Word 2002 Locks on Program Shutdown

[Brian]

Greetings,

I have a bizarre problem with my copy of Word 2002 that
I'm hoping someone can help me with: Any existing Word
document that I have will lockup the program when I try
to shut down Word.

On documents that other people send me or new documents
which I create, this doesn't happen - only on my existing
files. I tried to copy and paste into Wordpad, then save
into RTF, go into Word and resave into .DOC files, but it
still happens. I've also tried to patch,
uninstall/reinstall the program, etc. to no avail.

Any ideas? I would hate to have to retype all of my
files just to fix this. Thanks in advance.

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Brian,

To clarify, does this occur when you exit Word or close the document?

Additionally, does the error occur if you start Word using the /a
switch? Go to Start/Run and run:

winword /a

Note the space before the forward slash.

If the error doesn't occur then post back and we'll go from there.

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/

 

[Brian]

Hi Beth,

Thanks for the info! The problem only happens with I
exit Word, but using the /a switch as you suggested fixes
the problem.

What does that switch do? The program starts maximized
each time, but it couldn't be that simple could it?

- Brian

 

[Beth Melton]

The /a switch bypasses Normal.dot, the Registry, and global
templates/add-ins. So now it's a matter of finding where the problem
lies exactly.

First I suggest you search for multiple occurrences of Normal.dot and
rename any you find to force Word to create a new one upon starting.

If this resolves the problem, any customizations can be copied to the
new Normal.dot via the Organizer (Tools/Templates and Add-Ins) Once
this is complete OldNormal.dot can be discarded. If the problem still
exists then you can delete the new Normal.dot and rename your
OldNormal.dot to Normal.dot.

You should only have one Normal.dot available to Word. I've seen
instances where some documents will use one Normal.dot and other
documents will use another. However part of this depends on how you
start Word.

If that checks out then proceed with the following:

Global templates/add-ins: Go to Tools/Options/File Locations and note
the location of the Startup folder. Exit Word and locate the Startup
folder and see if any files are placed in the folder. If more than
one, move them one at a time and try starting Word after each file is
moved out of the folder until you determine which one is causing the
problem.

You should also check the Office\Startup folder as well.

Registry Corruption: See this article for instructions on rebuilding
the Word/Data key:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/MissingMenusEtc.htm

For additional troubleshooting steps for problems starting/exiting
Word see this article:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm

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/

 

[Brian]

Thanks! Deleting the Normal.dot files and forcing Word to
recreate a new one seems to have done the trick.

Cheers,

Brian

 

[Brian]

I spoke too soon, the problem remains even after going
through all of the items you listed below. I don't know
if it helps any, but when I try to shutdown Word on one
of my existing doc files, the CPU usage goes up to 56%
until I force it to shutdown via WinXP.

- Brian

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Brian,

What patches do you have installed? You can find this under Help/About
Microsoft Word.

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/