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General discussion

Microsoft Office Suite 2003

Jan 9, 2010 10:38AM PST

When ever I open Office 2003 to work on a project the software will freeze up on my computer and give me a response that Word is not responding. I don't have any clue as to why it intermitently freezes up on me. Can anyone help?

Discussion is locked

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First thought, Add-ons.
Jan 9, 2010 8:14PM PST

Do you have any anti-virus installed? If so, see if it has included an add-on to Word 2003 and remove it.

There may be other add-ons affecting Word.

When did Word work, and what has changed since then?

Mark

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First thought, Add-ons
Jan 10, 2010 8:32AM PST

I'm presently using Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite Version 9.1

I don't understand your statement, see if it has included an add-on to Word 2003 and remove it.

The first program to start freezing up was Internet Explorer Version 8 and then Word 2003. Word continues to freeze up but Internet Explorer has stopped.

I'm using a Dell XPS 420 dual core processor computer with Vista Home Edition.

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Ahh, that's a clue.
Jan 10, 2010 7:03PM PST

We often find that Internet Explorer problems can be traced back to add-ons, (IE > Tools > Manage Add-ons).

Since IE 3 or 4 Microsoft integrated IE into the Windows Operating System, and problems with IE carried into general Explorer problems, eg Windows Explorer, Desktop, My Documents, My Computer and so on. This also includes the File > Open dialogs of many applications as they are just mini-explorers.

You don't say how you solved your IE problem, but I wonder if the damage is still there. ZoneAlarm doesn't specifically, as far as I can tell, have any Office or Word components. I use the same ZA myself and I have not seen anything like that. I feel your options are as follows;

1] Reset IE back to default.

Open IE and goto Tools > Internet Options, then Advanced tab. The Reset button is there. Bewarned though, this removes everything from IE and that includes Favorites, cookies, history, web-page login details that IE has stored, as well as add-ons and 3rd party toolbars. Favorites can be backed up, (exported), so that it can be imported back afterwards, but there is no way to save or backup the other things.

2] Try Word's "Detect and Repair" option in Word > Help > Detect and Repair.

You will probably need the Office CD to continue with that.

3] Uninstall Office and reinstall.

Goto Vista's Control Panel > Program and Features, uninstall Office. Again you will need the Office CD to complete the procedure.

After the uninstall I would remove the Office CD and reboot, (restart), the computer. This will finalise any uninstall deletions.

When Windows is fully loaded again, insert that Office CD and re-install Office.

I hope that helps.

Mark

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Ahh, that's a clue
Jan 11, 2010 10:38AM PST

Mark, I was very impressed with your knowledge of word 2003. Specifically the part about Word's "Detect and Repair" option. I went ahead and ran it with no problems occuring. I'll have to wait & see if that has solved my problem or not.

As for Internet Explorer, Microsoft software would come up with a window saying if it could find a fix for the problem. It hasn't hung up since. I also went ahead and removed all the gadget add on's since I really don't use them and deleted exteraneous toolbars that I didn't need also.

I'm still waiting to see if IE will freeze up again. So far not for quite some time now.

As a final note, I want to thank everyone who submitted their comments in trying to help me. This software is getting so over bloated. Wonder if Window's 7 performs better than Vista?

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(NT) Good work, and thanks for letting us know.
Jan 11, 2010 5:59PM PST
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Re: word freezing
Jan 11, 2010 4:05AM PST

Try running Word in its socalled safe mode (winword -safe from the start>run box or command prompt and see if it still hangs). If not, most likely it's caused by either an add-on or a corrupt normal.dot.

Then remove all add-ons, delete normal.dot, and try again in normal mode.

Kees