Diagnose and repair crashing Office programs by using Office Diagnostics

Microsoft Office Diagnostics in the 2007 Microsoft Office system is a series of diagnostic tests that can help you discover why your computer is crashing (closing abnormally). The diagnostic tests can inform you about problems and might identify ways that you can solve other problems.

For help with error messages, email, downloads and other issues, you can learn about the Solution Center, support options, and other useful links at Microsoft Help and Support

Important: Diagnostic information gathered from your computer is compiled and kept on your computer. When Office Diagnostics determines that the data might help diagnose and fix a problem, the system asks whether you want to send the information to Microsoft. After the tests are completed, you are prompted to visit a Web page to get advice based the results of the tests. Any information that you share with Microsoft is completely anonymous, and no information is personally identifiable as being yours. To learn more about information confidentiality, see the Privacy Statement.

In this article

What do the individual diagnostic tests do?

How do I run Office Diagnostics?

Which Office 2007 program are you using?

What do the individual diagnostic tests do?

When you run Office Diagnostics, you generally are running all of the tests. However, in some cases, some tests are not run — for example, if you are running a server version of Microsoft Windows or if an administrator has disabled some of the tests.

The Office Diagnostics are:

• Setup Diagnostic     This test checks for corruption in the files and registry settings in your 2007 Microsoft Office system installation. Files and settings can be corrupted by malicious viruses or by hardware that is faulty or incorrectly configured.

  The following are some important facts about this test:

  • This test might take 15 minutes or longer to run.

  • This test might not run effectively if you are logged onto the system using Terminal Services or Remote Desktop.

  • While running the test, in some uncommon situations, you might be prompted to insert the Microsoft Office installation disc. Make sure you have access to the disc or network share from which you installed Office.

    Note: In earlier versions of Office, this feature was called Detect and Repair.

• Disk Diagnostic     This test looks for evidence of problems with your hard disk. Specifically this test checks for errors logged by the following:

  • The Windows system event log.

  • The Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) feature of your hard disk. SMART is a feature that some disk drive manufacturers provide to give users advance notice of potential hard disk failure.

• Memory Diagnostic     This test verifies the integrity of your computer's random access memory (RAM).

  Note: This test is disabled by default on server versions of Windows.

• Compatibility Diagnostic     This test identifies conflicting versions of Microsoft Office Outlook that might be installed on your computer. Two different versions of Outlook cannot be installed on the same computer without causing instability.

• Check for known solutions     This test reviews the data on crashes of the 2007 Office release that have recently occurred on your system. The test then connects to a server to look for any solutions that might be available for the problems that caused these crashes.

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How do I run Office Diagnostics?

Before running Office Diagnostics, and to ensure all the tests can run successfully, we recommend that you do the following:

• Plan to run the tests during a time when you can stop using your system. In particular, you should avoid using the system while the Memory Diagnostic is running.

• Close as many running programs as you can.

Do the following in one of these 2007 Microsoft Office system programs:

Which Office 2007 program are you using?

Access

Access

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Access Options.

2. Click Resources.

3. Click Diagnose, click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

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Excel

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Excel Options.

2. Click Resources.

3. Click Diagnose, click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

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InfoPath

1. On the Help menu, click Office Diagnostics.

2. Click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

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OneNote

1. On the Help menu, click Office Diagnostics.

2. Click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

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Outlook

1. On the Help menu, click Office Diagnostics.

2. Click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

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PowerPoint

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click PowerPoint Options.

2. Click Resources.

3. Click Diagnose, click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

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Project

1. On the Help menu, click Office Diagnostics.

2. Click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

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Publisher

1. On the Help menu, click Office Diagnostics.

2. Click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

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SharePoint Designer

1. On the Help menu, click Office Diagnostics.

2. Click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

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Visio

1. On the Help menu, click Office Diagnostics.

2. Click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

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Word

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.

2. Click Resources.

3. Click Diagnose, click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

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How do I run Office Diagnostics if I can't run an Office program?

If necessary, you can run Office Diagnostics from the Start menu.

• In Microsoft Windows, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Office, point to Microsoft Office Tools, and then click Microsoft Office Diagnostics.

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