Can open files on UNC, but not mapped drive.

This is not a Dell Issue and Not supported here.

The issue only happens on newer Dell computers. We don't have the problem with other computers or older Dell models. So I'm not convinced that this isn't a Dell issue.

"If we open a PDF file in Acrobat Reader, Reader hangs. If we open an Office file, Office crashes. We also cannot save files from office to a network drive."

None of the above is Dell software or supported by Dell.

Crashes without exact error messages, event logs, os versions, servicepack versions etc isn't diagnosable.

There is no inherent problem specific to Dell.

There are 12 different versions of Acrobat with many patch levels.

There is office 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 365

Again not Dell software or a Dell issue.

 Within office there is Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Outlook, Publisher, etc.

Microsoft pulled two broken patches:
KB3011970 and KB3004394.
Another patch, KB 2553154, is killing Excel 2010 and 2013 macros,
saying the ActiveX control "has stopped working in Excel."
Admins are reporting that KB 3008923 has broken modal dialogs in IE.
And the hang on installing KB 3002339 is still Happening.

KB 2553154 for Office 2010 and KB 2726958 for Office 2013
both part of security bulletin MS14-082
are supposed to "resolve a vulnerability that could allow remote
code execution if a specially crafted file is opened in an affected
edition of Microsoft Office."

This problem occurs with both Excel 2010 and Excel 2013.

Generally, users must open a file as read-only permission from network share.

If you want to modify it, save it onto local drive and upload the new version after they updated.

If you want to share a Office file and collaboratively edit it. Microsoft Recommends  you enable Co-authoring with Office and or use Sharepoint instead.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/winservergen/thread/bae1e32a-b878-4af2-8d27-9b747e11bf21

http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/199650

 This problem occurs if the name of the directory that is shared on the server (not the name of the share) and the label of the network drive that contains the directory are the same. This problem will also occur when you access the share in question through another, larger share.

For example, assume that you have a server named Adastra. It contains a single drive C that is labeled "Alpha". The server also contains the following directories with the following share names:

   Directory   Share Name
   ----------------------
   C:\         Yankee
   C:\Alpha    Zulu
					

Assume that there is a file called Test.xls in the C:\Alpha directory.

Note that the label for drive C and the directory being shared are both named "Alpha".

If you attempt to open \\Adastra\Zulu\Book1.xls, you will receive an error message. If you attempt to open \\Adastra\Yankee\Alpha\Test.xls, you will also receive the error message.

But another computer with exactly the same software (including versions and patches) works just fine. So I don' think it is Acrobat or Office that are causing the problem, nor the network. We have looked elsewhere for problems with those and ruled them out because they work fine on most of our computers.

It is only a few late model Dell that have these problems, which leads me to think it is a problem with the Dells.

The crashes don't leave log messages.

For what it's worth, we have experienced the exact same thing on a Dell Latitude.

To the super-helpful, slopey-shoulders Dell responder - if Dell chose to sell hardware pre-loaded full of software including Office, then of course there could be an issue that's Dell's responsibility! Perhaps the way you've installed it, or some of the customization you do to Windows interfere with it.

Re-installing Windows and Office from scratch, not relying on Dell's buggy image, the issue no longer occurs. Same hardware, same version of Windows, same version of Office, same network, same domain, same user. The only difference is... we weren't using the pre-installed Windows image built by DELL.

We made the mistake of relying on the Dell image being well tested and well built. Going forward, we will be wiping Dell hardware when we receive it, and re-installing everything ourselves.