OpenOffice No Longer Opens in Windows 7

[curtiscool]

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium. OpenOffice suddenly stopped working on one of our computers (HP notebook). The last known time it worked was July 7 when we created a .xls file with it.

Trying to open any of the OO applications results in an image of a circle spinning appears momentarily (0 to 1 second) but the program does not start. This happens when clicking on a link on the desktop or Start Menu as well as double-clicking an application file the Program Files (x86) directory or double-clicking on associated files (.doc, .odt, ...). I have uninstalled and reinstalled versions 3.3 and 3.4 several times. The suite's quickstarter.exe is in my Startup folder and appears in MSCONFIG as a Startup item but is not running in Task Manager upon start up.

When I boot into Safe Mode, the OO applications run perfectly. I have run MS Security Essentials scans in regular and Safe Mode as well as Comodo Anti-Virus scans. Googling and posting on an OpenOffice forum indicated several things to try, none of which panned out:

I installed Java 6.33 32-bit version.
DocuShare is not running or installed.
I turned off Skype.
I turned off all firewalls and anti-malware programs and services.
I stopped and disabled non-critical services (only 26 processes were running in Task Manager).
I have uninstalled OO, rebooted, reinstalled, rebooted after each of these attempts with the same results.

When I only had 26 processes running, opening an OO program caused the dllhost process to appear in Task Manager for several seconds. I have not noticed that when all services are activated. In fact, I specifically noticed it not happening.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Arc]

Welcome aboard curtiscool

Try installing the latest version; or if it is already the latest one, uninstall it and reinstall again.

Maybe somehow the Oo installation got corrupted.

 

[kado897]

If you do decide to reinstall do the uninstall first using Revo Uninstaller to clear out unwanted entries in the registry. The link is in my signature.

 

[curtiscool]

I still have not figured this out. No amount of uninstalling or re-installing seem to have an effect.

Are there any tools to do something like this (or simulate it):

Boot into Safe Mode. As I understand it, this only loads minimal drivers and starts minimal services/processes. Then, manually, start adding drivers/programs/services from the normal boot one-at-a-time, checking to see if OO will no longer run, to see what is causing the issue?