Word freezes on open, and never opens

[dave]

On a friend's computer, MS word 2003 freezes up when trying to start,
and never actually opens. Task manager must be employed to stop the
process.

I feel bad because he is on the west coast, I am on the east, so I
cannot just run over and troubleshoot it.

I coached him through starting with no templates (ie "winword.exe /a")
and that successfully opened the program in safe mode, but he can't open
any existing docs.
We then deleted all instances of "Normal.dot" and tried to start, and
got the exact same result, splash screen but no init of the program.
Next we used the start with no templates option (As above), selected
[help] then [detect and repair] option, let it run and still no resolution.

I even went so far as to have him uninstall and reinstall to no avail.

This is peculiar behavior to say the least. This machine is less than a
month old, and safely stashed behind a very capable firewall / server
setup, so malware is not the culprit (yes, we checked).

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Send your friend to http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm

 

[dave]

Send your friend to http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm

Will do.
Is there any existing program that will go and scour the registry for
him, so I dont have to explain and direct him to each key for inspection?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can use Find in the Registry, so your friend could copy the quoted keys
from the article text and paste them into the Find box.

 

[dave]

We got my west coast friend's problems solved. I even learned a little
from this exercise too.

Thanks for the lead!

I have noticed that you are all over this NG, thanks for taking the
time, and having the patience for all the Q's.

Dave

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Glad you got it sorted. There's usually a lot more MVP presence in the NGs,
but a lot of the Word MVPs are preoccupied with beta-testing Word 12 right
now. I don't yet have the setup to do that, and I'm thinking perhaps I
should sit it out. I don't really have the temperament for detailed bug
reporting, I think, and *somebody* needs to stay here and help out!