Word 2003 startup problem, runtime error dialog at startup

[RJ]

When starting Word 2003 a Visual C++ Runtime Library dialog box pops up and
displays the following text: "This application has requested the runtime to
terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team
for more information." Word freezes and will not start; it has to be shut
down with the End Program dialog box.

Word has been running very slowly lately, and now it's inoperable. I have
McAfee VirusScan & Firewall (along with a hardware firewall) and scan several
times per week; McAfee has seen no viruses or worms. I scan several times per
week with AdAware, SpyBot, and MS Antispyware; also, no spyware detected.

Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint, and Access all run fine; Outlook has some
problems, such as an "Outlook failed to shut down successfully" error dialog
when trying to create a personal folders backup file.

I've repaired, uninstalled, and reinstalled Office Pro 2003 and Win XP Pro
on my Dell Dimension 8400. I've also run the trial version of Registry
Mechanic 5.0.

Thanks for your advice,

Rich

 

[Jay Freedman]

When starting Word 2003 a Visual C++ Runtime Library dialog box pops up and
displays the following text: "This application has requested the runtime to
terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team
for more information." Word freezes and will not start; it has to be shut
down with the End Program dialog box.

Word has been running very slowly lately, and now it's inoperable. I have
McAfee VirusScan & Firewall (along with a hardware firewall) and scan several
times per week; McAfee has seen no viruses or worms. I scan several times per
week with AdAware, SpyBot, and MS Antispyware; also, no spyware detected.

Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint, and Access all run fine; Outlook has some
problems, such as an "Outlook failed to shut down successfully" error dialog
when trying to create a personal folders backup file.

I've repaired, uninstalled, and reinstalled Office Pro 2003 and Win XP Pro
on my Dell Dimension 8400. I've also run the trial version of Registry
Mechanic 5.0.

Thanks for your advice,

Rich

See http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm.

 

[RJ]

Thanks very much for the tip, Jay. Alas, it didn't work. I started Word 2003
with the /a switch and later tried it in safe mode; on both occasions, it
started quickly with no problems.

However, I can't find the normal.dot file; I did a full system Win XP Pro
search for normal and *.dot, and even did a search on my laptop, which runs
Word 2003 perfectly, but find no file. On my desktop, which has the corrupted
Word 2003, all I could find was a "normal.fmt" file (dated 1998). I changed
the extension to "old," then to "dot," but in both cases, the startup
problems described in my message occurred.

Is there a way I can create a normal.dot file?

Thanks,

Rich

 

[RJ]

Fixed it. I found the normal.dot file under documents and settings and copied
the file from my laptop to desktop. Whew. Thanks again, Jay. I very much
appreciate your expertise and assistance.

Rich