Word 2003 stops working

[Slava]

Hi folks,

Never had a problem with Word 2003 in the 3 years I've had this program.
Suddenly, I have issues.

A few minutes into opening a Word document, or upon attempted close of the
document, I get a popup box with message "Microsoft Office Word has stopped
working. A problem caused the problem to stop working correctly. Windows
will close the program and notify you if a solution is available."

When I close the popup, sometimes a new blank "document 1" opens up
automatically. This happens with both Word docs and Outlook messages.

Don't know if this is related, but the problem began after I uninstalled
Microsoft Office 2007, and the Office 2007 Compatability Pack. Figured I
didn't need them since I only use the 2003 version.

Help??

~Slava

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Uninstall the Office 2007 Activation Assistant (if it's still installed),
and then reinstall/repair your Office 2003 installation, to see if that
resolves the matter.

Do you have an up-to-date security suite on your computer? (Antivirus,
anti-malware)

 

[Slava]

Hi Susan,

I don't have office 2007 Activation Assistant installed. I tried to repair
office 2003, but it did not fix the problem. Don't know how to reinstall
because the laptop came with the program, I don't have the discs. I have
Avast and Malwarebytes indicating there are no viruses. Had Microsoft
Security Essentials tell me the same thing before I replaced it with Avast.
My problem continues to persist. Any word or outlook document I open will
automatically close and then try to reopen a new blank document 1 (a process
that takes like 10 minutes). And I cannot close a word/outlook document
without the error message that I described in the first post. Is this a
glitch in the software? Did uninstalling office 2007 somehow affect my 2003
programs? Help!

~Slava

 

[Susan Ramlet]

It may have, but without knowing every detail of your system, it's hard to
say.

You need to get either recovery or installation discs from your computer
vendor, as long as you legally have a license for 2003, then try to repair
the installation.

Have you tried running Word in Safe Mode? I'm wondering if perhaps you have
an add-in or a corrupted default template that could be causing issues with
Word.

Microsoft Security Essentials would be a great program to use--wondering why
you replaced it with avast (which is also okay).

The worst thing that would happen would be that you need to restore or
re-install your system to its initial configuration...hopefully you don't
have to do that, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

 

[Slava]

Yes, I tried running it in Safe Mode, and tried to repair it. Everything
works fine in safe mode, but without it, I still have the original problem.
You might be right about the corrupted default template, but I don't know how
to fix it...

I open any Word doc (not in safe mode), try to close it, and get a popup
saying "This file is in use by another application or user
C:\Users\Owner\AppData\...Normal.dot).

When I press "OK" it prompts me to Save As, with the default folder being
Templates.

I cancel the Save As, and try to exit the document again. This time I get a
popup saying "Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.
Do you want to save those changes?" I click "No". Then the file closes out.

I switched to Avast only to check if maybe there was a virus that MS
Security Essentials couldn't detect. Avast didn't find any viruses either.
Maybe my computer is just going a little senile...

By the way, I appreciate that you respond to my posts, thank you!

~Slava

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Well, try deleting the normal.dot file, then re-starting Word. If you have
saved a lot of customizations such as toolbars in Word, you may want to
rename it instead of deleting it, just so you have it backed up. Word will
generate a new default template when it starts.

Security Essentials has had a good reputation since it was released,
so--while it doesn't hurt to be cautious--it should meet your needs if you
are also careful about where you go on the Internet, and only open files
from people you trust. Sometimes having more than one antivirus or other
security software can bog down your system, and those can compete.

I don't think that's the cause of your issues, but just something to
consider for performance.

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Oh, and you're very welcome--