FCU broke outlook and work, what worked

The problem: After Fall Creator's Update , Outlook and Word would start to open, then display "Outlook [or Word] has stopped working" dialog box
The cause: Outdated nVidia drivers
What worked:
1. (Temporary) Renaming c:/Program Files/NVIDIA Corporation/nview/nViewH64.dll to nViewH64.old
2. (More permanent) updating the drivers for my K2000M video board
What didn't work:
1. reinstalling outlook, or the office suite, or even a clean office suite install (which is to say, MS tech service's universal approach is worthless)
2. disabling windows defender

Background:
I naively clicked the "update and restart" instead of "restart" the other day. I got fall creator's update. The problem was, Outlook now crashed upon opening. I called MS Tech Support, and after 4 or 5 hours and several reinstalls (outlook itself, the whole office suite, and an clean install of the whole office suite) during which time MS Word and Outlook failed in the same way, we thought it was fixed. MS Tech Support and I terminated the online session, but later when I rebooted outlook and work started crashing again. After waiting an hour on the phone for Level 2 support, then being promised a call back within 2hours and not getting it, and calling in and waiting on hold for a Level 2 person only to be hung up on after waiting 15 minutes, I got in queue to talk to someone again.

While I was waiting, I figured out the one gripe against MS tech support is that their only solution is to reinstall stuff(see above). It seemed idiotic for them not to open event viewer to see if they can find clues. As I'm thinking this, I realize "Hey! I'm an engineer! I should be able to figure this out! I'll look at Event Viewer!". So I opened event viewer, and the answer (in custom views/administrative events) was as clear as day. My nvidia video driver was causing the problem. Here's the event details:

Faulting application name: WINWORD.EXE, version: 16.0.8625.2121, time stamp: 0x59f8f127
Faulting module name: nViewH64.dll, version: 6.14.10.14847, time stamp: 0x58524e98

I renamed the dll to nViewH64.old and the apps worked. I updated the drivers, from the nVidia site, and the apps worked.

Microsoft could have saved me and it several hours of time had they just asked their techs to look at the event viewer. Had they done that, they could have solved the problem in minutes. Or at least pointed me towards nVidia.

But I'm back up and running.

Hi WizardOfBoz,

It would help if you told us what version of Outlook and Word (Office in general) that you're using? This is because as more and more updates come to Windows 10 older and older programs will either stop functioning correctly or quit altogether.

Thanks.

WizardOfBoz said:

Sure thing. Windows 10 Pro
Version 10.0.16299 Build 16299

MS Office 365 Version 1710 (Build 8625.2121 Click-to-Run)

But I guess the version-independent advice I take from this is that, if Windows updates you, and you experience problems,
1) Check the event viewer - it may give you specific advice, and
2) Make sure key drivers, like graphics, are up-to-date.

I (and many others) are currently running Windows 10 FCU with that version of Office 365 and have no problems...



And yes, 1 & 2 applies when researching issues.

Steve C said:

In future try a repair install of Office.

Steve, We tried:
1) A repair install
2) A reinstall in place with office downloaded
3) A "clean" reinstall with a disk image of office downloaded

The overarching point was that the problem wasn't MS Office, or Windows Defender, or the FCU. It was an nVidia graphics driver. We shouldn't have been reinstalling _anything_, just updating the driver.

Key learnings were that 1) it is perhaps best to check event logger before one reinstalls office or the O/S, as it may be something like a graphics driver, and event logger is pretty good at pointing out the specific file in question, 2) MS Tech Support seems to consist entirely of reinstallation of their product whilst disabling services that may or may not have any relevance to the problem, and 3) you should do better than me - keep your drivers up to date! That alone will save a lot of problems.

And with the new driver installed, I've noticed an improvement in performance. The old driver must have been sucking wind for a few months, and the FCU was the issue that brought the issue to a head. I actually like FCU. Seems nice.