Office & productivity software: Word performance issue not solved with uninstall/reinstall
Word performance issue not solved with uninstall/reinstall
by halflingleaf - 3/15/07 5:48 PMSo I've been having this bizarre problem with Word. It takes about 5 minutes to open. For those 5 minutes, it says "not responding" in the task manager, but if I wait it always comes around. Then, once its open, every time I open a document, or toggle between documents, or minimize and the maximize a window, or do anything besides type, really, it takes about 30-60 seconds for Word to respond again. For those thirty seconds, I just get the hourglass. I am a writer and a student, so this seemingly minor problem is causing major headaches and frustration for me. I've been on MS's website and followed their trouble shooting procedure, i.e., disabling the templates, etc. to try to isolate the problem, and no luck. I've tried to repair it, I even completely uninstalled Word and then reinstalled, still the same problem.
Oh yeah: sometimes, when I am opening or closing the program, a dialogue box appears asking if I want to save changes to the normal template, or if want to load the new normal template. I have no idea what this means, but no matter the option I choose, Word still behaves the same.
Whew! Thanks for reading. System info below.
Dell Dimension E510
Windows XP SP2
MS Office 2002
1G RAM
3GHz Pen4 HT
ps - I'm not a computer expert, but I'm not completely clueless either. I have good anti-virus and anti-spyware programs running full-time, and I use several different programs on a regular basis to catch anything that slips by those two. I even ran Process Explorer to check for any suspicious processes, and everything seemed okay (although here is where my knowledge might be insufficient).
The normal.dot file.
by R. Proffitt
- 3/15/07 6:20 PM
In reply to: Word performance issue not solved with uninstall/reinstall by halflingleaf
Even when we uninstall and reinstall your old and possibly crufty old normal.dot file can survive. Try this. Find all the normal.dot files on your drive and rename then to normal.old.
Start Word and it will make a new fresh one.
-> There was that issue with Norton but that's not noted as something you have in the brew.
Bob
normal file
by halflingleaf - 3/15/07 8:02 PM In reply to: The normal.dot file. by R. Proffitt
Thanks, I'll try it.
And no, I don't use Norton. I have McAffee and SpySweeper running, and I also use Spybot, AVG, and others occasionally. But I've been running those for a while, and this problem just cropped up recently.
where are the normal files?
by halflingleaf - 3/15/07 8:24 PM In reply to: The normal.dot file. by R. Proffitt
I couldn't find any normal.doc files. I'm not sure where to look. I clicked explore in the start menu, typed in "normal," and nothing came up.
normat.dot
by Kees Bakker - 3/16/07 1:30 AM
In reply to: where are the normal files? by halflingleaf
It's not normal.doc, it's normal.dot. It's a template, not a normal document. And it's surely there. Mine (for Office 2000) is C:\Documents and Settings\myusername\Application Data\Microsoft\Sjablonen\Normal.dot.
Easy to find.
Another problem can be add-ons. Try running Word in Safe mode by typing winword /a in the Start>Run box. Does that make a difference?
Hope this helps.
Kees
normal files
by halflingleaf - 3/16/07 4:35 PM In reply to: normat.dot by Kees Bakker
Okay, I found the normal file and renamed it and still the same problem. I loaded the troubleshooting macro and went through all of those steps, and still the same problem. When I start it as Winword.exe /a, it works fine. But I cannot fix it.
Since /A worked start removing ADDINs.
by R. Proffitt - 3/16/07 6:50 PM
In reply to: normal files by halflingleaf
What troubleshooting macro? Do tell.
Bob
SUPPORT.DOT troubleshooting macro
by halflingleaf - 3/17/07 8:49 AM In reply to: Since /A worked start removing ADDINs. by R. Proffitt
SUPPORT.DOT. It came on my Office disk. I used it to remove or rename the data registry key, normal.dot template, startup addins, COM addins, and the options registry key. I followed the procedure here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289506/
But nothing helped.
The only thing even slightly out of the ordinary is that when I tried to delete the COM addins, a dialogue box popped up that said the registry key had already been deleted or is invalid.
Since we can't see which COM addin were added.
by R. Proffitt - 3/17/07 9:02 AM
In reply to: SUPPORT.DOT troubleshooting macro by halflingleaf
We sit in the dark corner waiting for the clues to come our way.
You've found it but only need to work on it or share gritty details.
-> To wit, I've never had to use the support item you wrote of. Between removing normal.dot and addins I have always got Word going again.
Bob
What else do you need to know?
by halflingleaf - 3/17/07 9:50 AM In reply to: Since we can't see which COM addin were added. by R. Proffitt
Sorry my info is inadequate. Like I said, I'm no expert.
What info do you need from me in order to offer a suggestion?
As far as working on it, like I said, I believe I've renamed or deleted everything that the macro points out as add-ins and templates, so I'm stumped now as to what further steps to take.
Perhaps I should try manually deleting the add-ins without using the macro? But I don't know how to do that.
Thanks, everybody, for all of the help so far. Still can't get the damn thing to function properly though.
Link, comment
by R. Proffitt - 3/17/07 9:57 AM
In reply to: What else do you need to know? by halflingleaf
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm shows the Tools, Addins screen. Why not use that to remove addins? Or share here what's listed.
Bob
nothings there
by halflingleaf - 3/17/07 10:21 AM In reply to: Link, comment by R. Proffitt
There is nothing listed under "templates and add-ins." Likewise for "COM add-ins."
When I look in Tools>Macros, there seems to be nothing active there either, except under Word commands.
Then we're back to deleting the normal.dot file.
by R. Proffitt - 3/17/07 10:30 AM
In reply to: nothings there by halflingleaf
Some can't find this file to remove. But I see we covered the normal places above.
Some can't delete it since the file extensions are turned off in explorer. Why not turn them on?
Bob
hmmm . . .
by halflingleaf - 3/17/07 10:49 AM In reply to: Then we're back to deleting the normal.dot file. by R. Proffitt
I'm not really sure what you're saying here.
But I went back into explorer, found two normal templates (one new one, and one old one that I had previously renamed), deleted them both, and still the problem persists.
I have the file extensions turned on, I think. This simply allows you to see the extension after the name of the files, right? If so, then yeah, its turned on.
What's interesting here is you claim that support macro
by R. Proffitt - 3/17/07 11:09 AM
In reply to: Word performance issue not solved with uninstall/reinstall by halflingleaf
Shows addins. But time and again you don't share what they are.
Why are you not sharing the gritty details?
As to normal.dot I hope we've beat that one to death now. Let's see those addins from the view you have working.
Bob
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
