Unstable Word - any advice?

[Chris_Brewster]

Using Word 2003 and XP, I'm having stability problems. I have to have several
documents open, and the main one is using two added templates, one of which
has a pretty big VBA program in it. I've done minor revisions on the VBA
today, but it's normally not open. But at many points, Word closes down,
saves lots of "recovered" documents, including some that weren't even open,
and wastes a lot of time. Can anyone suggest what's causing this or what to
do about it? Thanks.

 

[Chris_Brewster]

I forgot to mention the worst part of the behavior I'm getting: in some of
these crashes, the templates I'm using are deleted-- just plain deleted from
the hard drive. So I have to keep backing them up in other places.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Not at all normal for Word 2007 which is normally very stable. It suggests
some third party activity causing this or maybe a security issue. I'd
suspect either the Anti Virus or permissions. Are you running a standalone
PC or are you on a network? Which AV are you using? Does it happen if you
start Word in Safe Mode. From Start | Run (Winkey+R), type in

winword /a

and press enter. Test again now.

 

[Chris_Brewster via OfficeKB.com]

Thanks, Terry. I should have mentioned some other things. I work in a company
where security is important. When I save or do other significant steps, the
system often brings up a message about certificates and security. Word has
some interaction with a Powerpoint file that began as a copy of a file from
an organization that's also concerned about security. (A Word macro causes
Powerpoint to display a slide that is shown in the text.) But I can't find
any evidence of certificates in either the Word or Powerpoint files, and this
happens even when Ppt is closed. Some of the freaky behavior seems to be
associated with those messages about certificates. If these files have some
kind of security on them, shouldn't I see evidence of this under
Tools>Options>Security? Help appreciated.

 

[Terry Farrell]

It makes me wonder one of the companies use DRM and in absence of a DRM
server, Word shuts down. Even if it's not DRM, it sure points to a
permissions problem. But why it would delete a template is very suspicious:
that should not happen. I'm not sure what you should do from here but my
first thought is what I already suggested, try running Word in Safe Mode and
see if it is stable.

Terry