Word 2003 & computer intermittantly freeze

[chw]

I have an AMD Athlon XP1800+ 1.54 GHz, 768 MB RAM, 40 GB hard disk PC with
Windows XP Home SP2 & Office 2003 SP3 installed. Intermittantly and with no
apparent pattern, the computer freezes (requiring a reset) while typing or,
more commonly, deleting characters in Word. This happens also when typing
e-mails in Outlook (using Word).
I have tried Detect and Repair in Word and have reinstalled Office several
times; all to no avail. This error ocurred before and since I installed SP3.
I find the freeze-up occurs two or three times (with resets in between) and
then Word returns to normal. Opening in safe mode appears to resolve the
issue also, but surely operating in safe mode should not be necesary every
time.
Has anybody any suggestions for a fix?

 

[Terry Farrell]

There are several possible causes, but the clue is that running in Safe Mode
is fine. In Safe Mode, Word opens in its default install mode bypassing
normal.dot, all add-ins and templates and printer driver, etc.

So first I suggest that you clean out the temp file of abandoned temp files
from all those lockups as these too can cause the symptoms you describe.
Take a look here on what to do
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

Then after checking that you have the latest driver from the printer
manufacturer's Internet site, delete and reinstall the printer.

Rename normal.dot as normal.bad.

Test Word again. If it still continues the same lockups, check to what
add-ins are active under Tools, Templates and Add-ins. Remove them from the
WOrd STartup folder and test again. If it is OK now, add these back again
one at a time until you find the problem.

Remember that you may need to clean out the temp folder again too.

 

[chw]

Thanks Terry for this advice.

I followed all the stages through to checking the add-ins and templates. As
I suffered another lockup I have removed the only add-in: MakePDF for Word.

So far, I have had no further problems. I will see how Word performs over
the coming days.

Once again, thank you for your assistance.

CHW

 

[Terry Farrell]

Hope that got the problem for you. Try seeing if there is a support site for
MakePDF and see if they have any reports of the same problem or possibly an
updated add-in that works.

Terry

 

[chw]

Terry,

Unfortunately, I have suffered further lock-ups. I was editing an e-mail
message and the PC locked up. I then restarted and opened in Word Safe Mode.
I tried to copy the message from Outlook to Document 1 and as soon as I
pasted, the PC locked up again. So, it appears the Safe Mode is not immune
from this problem.

On restarting, an error message appeared which I sent to Microsoft and I
followed the link to the following troubleshooting page:
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=322205

The error was recorded as follows:
C:\DOCUME~1\CHRISW~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERe14d.dir00\Mini111807-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\CHRISW~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERe14d.dir00\sysdata.xml

The troubleshooting page refers to problems in starting Windows XP which is
not a problem for me.

Incidentally, I cannot now run the msconfig utility from the run command. I
can open it from C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 by searching in Windows
Explorer.

Any further advice you can offer, would be gratefully received.

CHW

 

[Terry Farrell]

Unfortunately, Outlook 2003 is probably using Word as your email editor
anyway (unless you have unchecked the option in Outlook). From the error
messages, I suggest rename both mail.dot and normal.dot as mail.bad and
normal.bad; then clean out the temp folder of all the abandoned temp files.
Reboot if necessary to clear out the temp folder.

Retest.

Terry