Office XP problems Excel and Word

I have a Dell computer running Windows XP and when using Office XP
Excel I get the message "Unable to read file".
This is true for all existing *.xls files on the computer.
I can create a new file and save it, but when I try to
open it again I get the same message. I can copy the
message to a thumb drive with explorer and then transfer it
to another computer running XP and it opens just fine with
Excel. If anyone can tell me what to do to get the Dell
computer to run Excel properly, I would greatly appreciate
it. I suspect it may be the cause of a system update and
the only recourse I will have will be to use the restore
option. I don't want to do that, since I don't know how
far back I will have to go, because I was away from the
Dell for quite some time and others may have installed
programs that I'm not aware of.

After going to the help menu and clicking on the Detect and Repair command
Office XP was reconfigured but I still get the same message. I also tried to open
a number of word files in Word or through Explorer and
received the message "The file (filename.doc) is not
available". I checked for available and installed updates.
Service Pack 1&2 and Security Patch KB822036 have been
installed. I am now wondering if there is a system wide
security switch that needs to be changed.

If anyone can provide a clue as to what is the cause of this problem I would appreciate the assistance.

As an aside, I am not able to see the Dell on my home network from my laptop or vice versa. I am able to see the Win 98 computer from the Dell. But one problem at a time.

Thanks in advance,

 

have you tried the open and repair option..

another helpful link
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;291057

 

Using the open and repair option and clicking on repair still gave me the unable to read file message. I will now try the support...link you provided.

Thanks

 

SP1 & SP2 and security patch KB822036 were installed. I assume that SP2 incorporated the info in the link provided, but I will check into it further.