Word 2002 hangs and CPU usage spikes to 100%

[Ellen]

I have a problem with a word 2002 document that has
several tables in it. Some of the tables can be copied and
pasted to a new document, but others seem to hang word and
take the CPU usage to 100%. This also happens when you
select the whole document and try to copy. The only way
to continue is to end task on word.

I can bring this document into word 97 and copy parts or
all of it without this happening.

I couldn't find anything specific to this in the knowledge
base.

 

[Ook]

I just recently got bit real hard by this. I also noticed cpu spikes and
tables that would cause Word to eat 100% cpu. I saved my work, closed Word,
opened Word, loaded document and Word crashed. I spent hours trying to
salvage it, and I'm still in the process of fixing the document. I ended up
using Word2000 to open the document because WordXP would not. I saved it as
RTF, loaded it in Wordpad, saved it as RTF, and I was then able to load it
in WordXP. I then took a backup copy that was not corrupted and cut/pasted
in the text that had changed between the versions.

I very strongly suspect your document is corrupted, possibly beyond repair.
Take immediate action before it is too late, get anything of value out of
the document while you can. I am beginning to believe that tables in Word
are flaky and can cause document corruption. I never had this problem
inWord2000, but maybe I was just lucky? I use Word2000 and WordPerfect at
home, and have never had this problem with either of those products. WordXP,
OTOH, just bit me real hard with this corrupted table issue.

 

[Ellen]

I noticed in word 97 that for one of the tables the end of
row marker has a light blue square over it for 2 of the
rows. There are 2 more tables where there is a red square
over one of the end of row markers. It looks ok in word
2002 and I don't notice anything strange on the table
properties or formatting. Could these be indicating
corruption in the tables? When I open the document in
word 97 and try to save it in rtf format, word stops
responding and I have to end task. I was able to save it
in rtf format from word 2002 but the issue with the row
markers being in color on 3 of the tables is still there.

When I bring the rtf document back into word, I can now
copy and paste with word hanging and spiking to 100%. The
area that I'm looking into this for indicated that they
have several documents that are having this problem.

 

[Ook]

It may be that saving to RTF and loading it again is the key to repairing
tables that cause Word to crash. Otherwise, others here have said that you
can convert tables to text and back again and maybe restore the document. I
have large documents that have a lot of tables, and it's a real pain. I've
lost a day and a half of productivity because of these corrupted
documents.....something that mangement doesn't consider as part of TCO, I'm
sure....