Help not working (2002 sp3)

[jsquared]

For some reason, the help function appears to have disappeared in all Office applications. If I use F1 or the menu item I see a blank white box. If I reactivate the annoying little paper clip I seem to able to access the help topics via that interface but not if I hide the assistant.

I tried the microsoft support site and thought that article 319956 might be my answer. I made the changes suggested in that article but with no success.

I have a similar, but perhaps unrelated problem with Media Player. I had version 10 installed and could not access the help files. While looking for an answer, I realised that there was a later version available (MPlayer 11) so I installed it in the hope that the help fault would be solved - no change, I still get a little box titled "App Error" saying "error in setting up help". (pic attached)

I'm not sure whether the Office error and the Media Player error occurred simultaneously. I saw the MPlayer error first and hadn't used help in the other apps until today.

[HansV]

Which version of Windows are you using? This appears to be a problem with the help function in general.

[jsquared]

You might have something there. I just tried "Help and Support" from the Start menu with no response at all. I am running XP Professional V5.1, SP2

[HansV]

There is a free tool available for download from MJ's Help Diagnostics. See if this points out the culprit.

[jsquared]

You're a legend!!

All fixed. I don't know what the problem was as I opted to let the tool fix anything it found. Everthing seems to be back to normal.

Thanks for your help.