Word documents open very slowly when connected to the network

[Ian East]

I have a very strange problem where certain Word documents open very
slowly (like 30 seconds) when connected to the network and there is
heavy network activity during this time. If not connected they open
in less than 1 second. I have scanned the documents for viruses and
macros and found none. This problem is also only affecting certain
documents but they are not too complex and were created by our own
staff. If anyone knows what could be causing this please let me know.

OS: Windows XP SP2 in a Windows 2000 domain
Office: Office 2003 Pro SP2 w/all updates

Thanks.

 

[Beth Melton]

Chances are the documents are using a Document template that is no
longer available. When Word opens a document it searches for the
document template. If not found it will finally time out and default
to Normal.dot. Check Tools/Templates and Add-ins to see if this is the
case.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi J.,

Word searches for several things, templates, links to templates or files that are embedded in the document, registry entries and if
you're using a networked printer, it can also look for that location as well.

For template registry entries
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889495/en-us?FR=1

It can also have issues if a mapped drive is not found, or if a timing setting is off
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833041/en-us?FR=1

Sometimes just resetting the data key will help,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/280821/en-us?FR=1
but that would be more often if you're having a slow performance problem with opening any file on the network, not just certain
ones.

You may also want to check the environment variables to see where they're pointing for temp file locations.

If that server was an original location for installing Office the MS Installer may also be looking for it if it thinks it needs to
repair or install a feature from Word.

==========
I have been having the same problem for the past 2 weeks on every PC on our
LAN until I have found a workaround for the time being. Here's the story....
Random documents began all of a sudden taking minutes to open and the bottom
left corner of word just said it was "Requesting a Virus scan" - so I assumed
it was our AV scanner...WRONG
First I disabled the AV plugins for Office 2003 - Did not fix the problem.
I uninstalled the AV Scanner and still problem exists - Now I think it's
word...
I uninstall office and reinstall - problem exists.
I format machine (this is a test pc) and begin from ground up - problem
STILL exists.
I see that the network activity lights activate fully when word is trying to
open the problem document every time - I unplug the Cable - Problem Goes
away. Now I think it's a network problem.
I opened the CMD prompt and run netstat -a 1 to see the connections and
then attempt to open one of our problem documents.
I noticed a SYN_SENT on TCP port 1036 going out to a server that we took
offline 2 WEEKS AGO.

To work around this problem and to get my phone to stop ringing off the
hook, we named a PC the name of the old server and now word opens all of the
problem documents like it should.

Problem is I want the FIX not a workaround.... Why is word looking for this
old server and how do I get it not to? The problem documents are random and
some were located on the old server and some were created on PCs and still
located and used on them.

I would GREATLY appreciate any input on this as i've been googling for weeks
and still no results. Thanks! >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*