Why does MS Word 2003 startup slowly if network is enabled?

I have two PC's connected on a network. When I startup MS Word 2003 on one of the computers, it takes 30 seconds before the initial blank document screen appears. If I disable the network, then MS Word 2003 startups normally in about 2 or 3 seconds. This only happens on ONE of the usernames on this PC. Another username startups normally regardless of whether or not the network connection is enabled.

The "slow" username is heavily used with lots of opening and editing of documents. The "fast" username is not heavily used.

I also notice that the network icon blinks occasionally when MS Word 2003 is starting up even though I am not, as far as I know, opening or accessing a file over the network.

What are some reasons why this might happen, and what I can do to make MS Word 2003 on the "slow" username startup normally?

I have tried the following, none of which had any effect:
1. I reset the "most recently used" list on the "slow" username, thinking that MS Word might check these files during the startup process and this would slow it down.
2. I turned off Norton Antivirus.
3. I disabled most things in the MSCONFIG startup screen, including all the Norton tasks as well as an HP startup task.
As I said, none of these efforts had any effect on the "slow" username.

Thanks for any response and suggestions.

 

Is the slow computer using a network printer? Word wants to have its printers located and if one (or more) of them is a network printer, it can take some time for Word to either locate it or, if the printer is turned off, finally accept it's not there.

 

use netmon, take a trace from the bad machine and look for traffic outbound, name lookups, SMB, and RPC

 

Thanks for your responses.

Miz: there IS a printer shared from the other PC over the network. But if that's the problem then why would the "fast" username work properly? Note that the "fast" username and the "slow" username are on the SAME PC.

Ben: thanks for the suggestion for Netmon. I will investigate it. However, I have not used it before. Are there instructions for it somewhere?

 

Additional Comments:

Miz: I deleted the network printer. No change. The "slow" username still starts slow and the "fast" username still starts fast (on the same PC).

Ben: I found a NetMon program at the PCWorld website. However, it appears to be for Windows 95, and it appears to collect data on modem connections, not network connections. Is this the correct program? and does it work on Win/XP Pro, which is what I have?

I also noticed that the network icon blinks when either the "slow" or the "fast" username is starting up MS Word 2003.

 

MORE additional information:

Ben: I did find reference to NetMon on the Microsoft website, and installed Netcap.exe from the Support Tools folder. It generated a data file about a megabyte long, but I don't know how to analyze it. There is does NOT appear to be a .exe file named NetMon in the Support Tools folder after I installed it.

Any additional suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Roger - try www.sysinternals.com utilities section and get TCPView and TDImon. They should give you some information about what the two user accounts are doing differently over the network.

 

Well, my problem went away. I don't know why. the user with the "slow" username complained just today that her PC was even slower than before. After she left, I rebooted her system and MS Word then opened a file over the network in about 4 seconds, as it should. I didn't change anything. I suspect that I didn't have Norton Antivirus entirely shut off, but am not sure. In any event, I will leave the system as is for a few days to see if the problem returns.
So thanks to those who gave suggestions.

 

i take full credit for resolving the problem. You are welcome