It doesn't really sound like an Excel-specific problem. And your description doesn't really go very far in describing the situation, what you've tried so far; all you're telling us is that you're having trouble and get an error message with a couple of bits of info in it, neither one of which is Excel specific.
So all we can really do is general stuff.
- Have you tried shutting down, re-booting, and going back to the task in question, "copying am Excel Chart to Publisher"?
- Are you able to copy other sections of the Excel workbook to Publisher? (i.e., is it something specifically "Chart" related?)
- Are you able to copy from Word to Publisher?
