soffice.bin - Bad Image

[AI]

Randomly one day, my documents would not open. Instead when I tried to open a file, a window would pop up with the heading, “soffice.bin - Bad Image” and the text would say:

C:\Program Files (x86)\LibreOffice 3.6\program\cairo.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using the original installation media or contact your system administrator or the software vendor for support.

I am so beyond confused, and I seriously need my documents to open again.

Also, I don’t use Libre Calc and the other things from Libre, but just for the sake of checking, those ALSO did not work. Can anyone help me?

EDIT: I’m really sorry about all these dumb questions, I just don’t know anything about computers unfortunately:

1. Do I need to uninstall what I have now before I reinstall LibreOffice? And are there any risks involved with uninstalling/reinstalling LibreOffice? (Examples of risks like losing all my documents or crashing my computer or some sort of crazy memory dump)

2. What does buying a new harddisk mean?

3. What is the point of the chkdsk?

[carnendil]

Welcome to Ask.LibreOffice! Probably you should re-install LibreOffice. Even better, try installing LibreOffice version 4.0.4. Download it from http://www.libreoffice.org/download/.

[Sweetshark]

Yep, sounds like a corrupted file. While at it consider buying a new harddisk maybe.

[oweng]

In addition to what @Sweetshark suggests, consider running a chkdsk on the volume e.g., http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/using-windows-7-how-do-i-run-chkdsk/a68b3e4d-1a42-e011-9767-d8d385dcbb12 for Win7.

[AI]

I’m really sorry about all these dumb questions, I just don’t know anything about computers unfortunately:

1. Do I need to uninstall what I have now before I reinstall LibreOffice? And are there any risks involved with uninstalling/reinstalling LibreOffice? (Examples of risks like losing all my documents or crashing my computer or some sort of crazy memory dump)

2. What does buying a new harddisk mean?

3. What is the point of the chkdsk?

[oweng]

@AI, if you have a corrupted file on your hard disk drive then it is always advisable to “check” the disk using the method indicated in the link I provided (for Win7). If it reports errors then it could indicate that the hard disk is starting to fail and in need of replacement. Until you do this we have no way of discounting if this is a possible cause. You can uninstall v3.6 and install v4.0/4.1 as an alternate test first if you want, but this will not help fix a bad disk.

[AI]

@oweng Oh, I see. I think I’ll uninstall 3.6 and install 4.0 as a first test. But before I do that, do you know if uninstalling and reinstalling will somehow lose all my documents or do a memory dump or crash my computer?

[oweng]

It should be no different to uninstalling any other program. Just make sure you do a complete uninstall (of v3.6) and a plain install (of v4.0) and do not rename the install file before installing as there have been reports of that causing problems. Sometimes a fresh install can fix a problem, but this varies from computer to computer.