Simply attempting to open a .mxd. "ArcGIS for Desktop has encountered a serious application error and is unable to continue"
Gary, what version of ArcMap? Have you been able to successfully open the mxd before? Does ArcMap crash with only this mxd or with others as well?
Can you open a blank mxd?
Are there other users that you work with that also use ArcMap? Are they able to open the mxd on their machine(s)?
What if another Windows user logs on to your machine, opens ArcMap? Can the mxd be opened?
Where is the mxd stored? Local folder, network share? If you change the location can you open it?
Obviously a lot of questions. Please try to provide as many answers as possible, but usually for something like this the best bet is to open a case with tech support to get the best help.
From the error, it sounds likely that ArcMap itself has an issue.
If it turns out that ArcMap is OK and just this one particular mxd is a problem, one option that you can try is to run the MXD Doctor utility on the mxd in an attempt to fix it.
Notes:
- Be sure to make a backup copy of the mxd before running this tool, as while it usually works quite well, occasionally the fixes employed by the tool will actually make things worse.
- This Tool can take a while (often 3-15 minutes) to run and does not provide immediate feedback as to what it is doing, so at times will still be running when it instead appears to be finished. So be patient and make sure it runs in full.
Using the MXD Doctor utility—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop
Chris Donohue, GISP
Are you trying to open an mxd in Pro, as you are asking this question in Pro group?
If so, I believe you will need to import your mxd into Pro.