Two instances of Word 2003 in Task Manager?

[Marco]

Hi

I am working with Word 2003 (MS Office Academic).

I have noticed, after Word (or indeed any other Office application) freezes,
and I open Task Manager, that two instances of Word are listed under the Task
field, both of them listed as "Stopped running" or something similar (under
the Status field.

Is this normal?

This happens quite often with Word and sometimes for no apparent reason. Any
idea what's going on?

Thanks,

Marco

 

[Terry Farrell]

There will be one version of Word left running if Outlook has been opened
and you are using Word as your email editor. But there should be two
instances unless you have opened Word twice. You need to investigate this.
If this is after Word has 'frozen', then one of the instances will probably
be the frozen version. You need to discover what is cause Word to freeze.
Word 2003 was usually VERY stable in Windows XP. Most usually, problems are
caused by a bad printer driver or a bad third party add-in. I suggest
looking at what add-ins are in use.

 

[Marco]

Thanks Terry,

There will be one version of Word left running if Outlook has been opened
and you are using Word as your email editor. But there should be two
instances unless you have opened Word twice.

I don't believe this has anything to do with Outlook: for one, I don't use
Word as my email application. Besides, this happens with other Office
applications (for instance Excel 2003), too.

You need to investigate this.
If this is after Word has 'frozen', then one of the instances will probably
be the frozen version.

I agree on this.

You need to discover what is cause Word to freeze.

This is my problem.

Word 2003 was usually VERY stable in Windows XP. Most usually, problems are
caused by a bad printer driver or a bad third party add-in. I suggest
looking at what add-ins are in use.

Any hints on how to go about this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Terry Farrell]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm which covers
other problems too. But primarily you need to check normal.dot, the printer
driver either out-of-date or partially corrupt or a third party add-in.

Terry

Thanks Terry,

There will be one version of Word left running if Outlook has been opened
and you are using Word as your email editor. But there should be two
instances unless you have opened Word twice.

I don't believe this has anything to do with Outlook: for one, I don't use
Word as my email application. Besides, this happens with other Office
applications (for instance Excel 2003), too.

You need to investigate this.
If this is after Word has 'frozen', then one of the instances will
probably
be the frozen version.

I agree on this.

You need to discover what is cause Word to freeze.

This is my problem.

Word 2003 was usually VERY stable in Windows XP. Most usually, problems
are
caused by a bad printer driver or a bad third party add-in. I suggest
looking at what add-ins are in use.

Any hints on how to go about this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Marco]

Thanks Terry, the link seems promising.

I'll have a thorough look and try what the article says.

Thanks again

Marco

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm which covers
other problems too. But primarily you need to check normal.dot, the printer
driver either out-of-date or partially corrupt or a third party add-in.

Terry