Has Word gotten suddenly very fragile? I can create documents fine, and all functions work - except inserting a picture. No matter what I try, Word always crashes trying to do this. It seems unable to open and populate the Insert window, because it opens a blank shell and then crashes.



I can copy an image from one Word doc to another with no problem, so it seems to be the function of opening a selection window.

I have looked at available physical memory, but it's always 50-60%, so I don't think that's the problem.

I have tried rebooting and not opening any apps except Word (and the ones that start automatically, like antivirus). I can recreate the problem hundreds of times, and maybe once in a while it will insert successfully.

Any suggestions, other than reinstalling Word?

I tried the same thing in PowerPoint, and it also crashed every time.

Have you tried repairing the Office installation (via Windows Control Panel > Programs > Programs & Features > Microsoft Office (version) > Change > Repair)?

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I tried what you suggested. When I click on Change, I get a window saying that Windows is gathering the information needed. In Task Mgr, I see Windows Setup Bootstrapper start running. After about 15 seconds, it simply stops. Occasionally, I will see (not responding) in the window header.

I have tried repeatedly, rebooted, shut down all processes that might be eating up memory or other resources, but it's always the same.

This seems to be the same symptom that I get when I try to Insert Picture into a document. Other Word functions work, but sometimes Word actually freezes during Starting. I usually have to reboot the PC, and then it usually starts OK.

If Office is unable to complete the repair, you may need to reinstall it.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I disconnected from the Internet and closed the three biggest eaters of memory: Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, and Dropbox. That lowered my physical memory consumption to 32%, and then I could insert any pictures I wanted, no matter how big. With those three running, it was around 64% used.

The problem, then, is competition for resources, not something going on with Word. Word is apparently just as big a memory glutton as the other three programs, all of which I really need running. I have 2 GB of RAM and no way to add more (short of buying a bigger PC).

This is probably now an issue for another forum, but I'll describe it here. I connected an external hard disk drive with 1 TB of space and added it to the list of locations for page file/virtual memory. Win 10 is not using any of that space. When memory gets overused, things just stop working (e.g., Word), despite there being a ton of space for paging on the new device. I see it in the virtual memory devices list, and I tried letting Windows manage it, and also allocating 100 GB for paging, but Windows just ignores it and instead pulls this nonsense.

Just in case, does anyone in this forum know how to address this problem?

There have been numerous recent reports of Malwarebytes conflicting with Office. That may be the problem here.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Paul, that was the problem. I disabled Malwarebytes, and the problem went away. Not wanting to exist without the protection that I get from MB, I read further.

On MB's web site, I found this:

Websense Endpoint hooks KernelBase!LoadLibraryExW API via QIPCAP64.DLL. MBAE also hooks this API. However due to a bug in Websense's hooking mechanism it improperly handles the hook and may create crashes when opening Word, Excel or other applications. If you are experiencing this issue please contact Websense to report this bug to them ("bad attempt to copy jmp qword instruction rip based"). We are working on a new mechanism to handle these types of conflicts.

Further experimentation proved that if I simply turn off Anti-Exploit (MBAE) instead of all of MB, Word works perfectly. It does appear, though, that the problem is with Websense Endpoint, which I didn't even know I had on my PC.

As long as I can toggle MBAE on and off when necessary, I'll wait for MB to release their "new mechanism."

Thanks for all your help. Problem solved!

Tom