Word 2007 Freezing on Opening

[Dovie]

Why does it freeze when I boot the computer? If I leave it for a few minutes
once it's open and don't touch the mouse, it unfreezes. But this should not
happen. After the first time it doesn't freeze again until I reboot again.
Thanks for any input.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Are you perhaps loading a server-based normal.dotm or other global template,
and it's taking a while to connect to the server?

--

Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

 

[Terry Farrell]

I'd be highly suspicious that Word is searching for the printer driver. Are
you using a networked printer? Word needs a local printer driver to work
correctly: if you driver is on the server and is a slow network connection
or there is high demand for the printer, then Word is waiting until it can
interrogate the driver. If that is the case, get your network admin to check
out the printer installation.

If that isn't the problem, please try the following FAQ:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm

 

[Dovie]

Hello, gentlemen. I don't understand the questions you are asking. I have
been using Word for a long time with no problems and am just a home business
small user. No new network issues. Actually I have found that if I open Word
and leave it along for a couple of minutes it responds normally. However, as
I said, I never had this problem before. Are you suggesting that somehow the
Word program connects online? When I open a new document I am given the
choice of "new document" or "new blog document" which I don't recall seeing
before.

 

[Dovie]

Now I see in Word Options under General a check next to "Update Automatic
links at open". I just unchecked that. Does this mean something?

 

[Dovie]

I rebooted and opened Word. That didn't help. I am stumped. If I close the
non-responding program, it eventually closes, and then I can reopen it
normally. Nothing has changed.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

When you open Word and it freezes, is there a message being displayed on the
Status bar?

Also... if you start Word in Safe Mode (hold the Ctrl key when you start
Word, then click Yes to the Safe Mode prompt), does it still freeze?

--

Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

 

[Terry Farrell]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm

Terry

 

[Dovie]

Yes, Herb. It freezes in Safe Mode. The only message that comes up when I
click in regular mode is "Not Responding." However, as I mentioned, if I
leave it alone for a couple of minutes and don't click in the Word window it
normalizes. But in the past I did not have to worry about this. The program
would open and operate normally right away.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Test. From Start | Run (Winkey+R), type in

winword /a

and press enter. Does it still take a long time to open and become usable?

Terry

 

[Dovie]

Hi, Terry. Yes, I did it once when booting, and the result was the same. As
long as I leave the open Word window alone for a couple of minutes it starts
behaving normally. Only if I start mousing with it right away it doesn't
respond.

 

[Terry Farrell]

More investigation needed then...

Open Task Manager (right-click in the Taskbar and choose that option).
Choose the Processes tab and make sure that it is displaying processes from
all users. Under the Options menu, check Always On Top.

Now Start Word. Note which processes start up (it should only be
winword.exe), but is it using 100% for the duration of 'no response' or is
there some other process that is hogging the processing?

Terry

 

[Dovie]

I just rebooted and looked in Task Manager. I can't tell if there is anything
hogging memory. Word itself is at over 13,000. But there are bunch of
svchost.exe on the list.

 

[Dovie]

I take that back. I see my offsite backup program was eating up 220,000 which
I never found to be a problem before. I closed it and then Word acted normal.
The backup program itself backs up Word files offsite with everything else.

 

[Dovie]

OK, I went into Misconfig and found a ton of stuff under services, plus
useless startups of programs. I unchecked a few startup programs, but maybe I
didn't do enough. The problem with Word continues in the meantime.

 

[Dovie]

Well, I tried unchecking a few more services and programs in misconfig and
reboot, but it didn't help. So thus far I leave Word alone for about 5
minutes and it resolves by itself. Hopefully some of you tech guys will
figure out the problem. HP email support is not very helpful. They love to
give you a whole list of things to do and most people like me probably have
no patience to deal with all that......

 

[Dovie]

To add insult to injury when you try to do Word Diagnostics it takes you to a
web page that doesn't work!
https://watson392.watson.microsoft....ed2ba6&enval=76830-OEM-6618077-11872&RCUsed=0

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Hi,

I think you're focusing on the wrong component. Terry's not talking about
memory--he's talking about CPU usage. This tells you which programs are
using a lot of CPU time--which might provide hints about why Word is taking
so long to start up.

Here's another point of possible misunderstanding. You said you rebooted.
For what Terry & I are telling you to try, you do not need to reboot. When I
said start WORD in Safe Mode, I didn't mean start WINDOWS in safe mode.

To start Word in Safe Mode, press the Ctrl key, then do whatever you usually
do to start Word--while holding down the Ctrl key. Word will say something
like "You're holding the Ctrl key--Do you want to start in Safe Mode?" Say
Yes to that prompt.

When you start Word that way, does it still take a long time to start up?

--

Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

 

[Dovie]

I just got an HP message about hanging and minidump.mndp. Could this have
anything to do with my problem ?

 

[Terry Farrell]

Well I have suspected the printer driver from the beginning, so yes, it may
be. But we can eliminate the printer more easily.

Go to Start and select Printers and Faxes: select Add Printer. Follow the on
screen options and install the standard Generic Text printer driver to a
local port(it is in the printers listed as it comes with Windows). Make it
the DEFAULT printer. Reboot. (Note that it doesn't matter that you don't
have another printer, it is only necessary for Word to see a compatible
printer driver.)

Now start Word. Does it still take a long time?

Terry