After installing KB5002914 and KB5002665 for Office 2016, I am unable to open xls documents in Excel 2003 format that contain charts and OLE plugins

Question

After installing KB5002914 and KB5002665 for Office 2016, I am unable to open xls documents in Excel 2003 format that contain charts and OLE plugins

Tiger Zhang 0

After installing the September 2026 updates KB5002914 and KB5002665 for Office 2016, I am unable to open xls documents in Excel 2003 format that contain charts and OLE plugins. Only the June 2026 update KB5002886 functions normally, while all other updates of higher versions are not working properly.

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Answer 1

Hani-Ng 1,895 Independent Advisor

Hi 李逍遥

Thank you for sharing the details and the testing you have already done. Since the same Excel 2003 .xls files open normally with KB5002886 but have problems after installing KB5002914 and KB5002665, it does appear that the behavior could be related to changes introduced by the newer Excel 2016 updates, particularly with workbooks containing charts or OLE components.

Microsoft has documented a known issue with KB5002914 involving certain paste operations, and KB5002665 was subsequently released to address that issue. However, the current KB5002665 documentation does not mention a known issue specifically related to opening legacy .xls files containing charts or OLE objects.

As a troubleshooting step, I would suggest testing one of the affected files on another computer running the same Office 2016 update level. You could also try opening Excel in Safe Mode to check whether any third-party add-ins or OLE-related components might be contributing to the behavior.

If the issue can be consistently reproduced after installing the newer updates, while the same files continue to work with the earlier update, I would recommend reporting the issue through your organization's Microsoft support channel. Providing a sample affected workbook, if possible, along with the Office version/build and whether Office is 32-bit or 64-bit may help with further investigation.

While KB5002886 may work as a temporary workaround, keeping the older update permanently may not be ideal, since KB5002914 includes important security updates for Excel.

I hope this information helps, and please feel free to share any additional findings from the Safe Mode or another-computer test.

Hani-Ng 1,895 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-22T11:55:46.33+00:00

Hi 李逍遥

I just wanted to follow up to see if you need any additional information regarding this matter. Please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.
Tiger Zhang 0 Reputation points

2026-09-24T00:33:36.8633333+00:00

Thank you very much for your reply, it's very helpful to me. I also tried installing the latest updates on Office 365, and it turned out that I could open xls documents with charts and OLE plugins in Excel 2003 format normally. This issue may only occur on Office 2016 installed in MSI mode.
Tiger Zhang 0 Reputation points

2026-09-24T02:00:14.59+00:00

Problem signature:

Problem event name: BEX

Application name: EXCEL.EXE

Application version: 16.0.5569.1005

Application timestamp: 6aa50020

Name of fault module: ucrtbase.DLL

Fault module version: 10.0.14393.2990

Fault module timestamp: 5caeb859

Exception offset: 000872c4

Exception code: c0000417

Abnormal data: 00000000

OS version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48

Locale ID: [Moderator note: personal info removed]

Additional information regarding this issue:

LCID: [Moderator note: personal info removed]

skulcid: [Moderator note: personal info removed]
Hani-Ng 1,895 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-24T07:04:25.97+00:00

Please note that our forum is a public platform. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information to protect personal data.

Hi Tiger Zhang

Thank you for the additional details and for testing the same files with Microsoft 365 Apps. Since the .xls files open normally there but the issue occurs with the MSI-based Office 2016 installation, this helps narrow down the behavior. KB5002665 specifically applies to MSI-based Office 2016 and not Microsoft 365 Apps/Click-to-Run installations.

I also noticed that the OS version shown in the problem signature (6.1.7601) is Windows 7 SP1, while Windows 7 is not listed among the supported operating systems for KB5002665. Therefore, the Office update as well as the older Windows environment may be relevant to the behavior. Additionally, Office 2016 reached end of support on October 14, 2025, so moving to a currently supported Office and Windows environment would be worth considering as a longer-term solution.

Thank you again for sharing the detailed test results. They are very helpful in narrowing down the issue. I hope this information helps, and please feel free to share any further updates.

Xiaoyao Li 0

This happens on my windows 10 ,after install kb5002665 x86 (16.0.5569.1006) , open a xls file with chart and ole plugin:

An unhandled exception occurred at 0x00A45C24 in EXCEL.EXE: 0xC0000005: Access violation occurred while writing to location 0x00000000.

EXCEL.EXE!00a45c24()

EXCEL.EXE!00741a0a()	

win32u.dll!_NtGdiGetCharWidthW@24()	

gdi32full.dll!bGetCharWidthW()	

gdi32full.dll!_GetCharWidth32W@16()	

Mso99Lwin32client.dll!7ac74ff7()	

Mso99Lwin32client.dll!7ac74f46()	

Mso30win32client.dll!50a2e098()	

Mso99Lwin32client.dll!7ad0f7b0()	

EXCEL.EXE!006ac4f8()	

EXCEL.EXE!006ac479()	

EXCEL.EXE!00746afa()	

Mso99Lwin32client.dll!7ac6d9ad()	

Mso99Lwin32client.dll!7ac6d56b()	

Mso99Lwin32client.dll!7ac6d50c()	

win32u.dll!_NtGdiSelectFont@8()	

gdi32full.dll!SelectObjectImpl()	

gdi32.dll!SelectObject()	

EXCEL.EXE!006a269d()	

ntdll.dll!_NtTraceControl@24()	

ntdll.dll!EtwpSetProviderTraits()	

coml2.dll!CDirectStream::ReadAt(unsigned __int64,void *,unsigned long,unsigned long *)	

coml2.dll!PSStream::ReadAt(unsigned __int64,void *,unsigned long,unsigned long *)	

coml2.dll!CTransactedStream::ReadAt(unsigned __int64,void *,unsigned long,unsigned long *)	

coml2.dll!CExposedStream::Read(void *,unsigned long,unsigned long *)

Hani-Ng 1,895 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-29T05:47:12.56+00:00

Hi Xiaoyao Li

Since this involves a different set of requirements from the original question, it would be best to create a new thread and include these details there. This helps keep discussions focused on a single issue and makes it easier for forum members to provide guidance specific to your scenario.