"Server Busy" message when opening Word document f

[olofd]

When I click on a link to a .doc-file or a .rtf-file in PWB I get a message saying "Server Busy. This action cannot be completed because the other program is busy ..." and then two buttons, "Switch To" or "Retry". Clicking on the Retry-button several (many!) times eventually brings up the document, and it seems that the larger the document is, the more times I have to click "Retry". This is very frustrating, especially for patrons who are used to open Word files without trouble in Internet Explorer.

Any explanation / solution to this behavior?

We are using PWB 2.04 with Windows XP, IE 6.0 and MS Word 97.

[Scott]

Normally PWB will open the Word document just like IE. PWB uses the IE engine, which opens the Word document inside the browser through OLE/ActiveX. The error occurs when the IE engine is unable to instantiate the Word OLE/ActiveX server.

This error can be caused by a number of things. I would check for viruses on the system and make sure you have XP and IE fully patched.

--Scott

[spragers]

Hi,

I tried it on our server using the latest version of PWB2, Windows NT, and Office 2000. Clicking on a link to a Word document on our web server opened the document without an trouble. I also tried it on our new Dell workstation, running Windows XP and Office 2000, and it worked fine on that as well. It also worked using RTF files.

Perhaps it has something to do with using the older Word 97?

[GregP]

I've seen this error message before too, although I have to admit I dismissed it at the time because the same PC was also having some major problems printing and the error only appeared when the customer tried to print the document, not when looking at it.

I didn't think it was PWB at the time...

We are using PWBv2.04, Word 2000, IE6 and NT4 SP6.

[chrism]

We experience the "Server Busy..." message, too, except under different conditions: 1) a previous user has accessed MS Messenger and exited, leaving MSM in memory with its icon in the tray, 2) a following user logs in to a Hotmail account and tries to access a message.

We've seen it in the library for months. I've replicated it in testing but not consistently. We deal with it by rebooting the PC--not the best solution as far as patrons are concerned.

Although we see the problem while using PWB, my Google searches indicate the error message occurs with all manner of applications, not just IE, and mainly under Win2K/XP/Server2003. Many vendors are publishing work arounds, and each one is different. I even found a thread that reported bypassing the MSM/Hotmail problem by logging into MSM first, then Hotmail.

A search of MS Knowledge Base turned up nothing regarding the error message, nor the MSM/Hotmail issue.

We are using Win2K and PWB v2.04 with IE 6.02. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Chris

[Patrick]

So is there a fix for this problem on Win2000 using Office XP or not? I get the same error, but not when I goto the same word doc from IE6.

[Scott]

What version of PWB are you using including the revision number?

We do not seem to have a problem on our test computers with PWB v2.04r4, IE 6.0 sp1, Office 97 Pro, and Windows XP. All MS products are fully patched and up to date.

--Scott

[someone]

This same error occurs when using Word 97 viewer. (not the full Office version)

[peppy70]

Finally I have something to add. The library I support was really gung ho about adding Office to the public web stations w/o fully investigating the consequences. The result was the server busy error. Students were emailing office documents to themselves, opening them in the browser and then editing. The result was they would try to save and run into many many problems.

I found the fix (w/ only a week left in the semester...figures)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... bContent=1

Basicly

Launch Windows Explorer.

From the View menu, select Options("Folder Options" if Internet Explorer 4.0 is installed).

From the Options dialog box, click the File Types tab.

From the listing of "Registered File Types," select "Microsoft Word Document," and click Edit.

From the Edit File Type screen, clear the "Browse in same window" check box, which toggles whether a Word document is launched outside of Internet Explorer.

Click OK to close the dialog boxes.

I don't know if this applies to word viewer as well.

oh there are also is a check box for "confirm open after download"

[peppy70]

this was on a dell gx200 w/ win98, ie6, office 2000, all updates

[Scott]

Thanks for the tip!

[Scott]

I believe I have isolated the problem and fixed the Server Busy Error Message when opening and saving MS Office documents with PWB. I have made changes to both PWB v2.05 revision 2 beta and PWB v2.06 beta.

http://www.teamsoftwaresolutions.com/beta/PWBv206.zip
http://www.teamsoftwaresolutions.com/beta/PWBv205r2.zip

If you decide to test either of these beta versions please let me know if the problem is fixed on your systems.

--Scott

[chrism]

I stopped receiving reports of "Server Busy" error messages after I installed v2.05. I double checked with our circ staff, who normally are the front line for patron questions or complaints, and they agreed the errors seemed to have stopped. Thanks Scott!

Chris Murphy

[spragers]

Just this morning, a young woman came in to work on something for an online course she's taking. I've been watching this thread, but I've been working on some other upgrades to our computer network, and as a result hadn't installed the updated version of PWB. Of course, when the woman filled out the application (a Word document) and tried to save it, PWB crashed with the "Server busy..." error. I have since updated our system to the most recent version (2.06) and in testing, the problem appears to have been fixed. My only concern is that the Word plug-in (when running within PWB) defaults to the root of drive C: to save, even though Word itself is set to default to drive P:. Oh well, that's what our other security software is for