try asking for that.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 1:26 AM by Nancy Dickson

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

THANK YOU Aaron! I just installed KB975021 and it fixed the problem on my XP box. This is such a relief.

Thursday, October 01, 2009 11:08 PM by John Q

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

I tried installing the hotfix and it says the product it was looking for wasn't installed.

Does this hotfix not apply to users of Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus? Because customers that paid for this product are having this problem and losing time and money as well.

Friday, October 02, 2009 10:04 AM by Aaron Rykhus

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

ProPlus should qualify, actually, as long as it's 2007 SP1 or SP2 it should work. The suite level shouldn't matter. If you have SP1 or SP2 and still get the error, try repairing Office, or uninstall/reinstall. If you need assistance you should be able to get support (800-MICROSOFT) at no cost from us since it's an install issue, those are typically no cost if they're still in mainstream support, which Office 2007 is.

Aaron Rykhus

Support Engineer

Microsoft Corporation

Saturday, October 03, 2009 10:37 PM by John Q

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

---------------------------

Hotfix for Office (KB975021)

---------------------------

The expected version of the product was not found on the system.

---------------------------

OK  

---------------------------

This is on Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 with SP2.

I tried just re-installing it with SP1 and got the same message.

Not sure if I should call Microsoft support on this...

Monday, October 05, 2009 10:26 AM by John Q

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

I installed the Hotfix for a user on Microsoft Office Standard 2007 here and it installed fine (she was getting the crash as well and the hotfix fixed it).

I still have a user (our VP Corp Controller of course) who's crashing due to it. Will Microsoft support give me a different hotfix or troubleshoot the existing installation of his MS Office Pro Plus 2007 so the Hotfix will detect it?

Monday, October 05, 2009 12:36 PM by John Q

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

I did contact Microsoft, they said we'd need a service agreement for free support on this incident (for Professional Plus). Otherwise it's about $250.

We have an enterprise agreement so I'll try with that.

Monday, October 05, 2009 1:40 PM by John Q

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

It looks like MS wouldn't provide any free tech support for Professional Plus. Tried providing our Enterprise Agreement # for tech support but it is not honored for tech support; it's merely a number that represents a volume licensing agreement.

Monday, October 05, 2009 4:58 PM by John Q

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

I will try installing the individual Applications from our Office 2007 Enterprise setup files and post my results.

Monday, October 05, 2009 5:49 PM by Aaron Rykhus

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

Do you have any standalone Office applications installed such as Visio, Project, Expression Web, or SharePoint Designer? If those standalone apps aren't patched to SP1 or SP2 then that's what's causing the hotfix to error out.

For the other issue, if you are still seeing the problem after applying the hotfix you will need to open a support ticket with us.

Aaron

Tuesday, October 06, 2009 12:13 AM by John Q

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

Unfortunately I do not have any other stand alone apps. I've completely uninstalled all of Office, ran CCleaner, rebooted, tried reinstalling just Standard 2007, rebooting, then installing hotfix, still doesn't detect it. that is so strange. i repeated the process with 2007 professional plus and nothing.

Looks like we'll need to reformat the whole PC. A service call per incident cost more than the entire product.

Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:24 AM by John Q

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

I was able to install hotfix.

I had to go into add/remove programs, show updates, and uninstall EVERY update to Office, as well as the suite.

Then deleted the office key out of the software > Microsoft under HKLM. Then i rebooted, reinstalled Office 2007 Professional Plus (w/ sp2), rebooted, then was able to install the Hotfix.

---------------------------

Hotfix for Office (KB975021)

---------------------------

The installation is complete.

---------------------------

OK  

---------------------------

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 4:20 PM by Bobby Campbell

# re: 2007 Chart Crashes or Hangs after Office 2007 SP2 or Feb/April CU Applied

The hotfix won't install if you also have the PowerPoint viewer installed.  Remove the viewer, and you should be fine.  However, when we installed the Hotfix to stop the graph "crashing" issue, we started noticing that text boxes no longer line up properly.  That is, text boxes created on a system with the Hotfix line up differently than on systems that do not have the Hotfix installed.

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