Sleeping and hard loops like this may turn out to be part of the problem.
You should enter a loop calling PumpWaitingMessages - something like:

end = time.time() + 5 # stop in 5 secs.
while time.time() < end:
    pythoncom.PumpWaitingMessages()
    time.sleep(0.2)

Mark

>  How about trapping the error with a try block:
> 
>  bWorked = false
> 
>  while bWorked == false
>     try
>        wordApp.ActiveDocument.PageSetup.TopMargin = 5
>        bWorked = true
>     catch
> 
> 
>  it's not pretty but it will try and try until the
>  server is finished initializing.
> 
>  -Fabricio
> 
>  --- Bill Papadopoulos <b_papadopoulos@[...].gr> wrote:
> 
>  >
>  > >>Hi !
>  >
>  > >>"server busy"  c'est souvent du au temps de
>  > lancement de ms-word
>  > >> "server busy"  it's often because ms-word is slow
>  > to begin to run.
>  > >>Ajoute/Add   "time.sleep(5)"
>  > >>Michel Claveau
>  >
>  >
>  > Hello Michael and thank your for responding,
>  >
>  > This is what I do before I get the "Server Busy"
>  > message:
>  >
>  > #Setting TopMargin
>  > wordApp.ActiveDocument.PageSetup.TopMargin = 5
>  >
>  > where wordApp is my Dispatch object.
>  >
>  >
>  > I 've already tried time.sleep() after setting the
>  > Margin which resulted
>  > to a "server busy" message and then the script
>  > "slept".
>  >
>  > Also, I tried time.sleep() before setting the Margin
>  > which resulted
>  > to make the script wait and then to get the "server
>  > busy" message.
>  >
>  > I need something like:
>  >
>  > while waiting for margin to be set:
>  >     time.sleep()
>  >
>  > Any suggestions?
>  > Anyway, thanks again!
>  >
>  >
>  > Vax
>  > ____________________
>  > b_papadopoulos@[...].gr
>  > vax@[...].gr
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > > _______________________________________________
>  > Python-win32 mailing list
>  > Python-win32@[...].org
>  > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-win32
>  >
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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