Word 2007 pauses or locks up

[Marz]

I have been using Word 2007 off and on for the past couple of years since I
got it with my laptop. I am working on a software project and, lately, I need
to write some long documents with Word.

I am encountering five to ten second pauses or lockups in the applications
for no apparent reason. I can type during this time with no response from the
app. After the pause, the characters I typed appear. It is getting very
frustrating.

I am using a Dell Inspiron laptop that came with Office 2007 when it was new.
Here is the information on it:
Mobile AMD Sempron Processor 3500+ 1.8 GHZ
32 bit operating system
2 GB Ram

I know that Word uses some type of auto-saving, but I do not think that this
is causing the problem. My documents are getting to be over 10 pages, but it
would surprise me if that was the problem.

I do not have any other applications running when this happens.
My documents are in my Documents folder when I am working on them. I save
regularly when I finish a big section of text.

I am not doing anything special or fancy. I am just typing text with the
"Normal" style. There are no images or graphics at all. And, I am not typing
very fast.

Does anyone have a suggestion about this?
Is there some setting that is causing these glitches?


Marz

I experience

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You might try using Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up the Task Manager when you
experience one of these delays (keep it open so that you can just click on
it quickly). Look at the Processes tab and see if you can pin down which
process is hogging CPU cycles. It may be some kind of indexing (either
Windows or Google Desktop or the like). If so, I don't know what to tell you
to do about it, but perhaps that will provide a start.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Marz]

Thank you for the suggestion, Suzanne.
I will try this and see what appears in the Task Manager.

Marz

 

[Marz]

Suzanne:

I have tried using MS Word with the Task Manager open.
When I get a delay, there doesn't appear to be anything new running. It is
difficult to tell with so many things listed in Task Manager.

I am wondering if it is is just because I am running a low-end Dell laptop.
It is an Inspiron 1501.

I have also tried to close everything I am running when I get one of these
delays in Word, and then reopening my Word document. That seems to work even
though I often only have Word and maybe Window Explorer open when this
happens.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are you looking at the Processes tab? There are always a zillion processes
running on my machine. Most of them I have no idea what they are.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Marz]

Yes - That is the tab that is open when Task Manager opens.

I don't know what a lot of these things are either.

I often wonder what the Windows Media Player process is all about It seems
to always be running and I don't have that app open. I rarely use it. I only
have it running when I listen to online radio stations.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, it's possible that someone can help you, but I've run out of ideas.
You don't see any of these processes grabbing a large percentage of the CPU
cycles?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Marz]

Suzanne:

No. I have my list sorted by the CPU column in descending order. But,
nothing new appears on the top of the list there when the delays happen.

I do appreciate you taking the time to try to figure this out and all your
answers on this. I will continue to try Task Manager just to see if something
pops up there one of these times.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Oh, that's a good idea to sort by CPU usage. I guess I didn't realize you
could do that, but it makes sense. Good tip!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Marz]

Suzanne:

Here are two more things to look at, if you're looking for questions to
answer:

1. I just posted a new topic under Word titled: "Different Default MS Word
Template being used in different places"

2. Why am I not being notified of replies even though I check the checkbox
below in this window?


Have a good day, Suzanne!
: )

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

To answer #2 first, *no one* is currently being notified of replies. For
some reason notification is not working. There's something about being able
to access your profile and see if you have any notifications listed, but
since I don't use the Web interface, this is all gobbledygook to me.

As for #1, I just saw that question, started to answer, and then decided to
leave it for someone who can give you the specific details; I'm just vaguely
aware that it has been reported that Word uses the factory default
(built-in) Normal template when you create new documents in certain ways,
one of which you have evidently discovered. I'm still going to leave that
question for Beth Melton or someone else to handle.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Marz]

Susznne:

Thanks. It's good to know that the reply malfunction is something on the
website's side and not my computer or Live email address.

What??? You don't know EVERYTHING!?! LOL
Thank you. I will look at the other posted issue to see if anyone (like this
Beth character) has replied to it.