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"Unable to read file" error message when you open a workbook and try to update links in Excel 2002


View products that this article applies to.

Symptoms

When you open a workbook in Microsoft Excel 2002 that contains links to other Excel workbooks, you may receive the following error message when you click Update to update the links in the workbook:
Unable to read file.
After you save the file as an HTML file and reload it into Excel, the error message no longer appears, but the links do not update.

For additional information about a similar problem, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
812384 XL2002: "Unable to Read File" Error Message When You Open a Workbook

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Resolution

Service Pack Information

This problem is corrected in Office XP Service Pack 3. To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Office XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
307841 How to obtain the latest Office XP Service Pack

Hotfix Information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, submit a request to Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.
The global version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.
   Date         Time     Size      File name
   -------------------------------------------
   20-Jun-2003  13:26  16,571,188  Excelff.msp
   20-Jun-2003  12:07   4,621,568  Excelop.msp
After the hotfix is installed, the following files will have the listed attributes or later:

   Date         Time   Version        Size      File name
   --------------------------------------------------------
   19-Jun-2003  16:58  10.0.5417.0   9,177,656  Excel.exe        

				
This fix is a post-Office XP Service Pack 2 (SP-2) fix. To install the fix, you must have Office XP SP-2 installed. For additional information about Office XP SP-2, click the following article number to see the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
325671 OFFXP: Overview of the Office XP Service Pack 2
Additionally, you may have to install Windows Installer 2.0 to install this fix. For additional information about the Windows Installer requirement for post-Office XP SP-2 fixes, click the following article number to see the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
330537 OFFXP: Office XP Updates and Patches Released After September 2002 May Require Windows Installer 2.0

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Status

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.This problem was first corrected in Office XP Service Pack 3.

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Keywords: KB823026, kbofficexppresp3fix, kbfix, kbbug, kberrmsg, kbopenfile, kbxlslink, kbhotfixserver, kbqfe, kbautohotfix

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Article Info
Article ID : 823026
Revision : 6
Created on : 4/7/2006
Published on : 4/7/2006
Exists online : False
Views : 244