Word 2003 Extremely Slow Startup / Exit

[Dave Brandman]

I am running Word 2003 (SP1) (as part of Office 2003) on my 2.8
GHz Dell Dimension 4550. When I double click on a Word
document, it is approximately 7 seconds before the Word splash
window appears, another couple of seconds before an empty Word
screen appears and another couple of seconds before the document
appears in the screen (document size does not seem to play a
factor hear). It is similar process on exitiing. If I exit the
app, after a copule seconds the document disappears and seconds
later before Word goes away. If I just close the document, it
takes those same several seconds, and if I then exit Word with
no documents open, it takes several seconds. No other Office
application displays this behavior. I use Word from Outlook as
my message editor/viewer, and I don't have the problem from
within Outlook. Once Word is open, all other operations seem to
run at "normal" speeds including File:Save, except for the
exiting/closing.

Any ideas?

 

[TF]

Dave

Try starting Word in Safe Mode and close it immediately. Does that
open/close correctly? To start in Safe Mode, go to Start, Run and type in

winword /a

and press enter. Then click Close. Is it still slow? Do you have Norton Anti
Virus?



:I am running Word 2003 (SP1) (as part of Office 2003) on my 2.8
: GHz Dell Dimension 4550. When I double click on a Word
: document, it is approximately 7 seconds before the Word splash
: window appears, another couple of seconds before an empty Word
: screen appears and another couple of seconds before the document
: appears in the screen (document size does not seem to play a
: factor hear). It is similar process on exitiing. If I exit the
: app, after a copule seconds the document disappears and seconds
: later before Word goes away. If I just close the document, it
: takes those same several seconds, and if I then exit Word with
: no documents open, it takes several seconds. No other Office
: application displays this behavior. I use Word from Outlook as
: my message editor/viewer, and I don't have the problem from
: within Outlook. Once Word is open, all other operations seem to
: run at "normal" speeds including File:Save, except for the
: exiting/closing.
:
: Any ideas?
:
: --
: -------------------
: Dave Brandman
: Prescott, AZ

 

[Dave Brandman]

Dave

Try starting Word in Safe Mode and close it immediately.
Does that open/close correctly? To start in Safe Mode, go
to Start, Run and type in

winword /a

and press enter. Then click Close. Is it still slow? Do you
have Norton Anti Virus

Started it in Safe Mode, and that works like a champ. Went back
to normal mode, same thing. Looked under Help:Aboutisabled
items, and it showed only one file "~wra0000.wbk" which I found
in a temp folder, and deleted the item. Still same long delay
in regular mode. Running McAfee Enterprise 7.1 anti-virus. I
disabled its "on-access scan" feature, but that made no
difference.

So question is, what else does safe mode do, or not do.

Dave

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Safe Mode bypasses Normal.dot, the Registry, and add-ins, all of which you
can troubleshoot separately.

1. You check Normal.dot by renaming it (temporarily). Word will generate a
fresh copy. If this solves the problem, then that's where the problem lies;
you can salvage some of your customizations from the renamed Normal.dot
using the Organizer.

2. You can try rebuilding specific Registry keys; see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/MissngMenusEtc.htm

3. Add-ins probably cause the majority of the problems, so it's worthwhile
to start with them. Look in Tools | Templates and Add-ins to find what
add-ins are loading with Word. There may also be COM add-ins; see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm. You may
have suspicions of specific add-ins from the outset, but if you don't have a
clue which one might be the culprit, move them all out of the Startup folder
and add them back in one at a time (restarting Word after each addition)
till you find the one that causes the problem.

 

[Dave Brandman]

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstall
ed.htm

Thank you very much. I had no add-ins of any flavor. However,
for some reason I had a normal.dot file that was 1.7MB in size.
I removed it, and performance went back to something resembling
normal.

Dave

 

[TF]

Dave

Your VirusScan has an out of date engine too and won't be providing full
protection: though this isn't your problem. It looks as though you found
normal.dot corrupt.

Make sure you clean out all the abandoned temp files: see
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

Terry

: :
: > http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstall
: > ed.htm
:
: Thank you very much. I had no add-ins of any flavor. However,
: for some reason I had a normal.dot file that was 1.7MB in size.
: I removed it, and performance went back to something resembling
: normal.
:
: Dave
: -------------------
: Dave Brandman
: Prescott, AZ