XP Office Pro Word needs to close error

[Corky D]

I have Win Xp Pro and Office XP Pro Suite. I only get the shut down when I
open word. Excel, Access, all the other apps are fine. I dont even have to
have a doc opened. Error message is "Microsoft Word has encountered a
problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." Recover my
work and resart word " has a check in the box. Sent the error report and got
back that office updates might help. They didnt. I uninstalled the suite and
reinstalled. Still not working. Please help. I have done a full system scan
for spyware a nd viruses. None present. Any good suggestions will be greatly
appreciated as my only option is to reformat and reinstall everything.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm .

 

[Corky D]

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried everything listed. Still word wont stay
OPEN> Yikes!

 

[Terry Farrell]

So what happens when you start in Safe Mode using /a switch?

 

[Corky D]

Unfortunately I got the same repugnant message!

So what happens when you start in Safe Mode using /a switch?

 

[Terry Farrell]

It does seem pretty desperate, but back up and a fresh install would seem to
be the answer then.

Terry

 

[Alan]

Hi Corky,

Do a search on your hard drive for a file called NORMAL.DOT. Rename that
file to NORMAL.OLD and try launching Word again. The reason for doing this
is that Word looks for an existing NORMAL.DOT each time it's launched. If it
doesn't find this file, then it builds a new NORMAL.DOT.

If you reinstall Word without renaming/deleting the corrupt NORMAL.DOT, it
will still be used by Word upon launch -- and I suspect you will continue to
get the error message.

Alan

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I doubt that renaming Normal.dot will help if Corky gets the same error when
starting in Safe Mode.

 

[Alan]

Hi Suzanne,

As Corky's last message was over a month ago, he might have given up on Word
and gone back to using a pencil and paper altogether. We might never know
what happened. :>

Alan