Word Opens Slowly - And Support Template Didn't Fix It

[Dan Singel]

My MSWord 2002 opens very slowly, closes very slowly, and sometimes locks up.
When switching between multiple open Word docs, the same thing happens. My
computer is fast, that's not the problem.

I followed the steps to troubleshoot (See Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles
322743 and 319299). I used the support template. When I opened the support
template, Word worked perfectly, which would seem to indicate that the
problem was with one of the items that were bypassed by using the Word
Support Template. I went through each of the five steps mentioned by the
Support Template:

Step 1: Delete the Word Data Registry Key
Step 2: Rename the Normal.dot Global Template
Step 3: Turn Off the Startup Folder Add-ins
Step 4: Delete the COM Add-ins Registry Key
Step 5: Delete the Word Options Registry Key

After all these steps, nothing fixed my problem. So, in a nutshell, the
template bybassed these issues and the program worked fine. But when went
through all the steps to correct the problem, I'm still left with a program
that loads slowly and locks up sometimes.

Thanks,

Dan

 

[garfield-n-odie]

Hi, Dan. If you are running Norton/Symantec Antivirus, try disabling the
Office Plugin that comes with it by clicking on Start | Programs | Norton |
Options | Miscellaneous | uncheck the "Enable Office Plugin" box.

 

[MilesG]

Win XP home, P4 2.4, 512mb RAM

Dan, I had just the same problem and fixed it with the
Data Registry deletion. However it was not easy, and
succeeded only after ZoneAlarmPro, AdWatch, NAV and
Cybersitter were disabled. I then narrowed this down by
step-by-step re-enabling and am pretty convinced that it
is ZAP (v 5.1.011) that administers the sleeping draught.
Do you have ZAP? Try disabling it (while not online!) and
see what happens.

Another related issue: I couldn't get the Word 2002
Support template to function (it installed OK, and Word
opened quick as a flash, but the boxes were not clickable)
until I had lowered Word Tools/Options/Security/Macro
Security... to Low (didn't try Medium) closed down Word
then reopened the Support Template. (If anyone tries this
don't forget to revert to High Macro Security if that was
where it was set!)

Hope this helps. Maybe I'll post to ZA forum too.

Regards
Miles

 

[CNJR]

I have the same problem with Word 2002 opening slowly and
switching between documents very slowly ( I have over a
gig of RAM- so that isn't the problem). Word also crashes
frequently when I close it. I also am running
ZoneAlarmPro, AdWatch, and Norton. I disabled ZAP like
Miles suggested but to no avail... Any others have
recomendations??

CNJR

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Have you disabled the Office Plug-in in NAV?

 

[Guest]

Yes, I disabled the Office Plug-in, I disabled ZoneAlarm
Pro, and I downloaded and ran "Troubleshoot Utility for
Problems That Occur When You Start or Use Word 2002." The
strange thing is, after I ran it and deleted the nomaldot,
it worked great, but the next time I ran Word it was
extremely slow again. So I ran the troubleshooter again.
Again the same thing happened- it fixed it temporarily- I
restarted my computer and now it is slow again and running
the troubleshooter does not seem to do anything
now. ????

 

[CNJR]

One more thing...
Word seems to work well when I use the 'SUPPORT.DOT'
troubleshooter program- if I open my documents from that
utility Word works fast, but if I open Word from the start
menu the normal way, things are always very slow. ????

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I suspect that when you use Support.dot, you're opening Word with the /a
switch. That implies that the problem is with Normal.dot, the Registry, or
an add-in. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm to be sure you have
tried everything (and note that some add-ins won't be listed in Tools |
Templates and Add-ins; see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm).

 

[CNJR]

Thanks for your reply.

I started Word using "winword.exe /a". starting this way
cleared up the problem. According to the help guide, this
means I have a problem with my Normal.dot template or one
of the files in Word's Startup path.

So I .
1) renamed my 'Normal.dot' which didn't work,
I did have several differently named normal.dot files in
the templates directory. I deleted all of these.

2) deleted the data key registry-
\\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0
\Word\Data

which didn't work

I then followed the instructions from the other help
document on searching for add-ins. I didn't have any
start up add-ins or COM Add-ins.

If this helps,
When word crashes, I get a message about the global
template and it asks if I want to save changes to my
normal.dot (which is why I had several different copies of
it in my templates file).

But, as for now, Wrd is still running extremely
slowly.... ???

 

[CNJR]

Okay, so Word just crashed and here is exactly what happens
(it only crashes upon exiting Word):

I get a Visual C++ Runtime Error.

It says:
'Runtime Error!
Program: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10
\WINWORD.EXE
abnormal program termination.

I click 'OK' and the program exits.

Then, upon restarting Word, I get a Message that
says, "Word automatically saved changes to the normal
document template. Do you want to load it?"

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

This is a not-uncommon error message, but I'm afraid I don't know what
causes it. I'd guess there might still be a conflict with an add-in (not all
add-ins show up even with the tool you used), but you've already eliminated
the Norton Office Plug-in, which is the most likely, and I take it that the
Microsoft Works Suite Add-in for Word is not an issue here?

 

[CNJR]

Actually I think it was the Microsoft Works add-in. I
deleted it and now Word works great! It is no longer slow
at all. thanks for all of your help!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you'd said at the outset that you had Word as part of Works Suite, you'd
have been advised right away to uninstall the add-in.

 

[MilesG]

I removed the Works add-in too. Much better. Thanks CNJR
and Suzanne. Strange that all that earlier procedure
seemed to work, although it left Word still a bit
sluggish, so I wasn't convinced and was not looking
forward to further experiments! No need now it seems.
Miles