Visio 2010 Premium Worked for some weeks but now hangs at start & fails to work

[RSut]

I bought Visio 2010 ten weeks ago. PROBLEM: recently, over a few days, it progressively:
1. would not SAVE a file (error 1502), would only SAVE AS. Applied to MyStencils as well.
2. hangs for periods during drawing, as though doing an automatic update (I dont know what it was doing, but drawing changes not saved).
3. hangs when using drawing canvass --> egg timer 'wait' cursor. Then when window was clicked ONCE, its header changed from grey (no header) to windows blue header saying 'not responding'.
4. sometimes when I closed the hanging app, it automatically re-opened at first dialogue page (close template etc), but when I selected any template, or blank page, I got NO Template up and another cycle of failure.
5. Now I cant load new stencils, or standard visio stencils; opening good files made 2 weeks ago is difficult; perhaps impossible.
6. I use the Developer tab and VBE a lot.

Removed Visio 2010 from program folder and re-installation: did NOT solve the problem.  MS Automatic updates WERE downloaded after re-installation.

SETUP: Visio 2010 Version 14.0.5128.5000 (32 bit). On Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop with XP professional 2002 SP3.  Microsoft Automatic updates (eg Office and XP) upto date today, and done monthly routinely. MS Update report page shows all updates were successful (green tick icon). McAfee virus search: clear report. 2010 applications Word, Excel, Powerpoint: working fine.
Has anyone had this experience? How did you solve it?  RSut.

[Paul Herber]

Did you do a registry clean after removing Visio?
Also, check the paths at ribbon File -> Options -> Advanced -> File Locations
and check that the Addons ansd start up paths don't have something odd in them.
Do you use Visual Studio?

[RSut]

Paul: Thank you. I use PC Fix 2.0.4 (https://www.pc-fix-2010.com/en-uk/contact-us.html). I confess I dont know anything about Registry cleaners.
After Visio was uninstalled, the registry was cleaned, when reinstalled and used twice, PC Fix reported about 33 empty registry keys and 8 issues with ActiveX/OLE. Is PC Fix the appropriate cleaner?
I'll come on to the effect of re-installation below. First in response to your question: I dont use Visual Studio.

I installed the Visio Premium 2010 from the purchased MS disc onto a Netbook (XP SP3). Visio worked straight off - taking shapes from a stencil to save a drawing without loss or delay. So that probably exonerates the source disc.

I follwed up your advice re File>Advanced>File Locations: I was surprised to see the the File locations entries were the same for Visio on Dell and Netbook: ONLY MyShapes had a correct file path, to the customised MyShapes folder in My Documents. But all other filepaths were empty (Drawings, Templates, Stencils, Help, Add-ons; Start-up).


That was surprising because a default MS Visio Stencil appeared the the left of the drawing canvass on the NETBOOK, but nothing appeared on the DELL. I dont have the knowledge to understand this.
 I opened a drawing canvas in each PC, on each I drew a rectangle from the fluent Toolbar>Tools  button, and saved and closed the resultant file. When I clicked to open each file, the file in the notebook opened instantly; the file in the DELL opened after a long 25 seconds.

Progress has been made  - the Dell can now SAVE a drawing, before it could only save as (before is totally stopped working today).
your advice has started me to engage better with the problem, but I'm still in difficulties with my Visio Premium.

RSut

[Paul Herber]

I would have a look at what your anti-virus is doing. Maybe disable it temporarily (perhaps wise to disconnect from this interwebnet thingy while you do so).

[RSut]

Thanks, Paul. I set up another user account on the laptop, and that seems to do the business. Everything is crisp and new; I hope it stays that way!. I shall do my visio work in that account space, and keep most other applications in the other account. Could be a difficult discipline to maintain.  RSut