Word slowing down memory rising like crazy

[Gio Bacareza]

Office version: XP sp2
OS: WinXP sp1

Problem:
I have been using Word for a long time without problems but lately I've
noticed these symptoms. Word opens normally. I checked task manager and
winword,.exe uses around 10meg of memory. Problem starts when i start
typing. As soon as i start typing text, memory shoots up to around 50MB and
keeps on rising and rising.

Fix attempts:
I checked out http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm.
Although it doesn't crash (just slows down) i followed the troubleshooting
guide under "If Word crashess...". Here are the results:
* Starting with /a does not solve it.
* Renaming normal.dot doesn't solve it.
* There are no files in both startup folders.
* Correcting registry settings does not solve it.
* My default printer is local not network.
* Office plug in in NAV is disabled.

In other words, i tried all troubleshooting tips but I'm still having the
problem described above.

What's causing this problem and how else do i solve it?

Thanks.

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

You may speech recognition turned on under the Tools menu.

 

[Terry Farrell]

You may also have a Language conflict. Make sure that the Keyboard, Windows
and Word/Document languages are all correctly set and that the grammar
checker is seeing the correct language. Try disabling the Check Grammar
While You Type option.

--
Terry Farrell - Word MVP


Office version: XP sp2
OS: WinXP sp1

Problem:
I have been using Word for a long time without problems but lately I've
noticed these symptoms. Word opens normally. I checked task manager and
winword,.exe uses around 10meg of memory. Problem starts when i start
typing. As soon as i start typing text, memory shoots up to around 50MB and
keeps on rising and rising.

Fix attempts:
I checked out http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm.
Although it doesn't crash (just slows down) i followed the troubleshooting
guide under "If Word crashess...". Here are the results:
* Starting with /a does not solve it.
* Renaming normal.dot doesn't solve it.
* There are no files in both startup folders.
* Correcting registry settings does not solve it.
* My default printer is local not network.
* Office plug in in NAV is disabled.

In other words, i tried all troubleshooting tips but I'm still having the
problem described above.

What's causing this problem and how else do i solve it?

Thanks.

 

[Gio Bacareza]

Hello and answer to this problem? Help!!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Have you cleared out *.tmp files?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Gio Bacareza]

If you mean the temporary documents that word creates when you're editing a
document, yes I have.

Unless you are referring to another tmp file or another folder besides my
documents and the folders where i store my .doc files.

Thanks

 

[Gio Bacareza]

It's becoming such a nuisance because it slows my PC down that i have
disabled word as my email editor and am looking for another word processing
software but that's hopeless, i mean what choice do i have? help!

 

[Gio Bacareza]

No language conflict. Checked Keyboard and Language setting and it's ok.

Also disabling the Check Grammar did not help. Thanks for the suggestions
though.

The problem occurs immediately as you type. When you open word, it settles
down to a memory level of around 20K. As soon as you type, it jumps up to
50K and freezes the computer. (probabaly IO with HD). after about 30
agonizing seconds it releases the computer but the whole PC performance is
slowed down due to high memory level used by word.

it's becoming so frustrating to use word...

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Use Windows Find/Search to look for *.tmp. You'll find a Windows Temp folder
that may well be full of them.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[TF]

Gio

Word as email editor has a serious number of bugs in versions prior to
Office 2003, so I would recommend that you turn that feature off. To expand
on Suzanne's recommendation for clearing out temp files:

1. Start your computer from cold and don't open any applications.
2. Use Windows Key + R and type in a single . and press enter.
3. Select the Local Settings and then the Temp folders.
4. This folder should be empty at this stage: if it isn't do a Crtl+A and
delete all the contents.

Start Word and test again. If it is still the same, have you tried turning
off the Spelling and Grammar checking while you type options as suggested?
If that doesn't work, have you tried starting word in engineering mode? Use
Windows Key +R and type in

winword /a

and press enter. Test again and let us know if any of this helps.

Terry


It's becoming such a nuisance because it slows my PC down that i have
disabled word as my email editor and am looking for another word processing
software but that's hopeless, i mean what choice do i have? help!

 

[Gio Bacareza]

Thanks for the suggestions, here are the results:

1. Deleted all temp following your step-by-step instructions > not solved
2. Turned off spelling check while typing > not solved
3. started with /a > not solved
4. Speech recog not installed

I wanted to attach a screen shot to show you the behaviour but it's not
allowed so here's a textual description:

1. Start word. > ok
2. I start typing. It's ok for a few seconds then as soon as I stop or
pause. Memory use spike up. Everything slows down.
3. I continue to type but could not see the words I'm typing on screen.
Memory use increasing. Then processor use spikes up.
4. After about a minute, memory and processor use decreases significantly
and stabilizes.

Here's a textual graphic of occurence in task manager:

Memory:
--------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - ---
------------
1. 2. 3. 4.


Is this a common occurence?

Thanks again for the help. Hope you dont give up helping me.

/gio

 

[Gio Bacareza]

Disregard the graphical representation of the last mail as it did not render
as accurately as i wanted it to

 

[TF]

Gio

I am baffled at the moment. A couple more questions:

Does this happen on a new document (before it is saved)?
Does it happen if you try to edit an older document?

Terry

Thanks for the suggestions, here are the results:

1. Deleted all temp following your step-by-step instructions > not solved
2. Turned off spelling check while typing > not solved
3. started with /a > not solved
4. Speech recog not installed

I wanted to attach a screen shot to show you the behaviour but it's not
allowed so here's a textual description:

1. Start word. > ok
2. I start typing. It's ok for a few seconds then as soon as I stop or
pause. Memory use spike up. Everything slows down.
3. I continue to type but could not see the words I'm typing on screen.
Memory use increasing. Then processor use spikes up.
4. After about a minute, memory and processor use decreases significantly
and stabilizes.

Here's a textual graphic of occurence in task manager:

Memory:
--------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - ---
------------
1. 2. 3. 4.


Is this a common occurence?

Thanks again for the help. Hope you dont give up helping me.

/gio

 

[Gio Bacareza]

Sorry for the late reply. It happens in both scenarios... Thanks

 

[TF]

Gio

I am defeated at the moment! This is the sort of challenging problem I'd
like to be able to sit in front of and analyse but unfortunately that's not
possible.

Terry

Sorry for the late reply. It happens in both scenarios... Thanks

 

[Gio Bacareza]

I wish I have your knowledge of the product to be able to troubleshoot it
myself. It seems like there are related threads regarding word memory leaks
but the others mostly end up with an error while my experience is temporary
as word eventually settles back to normal operations after what seem like a
car engine revving to warm up. (This temporary warming up is annoying though
because the whole systems slows to a crawl.)

A suggestion propped up to turn off speech recognition. I dont think I have
it installed but how do i know if it's installed and enabled and if so how
do i disable it?

Thanks

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

A suggestion propped up to turn off speech recognition. I dont think
I have it installed but how do i know if it's installed and enabled
and if so how do i disable it?

Tools > Speech will be active and can be toggled off

TO turn off: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=326526

Mike Williams - Office MVP
http://www.mvps.org/

Please respond in the same thread on this newsgroup. Make sure you
include details of your application and Windows versions, and whether
or not you have included any service pack updates.