Word 2002 hangs indefinitely on "open" or "save as"

[vfnorton]

It's Word 2002 on Win XP Home with SP2. Word starts up OK, either by
executing Word without specifying a file, or by double clicking any doc
file, and can print or save (using File->Save) any doc file, but hangs
immediately as soon as I click on "File->Open" or "File->Save
As", without displaying anything. It's not just slow or delayed
for a few minutes--it hangs unresponsive apparently forever, and the
task needs to be manually ended. There is no networking, no removable
drives.

I've tried removing normal.dot, and it made no difference. I've
tried executing Word by using Start->Run: winword.exe /a, and no
difference. There are no files in Word's Startup folder (I leave
hidden files and files extensions visible).

I've done some internet searching, including usenet newsgroups,
useful sites like www.mvps.org/word and others, some microsoft support
knowledge base searching (found some articles very close but no cigar).
Does any Word expert out there know what might be going on here, or
what additional experiments I can do that might illuminate it? Also,
is this the best place to be posting this, or would you suggest any
other group? Thanks very much for any help.

 

[twieland]

I have the same problem. From reading other posts its from a Microsoft
security patch that was installed some time last week. I have'nt been
able to fix this myself. I'm hoping MS will make a patch to fix the
patch

 

[stan Mapstone]

The problem is linked to Microsoft Update KB908531.
Remove this update with Add/Remove Programs (make sure you tick the
"show updates" box)
Security Update for Windows XP (KB908531)