Word 2002 & Wordpad crash as soon as I type anything

[Buzz V]

Hello,

I'm using Word 2002 SP3 on WinXP Pro SP3

When I open or create a file, Word opens normally. I am able to select menu
items, change settings, scroll the page, etc. Everything seems fine until I
touch the keyboard. At the first keypress, I get the "... Word encountered a
problem and needs to close..."

This happens when I start Word in Safe Mode.

The same behavior is displayed by Wordpad.

This does not happen in Powerpoint, Excel, Notepad - they work normally.

I'm grateful for any help in resolving this - I miss Word!

Thanks
Buzz V

 

[Terry Farrell]

It suggests that the printer driver may be corrupt. Try deleting and
reinstalling the printer. I also suggest that you clean up after all those
crashes as described in the link below.

See http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

 

[Buzz V]

Thanks for posting, Terry.

It turns out that something had swapped my drive letters on drives C and D
(making my system drive letter D: instead of C. I'm not sure what did it,
it seemed to happen when Auto Update posted the recent out-of-band security
fix.

By switching back the drive letters so my system disk was C: again, the
problem went away.

Thanks anyway!
Buzz

 

[Terry Farrell]

Good grief. That's a new one on me.

Terry

Thanks for posting, Terry.

It turns out that something had swapped my drive letters on drives C and D
(making my system drive letter D: instead of C. I'm not sure what did
it,
it seemed to happen when Auto Update posted the recent out-of-band
security
fix.

By switching back the drive letters so my system disk was C: again, the
problem went away.

Thanks anyway!
Buzz