MS Word goes into not-responding and nothing happens.

[paulrt64]

Word has stopped functioning properly. When I attempt to do much of anything
using it, it will just freeze-up and the activity bar at the top simply says
that it is not repsonding.

I have un-installed it and the installed it anew in hopes that that might
clear up the problem but it still does the same thing.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Uninstalling and reinstalling is the one thing that is almost guaranteed not
to help. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm for some
general troubleshooting tips that will.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[paulrt64]

Thank you Ms. Barnhill;

I followed the link and changed the normal file name to normal.old I then
ran winword.exe /a and it worked Ok that way, but if I click on an old file
or the Word shortcut I'm still having the same not-respondng problem.

I'm using Windows Vista and the instructions in your link to find the
startup path are for older versions of Windows. I've hunted around
unsucesfully for the startup path within Word using the " winword.exe /a "
version. What should I try now?

Thanks for your help.
Paul

 

[paulrt64]

Well, a little more hunting and I found the startup file for Word.
Unfortunately the file is empty.

Is there something else I could try?
Paul

 

[Graham Mayor]

If it works with Word in its safe mode but not after having renamed the
normal template (normal.dotm) then the normal template is not the problem.
Do you have a default printer installed? Check for add-ins, rename the data
key in the registry.
See http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[paulrt64]

Yes, I have a printer installed and printed a test page last night to make
sure the computer was still communicating with the printer.

I found the startup file but the folder was empty even after checking the
box to show me hidden files.

The add-ins file was also empty.

I will try looking for the registry. Do you have any instructions for how do
go about renaming the registry?

Thanks
Paul

 

[Graham Mayor]

http://computerperformance.co.uk/vista/vista_registry.htm demonstrates how
to access the Registry. The key that you need to rename is

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
where 12 is the Word version (here 2007)

With Word and Outlook closed, change the name to OldData then restart Word.
Word will build a new Data key.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[paulrt64]

Hi Graham;

Thanks for your help. The instructions at the bottom of this link finally
did the trick. The offensive file was the one called "Settings" in the data
key. Link: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/MissingMenusEtc.htm

Thanks for your help.
Paul