HELP Can't open Word 2000 at all - Computer freezes

[Guest]

Hi, I'm desperate. Starting late last week, when I clicked on Word (2000) (I run Windows 98) it looked like it was trying to open but then froze up completely. I can't even click on the 'X' to close it. When I do the Control Alt Del, a message comes up (sometimes) that I'm dangerously low on resources. It asks me if I want to stop. I click yes. This does nothing. Then I have to shut the computer down with a hard boot because I can't do anything else. That does't help either. After the computer comes back up it happens again.

What do I do now? Any help is appreciate.
Thanks
Carleen

 

[Jezebel]

First, try starting Word without any add-ins or templates. To do this, click
Start > Run, and enter:

Winword.exe /a

If it still doesn't work, your copy of Word is probably corrupt. Reinstall
it.

If it does work, your problem is probably with normal.dot or with an add-in.
Find normal.dot and rename it to normal_old.dot. Now try starting Word in
the usual way. If it works, your normal.dot was corrupt, or had some bad
code (or a virus!). If you have settings, macros, etc in normal.dot you may
be able to retrieve them by using the organizer or by creating a document
based on normal_old and copying them; otherwise just delete normal_old.dot.

If the problem is not in normal.dot, look at any add-ins -- these are .dot
files in the Office\Startup folder (usually C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office\Office\Startup). Take each in turn, change the extension from .dot to
..$$$ (so Word will ignore it). When you find the culprit, refer back to
wherever it came from (eg PDFMaker.dot is part of Acrobat).


If you still have a problem, then something else is interacting with Word.
Norton Antivirus and Outlook are possibilities. Check what else is running
on your machine.

Hi, I'm desperate. Starting late last week, when I clicked on Word (2000)

(I run Windows 98) it looked like it was trying to open but then froze up
completely. I can't even click on the 'X' to close it. When I do the
Control Alt Del, a message comes up (sometimes) that I'm dangerously low on
resources. It asks me if I want to stop. I click yes. This does nothing.
Then I have to shut the computer down with a hard boot because I can't do
anything else. That does't help either. After the computer comes back up it
happens again.

 

[Guest]

Jezebel, you are a life saver. That worked. Any idea of why I had the problem? Will I have to run it this way for now on (you can see my lack of computer knowledge here!!) or does running it once remove the add ons and templates? Thank you so much
Carleen

 

[Guest]

Jezebel, well it worked the one time. When I tried to open Word the regular way the same thing happened (computer frooze, had to reboot, etc). Does anyone know how I can fix this for good? I need help!!

If I reload Word from my Works Suite 2000 CD will I lose the Word documents that I already have? Is there a way to turn off add on's and templates?? so I don't get shut down when I try to open Word

Thanks
Carleen

 

[Jezebel]

Follow the rest of the instructions in the original post. Using Winword.exe
/a was just a diagnostic technique.

Jezebel, well it worked the one time. When I tried to open Word the

regular way the same thing happened (computer frooze, had to reboot, etc).
Does anyone know how I can fix this for good? I need help!!!

If I reload Word from my Works Suite 2000 CD will I lose the Word

documents that I already have? Is there a way to turn off add on's and
templates?? so I don't get shut down when I try to open Word?

 

[Guest]

I didn't see the rest (I'm not familiar with these boards) so I did the one thing and then left my reply. I went back in and saw the rest and tried the normal.dot and renaming and that worked. I can open Word the regular way with no problem. I will follow the rest of the instructions so that I can see where it went wrong
Thank you so much. This has screwed me up so bad
Carleen

 

[Jezebel]

OK, the problem was in normal.dot. If you don't have any macros or settings
(like autotext entries) that you're concerned to save, you can just delete
normal_old.dot. You'll see that Word created a new normal.dot automatically.

Be aware, the problem might have been a virus. In which case you need to
think about how it got there (downloaded any Word documents lately?) and if
you don't have it, install some antivirus protection.

I didn't see the rest (I'm not familiar with these boards) so I did the

one thing and then left my reply. I went back in and saw the rest and tried
the normal.dot and renaming and that worked. I can open Word the regular way
with no problem. I will follow the rest of the instructions so that I can
see where it went wrong.

 

[Graham Mayor]

The problem was with normal.dot, which became corrupt - it happens. Renaming
normal.dot causes Word to rebuild a new one. What it doesn't do is remove
the mess that the crashes have left behind, so checkout
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm .

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
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