Why Does My Machine Hang Up With Word97 and WinXP Pro?

[Jerry Werner]

I use Microsoft Word for Office 97 on my Windows XP Pro system because
it converts Word documents to html in a much cleaner (human readable)
form than do newer versions of Word.

However, is there a compatibility problem with MSWord97 with XP? If I
access a Word file from my web browser (IE) when surfing it shows up
fine, but the browser takes a long time (sometimes 30 seconds or more)
to go back to the previous page when I hit the "back" button.

Even worse, the computer often slows down to a crawl after I've been
viewing a Word file on the web. During those times I check the
Windows Task Manager to see what processes are running, and msword.exe
invariably shows up even though I'm no longer viewing a Word file on
my browser or using Word for any other purpose. If I stop the
"msword.exe" process my computer returns to normal speed.

Is anybody else seeing this problem of viewing Word files on the web?
Is it unique to Word97? Any idea about how to resolve this problem?

Thanks for any and all help.

Jerry

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Jerry,

Do you have all of the patches installed for Word 97? Word becomes
incredibly more stable once it is fully patched.

You can use the Office Product Updates site and use the Scan utility
to find any needed updates:
http://office.microsoft.com/ProductUpdates/default.aspx

Or you can download the patches manually. Here is some info on how to
obtain all of the updates:

SR1: http://office.microsoft.com/Downloads/9798/sr1off97detail.aspx
SR2: http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/9798/sr2off97detail.aspx
Post Service Release (QFE 8909):
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/9798/Wd97mcrs.aspx

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Jerry Werner]

Beth,

Thanks for the response and the information. Unfortunately, the Scan
utility you mentioned only works for Office 2000 and newer, so it
didn't help any.

I'm running version SR2, which contains all the latest fixes to Word,
but I still have the problem of the machine hanging when I access Word
files on the web.

Do you have any other thoughts or suggestions? Is anyone else
experiencing a similar problem?

Thanks.

Jerry

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for the reminder on Office Update. I forgot it is no longer
available for Office 97.

If you don't have the Post Service Release for Word I recommend
obtaining it. The text in the KB I cited is no longer specific but the
"Word 97 Security Update: Macro Vulnerability" is a cumulative patch.
Here are the details on the bugs it corrects:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=265374

You may note one of the bugs corrected was, "Word Document Is Saved
Locally When Saved in Internet Explorer". I don't know if you have or
will encounter this problem but since you work with Word docs in IE
it's worth taking a closer look:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=234676

I'm sorry I have no other suggestions for you. :-(

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/