Word and Excel Run-time error '429' - ActiveX component can't create object

vbuzak,
Microsoft offers a number of possible causes in the following links. Your problem might be caused by trying to run Word & Excel from a server, or by an add-in that is not able to cope with your configuration. Another common cause is attempting to launch Word or Excel programmatically (e.g. under control of a VBA macro).
 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244264/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828550/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/238610/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/288902/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257757/en-us

Are you able to launch Word or Excel successfully after booting in Safe mode?
Brad

Alternative means of launching applications in Safe mode:
1) Go to the Start...Run command line
2) Browse to find WINWORD.EXE or EXCEL.EXE (see typical path in step 3)
3) Add the Safe switch following the path to the application, using /A for Word and /Safe for Excel. For example:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\WINWORD.EXE" /A                    note the single space after path
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /Safe
4) Click the OK button

For Office XP (don't know about other versions offhand) you can also hold down the control key and then open Word/Excel as normal - you will be asked if you want to start them in Safe mode.
FWIW
Rory

>uploaded my old documents (from Office 2002)
By any chance do these 'old documents' have any VBA code in them, where if you open them and go to Tools:References, you find one that is unchecked and prefixed with 'MISSING: '?

One possibility is that your old documents referenced either an Office object model, Excel or Word Object model, ADO or DAO object model, or something else where the 2002 version was deleted and replaced with a 2003 version during the 2003 upgrade.  

Hi guys,

I appreciate your comments very much and was able to fix Excel error by removing VBA code there (how did it get there anyway, as that was a new Office 2003 installation, I just copied over "My Documents" from the old machine)?

However, there was nothing under VBA in Word, and there are only two macros, which I am not able to remove (delete button is grayed out).

I am able to start Word (and Excel) in safe mode, however when I open any "old" Word document, I get Run-time error '429' still. I am pretty sure that if I remove macros in Word, I would be fine, but don't know how to do it because the "delete" button is grayed out.

Any further thoughts would be much appreciated..

Many thanks,
vbuzak.

You don't Delete code modules. But you should be able to Remove them. The Delete key will be grayed out, unless you select some text for it to work on.

Are you able to use the File...Remove xxx menu item in the VBA Editor? You'll need to select the item in the Project Explorer, which you can view (if it isn't already displayed) by CTRL + R

Hello again,

Thanks to your "CTRL + R" suggestion in the VBA Editor, I was able to display some VBA projects in Word. However, when I select any item in the Project Explorer, File...Remove xxx menu is grayed out, so I cannot remove those projects.

Also, when I try to expand the first project (pdms_word), I get a message "Project is unviewable", so any further help which you might offer would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,
vbuzak.

vbuzak,
Which projects do you see in the VBA Editor?

Some third-party programs (such as Adobe Acrobat) install add-ins that are known to conflict with Office 2003. Acrobat 6 and earlier have this problem, for example. In the case of Acrobat, removing the pdfmaker.dot template it installs in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\STARTUP folder will solve the problem.

Brad

vbuzak,
Since I suspect that none of our suggestions solved your problem, I prefer to refund your points rather than put a "bad" answer in the Experts-Exchange database.

If you haven't solved the problem, I'll refund your points and delete the question. But if you have solved the problem and post the method you used, I'll refund your points and give you credit for answering the question. Does that seem fair?

byundt--Microsoft Office Page Editor

Yes mate, that seems fair, but I just don't understand why can't I just delete some VBA code when I open a new Word document, but I get a message "Project is unviewable" instead?

It's a common practice for third-party software developers to password protect their VBA code. This is to keep users from playing with it, as the password is easily broken by commercial packages that remove passwords.

You may be able to delete the code by unchecking its checkbox in the Template tab of the Tools...Templates and Add-Ins menu item. This same dialog can also be used to redirect the document to a different template--using the Attach... button. You would take this second step if the old template contained code that was causing your problem.

Brad

Unchecking "Pdms_word.dot" checkbox in the Template tab of the Tools...Templates and Add-Ins menu item did not help (the check box would come on again next time when starting Word (and the error would come up, as well).

However, that screen told me where to look for that template "Pdms_word.dot" and it was not hiding under "Program Files .. Microsoft.. Startup" folder, but it was in "Documents and Settings - Username - Application Settings - Microsoft - Word  - Startup" folder.

Once "Pdms_word.dot" was removed from there, it all worked nicely (without the error when starting Word)!

vbuzak,
I refunded your points (500) and gave you credit for answering your own question. Owing to a limitation of the EE website, I was not able to make the Comment with the actual solution as the Answer. Instead, I picked one of your earlier ones.

byundt--Microsoft Office Zone Advisor