Excel Help missing and cannot reinstal

I have been using Excel for quite a while without any problems. Recently I got the message that Help was not installed although I had used it many times previously. It advised me to put Office 2000 CD in the drive to reinstall what is missing. when I did this, I got an error message to say DATA1.MSI was required to install from this CD. I used Find to check that DATA1.MSI is not on C:. I do not know what caused the problem or how to get over it. The chart bar is now missing from Excel. I have Windows 98SE and have been using Office 2000 for years. I have found that it is Windows installer error 1603 which can apply to Office 2000 Professional, which is the CD I have. There is also a message that the problem is Office 2000 error 1706. The notes I have been able to find on these two errors do not help me to understand why the problem suddenly emerged and what I should do to get Excel Help back.

 

Since you have the CD, try uninstalling Office and performing a fresh installation.

 

Thanks for that recommendation. I went to the repair Office screen as suggested. It did not work and went through the same procedure as when I tried to install Office previously. It could not find the folder and came up with the 1706 error message.

 

Try reading this http://http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA011185721033.aspx

I was actually referring to a total removal of Office from your system, not repairing. By that I mean running the uninstaller from the Add or Remove programs list, then rebooting and inserting the Office CD and installing a fresh copy. That is, if all else fails.

 

Thank you for those suggestions. I went to that link and found that it described what had happened. however, I was not able to get the Detect and Repair even when I went to Help on Power Point rather than Excel. I will try the reinstall that you see as being the fall back position and advise what happens.

 

I uninstalled Office 2000 and let it reboot. I put the Office 2000 CD in the drive and the light flickered. But nothing came up on the screen so I went to My Computer and double clicked on D: and the My Computer message came up D:\ is not accessible. The device is not ready. Retry. Which I did with no success. what have i done wrong?

 

I have tried another CD and that worked ok. It looks as though the Office 2000 CD may be corrupted although there are no visible signs. I now have a real problem as I am without Word or Excel.

 

I have temporarily got over the problem by copying the Excel and Word files I am working on to another computer, using a CD, that also has Windows 98SE and Office 2000.

 

I copied the large file I was working on with Word to the second computer. It is Read Only and Help does not give an indication of how this can be switched on or off. It is important that I can get back to editing that file. suggestions will e much appreciated.
The Excel file I was working with is ok on the second computer. I tried transferring Office 2000 from that computer to this one. The second computer cannot burn CDs so I had to use floppy disks. This was very time consuming and stopped half way through because one file was too large for a floppy.

 

I used Explorer to find the file and right click on it to get properties. There I unchecked the read only box. I now have a .doc I can edit.

 

Did you use this CD to install the original copy of Office? Try inserting the cd into the other computer that you are using and see if the drive recognizes it.

 

I used the Office 2000 Professional CD some years ago to reinstall Office when I had a problem with Word. I have put the CD in the other computer. I went to My Computer and double clicked on D:. A black message 2000ed {D:} appeared. It did not bring up the objects on the disc. This tended to reinforce my view that the disc is corrupted. I will go through the information on cleaning up the installation program but it does seem that the problem is with the CD. There is no sign of physical damage and I am unaware of any case where it was close to a strong magnetic field.

 

I have gone back to the original supplier but I do not yet know whether they can send me another CD. I have Office 2000 on the other computer. Can I copy it to this computer? The other computer does not have the capability to burn discs. I can email Office to this computer but will that work? I would have thought it would need installation. I could use Nero to burn an Office CD on this computer but that would probably not work either.

 

Thanks for the advice. I now have 2 possible sources for a replacement Office 2000 CD so I should be able to re-install Office 2000 on this computer shortly.

 

Good deal! Let us know how it works out for you.