Microsoft Office 2013 Has Stopped Working

I want to add my resolution to the list.

After installing Office 365 for Business on a PC, all the applications crash when started (even during the install I get a crash on the splash screen).  In the event log I find error 0xC0000005 with faulting module path "unknown."  The problem seems to be related to activation.  You can start the office products in safe mode but they are not activated.  Once you try to activate the software crashes.

I spent many hours on this problem including 3 hours on the phone with Microsoft support.  To their credit, the two techs I worked with really seemed to know what they were doing - despite all the things they tried it did not fix the problem. 

I tried absolutely everything to narrow it down.  In other posts I read people having the same issues and even after completely reloading their systems they still had the problem.  I found this hard to believe.   So, I decided to wipe and reload. Low and behold, the exact same problem occurred immediately.

Now, the solution I am going to give sounds preposterous and that is why I spent about 8 hours trying to eliminate every other possibility before doing something so basic.  After the reload it became apparent there must be a driver or hardware issue.  But, I eliminated all that too.

The solution that resolved the issue:

Reset the system BIOS - More specifically, I went into the BIOS setup and chose to Load Optimized Defaults.  I then tweaked a couple of settings back to where they needed to be and rebooted.

Office immediately began working properly.

Now, you must be careful with this advice. If you are not comfortable with it, please know that resetting the BIOS and then not understanding some of the options can leave your system unbootable.   Specifically, you need to make sure the SATA modes are changed back to their original setting after the reset.  Now, I compared the options in the BIOS before the reset and after the reset.  I could not find any option that I felt would be related to this issue, and the ones I tested would not cause the problem to reappear.

I don't know why this is a solution.  But, it raises questions about why the activation process in Office fails due to some kind of BIOS issue while every other application on the system works fine.

It's installed with most Epson Printers\Scanners.

Hold down the Ctrl Key as you start Word, which will cause it to start in "Safe Mode" and then Click on the File menu, then Options and then on Add-Ins and then click on the Go button alongside Manage Add-ins.

This is my (expanding) list of things to try when Office 2013 won’t start or crashes:

See the KnowledgeBase article “Office 2013 applications crash on launch at the splash screen” at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2813143

Or see the KnowledgeBase article Error: “Something went wrong and we can't sign you in right now” when trying to install Office 2013 at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2811180/en-us/

Also see my response in

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office\_2013\_release-word/microsoft-word-2013-has-stopped-working/67b81016-849f-481a-bce5-bf04797ac03b

Do you have Abbyy Finereader installed on the PC? A number of people have reported that removing it overcomes problems with 2013

 Thank you so much for the bit in bold mate!!

I had the stupid Abbyy Finereader installed on my system and didint even realise lol, after I have removed it all of Office 2013 is now working absolutely fine!!

By the way, just for your information; I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and Microsoft Office 2013 Standard 32-bit.

The Solutions I have 2 known fixes here; before trying anything, please make sure you can run excel/winword/powerpoint/outlook in safe mode, otherwise these 2 fixes is not for you. I'll use Excel for example.

Press Win + R for run, then enter excel /safe

If Excel 2013 successful run in safe mode, proceed with the fixes, else go back to Google. Good luck.

Fix 1: If you have an Epson Scanner / ABBYY-FineReader (ABBYY-FineReader is a software bundled together with Epson Scanner)

Fix 1a

1. Run Excel in safe mode. (Win + R ; "excel /safe")
2. Go to File - Options 
3. Go to Add-ins
4. Choose COM Add-ins and press Go...

5. Uncheck every box and press OK.

Try to run Excel normally now.

Fix 1b

1. Go to Control Panel
2. Click on Uninstall a program
3. Right click on ABBYY-FineReader and click uninstall.
4. Restart if necessary.

Try to run Excel normally now.

Fix 2: Disable hardware acceleration (This fixed MY problem!)

1. Run regedit (Win + R ; "regedit")
2. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common
3. Create a New Key and name it "Graphics"
4. Select Graphics, right-click on the right panel and create a New DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it DisableHardwareAcceleration.

5. Enter Value data as 1

Try to run Excel normally now.

For some reason, if you're using any USB docking station with DisplayLink driver, please uninstall or update the driver to atleast version 7.1 M1.

Link to download: http://www.displaylink.com/support/downloads.php

Good luck!