Mac Mini suddenly won't run AppleWorks

[doughemi]

My wife's Mac Mini is running OS X 10.6.8.

Recently, it stopped being able to load her AppleWorks 6 documents. The application starts, displays the file, and then alternates between the spinning beach ball and a black-and-white 4 segment ball until we finally force quit the program. Happens on every file she tries to open.
The AppleWorks docs open fine on other machines. All other apps seem to work fine. No changes, new programs, or updates have been added to the machine.
So far I have

• Reset the SMC
• Reset the PRAM
• Deleted and re-installed the application
• Re-installed the OS
• Run RAM tests and Disk Repair on the hard drive

all to no avail.

I would appreciate some suggestions as to what to do next.

--Doug

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Are you:

1. Launching AppleWorks then in the File menu choose Open then navigate to the file, selecting it then pressing the Return Key or clicking OK,

Or

2. Opening a Finder window, selecting the .cwk file & double-clicking,

Or

3. Opening a Finder window, selecting the .cwk file & Ctrl/right-clicking it & choose Open With ~> AppleWorks 6?

 

[doughemi]

Using method 1: Empty Starting Points window opens and then after a long while (1 or 2 minutes), displays the choices. More spinning beach balls, and I can open the File menu, but all the choices there are dimmed.

Both methods 2 and 3 exhibit the behavior I outlined in the first post.

In addition to the attempted remedies listed, I also looked unsuccessfully for files in the Applications Support folders, both system and user (not surprising because AW is a rosetta app).

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Have you tried creating a new word file, Command N, saving it then trying to open it?

 

[doughemi]

I created a .doc file on another computer using Pages (I don't have MW Word) and tried to open it. No joy. A dialog appeared "The translator can not read this document". OpenOffice and TextEdit opened it fine.

Additional data- I decided to install Pages 08 on that machine. It doesn't work, either! "Curiouser, and curiouser", said Alice.

Pages will open the AW documents and .doc documents on another computer.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Had you read the following?

Security Update 2012-001 may disable printing, scanning, and some PowerPC applications

 

[doughemi]

No, thanks for the thought. However, it wouldn't explain why it worked fine up until a week or so ago. The recommended fix in that post, the 10.6.8 Combo update, was the one I used when I reinstalled Snow Leopard.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Okay, re-read initial post, AppleWorks 6 launches & can open a saved file but freezes up pretty much straight away …

You'll need to have a look in the Console log to see what is being reported when the app launches then freezes.

Console is in the Utilities folder (in Finder … Shift  U)