MS Word won't open

Recent problem. When I try to open Word (2000 SR1) it doesn't. It consumes 100% of CPU and task manager shows not responding. No virus' and I've checked for spyware. Any ideas? I'm looking at uninstall/reinstall.

 

Could also try the old renaming of "normal.dot" trick. Known to cure many a word problem. Use this boards search function (advanced) and the keyword filter of normal.dot.

 

Tried that but it didn't work. In task manager, when I go in to end task, it shows to iterations of MS Word

 

Taskmanager 2 iterations?
Try ending one of those iterations and see what happens or both winword related tasks and once ended opening msword yet again. Could this possibly be as simple as a case of what is euphemistically called "mouse happy fingers" and you are double clicking on what may be a single click shortcut? Or possibly two iterations may just be an indication that you got impatient with words response time and clicked on the shortcut more than once. (Two winword.exe tasks may not be the root of the problem merely a secondary symptom of something else but one can always hope it will be this simple.)

Tried the office repair yet, as suggested by Pete?

iterations You sent me scrambling to googles dictionary but I did learn a seldom seen/used/forgotten or new word. I even had a chance to use it a few times before memory forgets it, yet again.

Empty at least c:\windows\temp folder.

 

Try installing the later service packs for word 2000. Is it a recent problem?

and have you checked if...
...The Normal.dot file (the default global template) is corrupted.
...More than one version of the Normal.dot file has been created.
...Your installation of Microsoft Word is corrupted.
...Other global templates or add-ins exist.

 

No case of 'happy fingers' here. When I attempt to open word only one session shows in task manager. After @ 5 seconds it goes to 'not responding'. When I highlight it to end task the other iteration appears. They both disappear when one is ended. Haven't tried the repair yet but will do that before I uninstall. Need to do some back ups first. Trying repairs on programs in the past have not always had the best results.

PS: Remember, reiterate is redundant

 

#1 deleted normal.dot. Word still doesn't open
#2 Only 1 version showing on search
I'm thinking it might be #3 at this point. Will try a couple other options that have been offered here and then uninstall/reinstall.

 

Pretty much running blind on this issue, since it was not kind enough to spit out an error along with the hang. Did you check your event viewer just on the off chance that something was sent or reflected in there? How about the msoffice startup folder? It does have it's own startup folder. Anything in it? Any gut feeling on what caused the initial problem. What was the last thing you did in winword and did you have any problem or odd behavior while doing it? Is other office applications opening without glitches such as excel, publisher, outlook if you use it etc? Anything (task) running in the background that could be conflicting with winword?

Ah well... Office Repair is the next logical step. I will wait until you've done it (tried it)....

 

Funny you should ask. I tried the repair and it didn't. I uninstalled word and reinstalled. No change. Word has always been 'funky' on this machine. Sometimes opens fast, other times seems to lag but never failed to perform. I have been checking the event viewer and found an inconsistent error (doesn't show all the time)

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: WinMgmt
Event Category: None
Event ID: 5603
Date: 6/18/2005
Time: 4:11:27 PM
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: ANTEC
Description:
A provider, OffProv, has been registered in the WMI namespace, Root\MSAPPS,
but did not specify the HostingModel property.
This provider will be run using the LocalSystem account.
This account is privileged and the provider may cause a security violation
if it does not correctly impersonate user requests.
Ensure that provider has been reviewed for security behavior and update the
HostingModel property of the provider registration to an account with the
least privileges possible for the required functionality.

What this might be is totally beyond my limited knowledge ::blushes humbly::

Any thoughts? Next step would be to uninstall Word again but to uninstall Works also. I have outlook but none of the other Office apps. Just Works.

 

I find myself feeling that I am at the point of Insanity

Definition: Repeating the same sequence of events over and over again while anticipating a different response.

 

you could always download and install the Open office suite of programs if you get fed up with Microsoft. Its free and has all the programs.

 

Normal warning, or headsup from your wmi service:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=39623
Although this warning sounds serious, it's an informational message letting you know that WMI has received a registration for a new provider that will run with elevated privileges (SYSTEM). If you're satisfied that this component can run safely with these privileges, you can ignore this message. Otherwise, you might want to uninstall the provider component or contact the provider's manufacturer.

A very simplified explanation...
In a nut shell, WMI is a gatherer of the various tools and applications that you can use to monitor and manage your system. It's handy because, instead of having to call or use these components individually you can do it from one centralized place. In the same way that you use wmi to communicate or use these tools these tools can also use each other. To do all of this they must become a "provider ". They will provide or perform services (actions) and allow these services to managed, monitored, done and reported through wmi. As a registered provider it is allowing itself to become part of the wmi integration. Much like user accounts/profiles are permitted to do things based on the level of permissions, what these providers are allowed to do, access, or communicate is also limited to their level of permissions as an account. You have three main accounts with varied rights and permissions given to each: local system, system, user.....

Networking is my hated subject/topic and my "Windows Area of Knowledge: GreyZone, TwilightZone, NightmareZone, SnoozeZone ". So, I won't go into detail, even simplified, trying to explain what the various accounts are and what each has default permissions to do......

Wmi is tattle tailing on office and informing you (warning you) that it has registered using an account (which gives it permission clearance to-do's/can-do's based on the account level). This gives you an opportunity to decide if you want to allow that, change that or double check it to see if the application or service should be running on that type of account. In this case it is correct. In order for office to do what it does it will run as a LocalSystem account.

Admittedly this part throws me a bit:
"but did not specify the HostingModel property " and this
"update the HostingModel property of the provider registration to an account with the least privileges possible for the required functionality ". I will have to seek the pariculars on this. While I am familiar and always get this warning from wmi and office, I'm not sure if it has always contained those two particular bits of information. Doesn't mean it didn't it just means that I dont recall.
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You have MSWorks? I was working on the assumption that you were using MSOffice. I'm not sure what the differences are but let me look around and see if I can find some good site with some basics tshoot steps and known causes with solutions for MSWorks/ winword.exe start hangs. I'll be back if and when I can get a handle on this and offer you some more concrete steps you can take to pin this down. Frustrating that a repair or even a complete uninstall and reinstall still leaves you with a non functioning word application. Be back.............

 

Don't you ever sleep?

 

I sleep. Just rather sporadically and in two or three hour spurts at the moment.

This is worth a shot:
Step 2. Dump the windows registry key.
There are many people who would rather that I didn't tell you how to do this. But any adult that's paying any attention can follow my steps. What we're doing is removing Word from the Windows registry. When you launch Word again, it will re-register itself, so you can expect it to take a little longer to launch than usual. You may need the cd to this. I'm unsure. I didn't but I always install office allowing all to install from the harddrive.

Hit Startbutton> Run and type regedit and hit enter. Browse, just like you would in Windows Explorer or My Computer, to the following folder:

My Computer\
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
Software\
Microsoft\
Office\
X.X\
Word

X.X will be as follows, depending on your version of Word:
9.0
10.0
11.0

Once you find it, right click the Word folder, and choose Rename. Rename it to OldWord. This is a quickie method of backing up your registry. Close the Registry Editor.

Launch Word.

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I just did the above on my own comp. with no adverse effects. Once I tested the above, of course, I reversed the procedure by deleting the newly created word hkey and renamed the oldword back to word. Hopefully your "msworks" office hkey and values can be found in the same spot of the reg. If using the above method is unfruitful it can be reversed.

The only additonal comment I could add to this is I would make my own restore point and export the key before doing any of the above. (In truth, I didn't do this and took my chances, but I am "familiar with" and "prepared for" other ways of dragging my behind out of fires.)

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A question just occured to me. Are your trying to open word with a shortcut, directly from the office folder, runline winword, or by clicking on a doc file? Have you tried a safemode bootup and an attempt at opening word?

 

I have tried all but runline winword. I will try that before the registry hack. I have played a bit in the registry and am not totally unfamiliar but certainly not an expert. I have been wondering if it might be a registry problem.

 

Now to really tax your knowledge

I tried the reg hack and it did not work. It did create a new folder but the problem remained. Next I totally uninstalled Works and Word, ran two registry cleaners and reinstalled.

Guess what......the problem remains. At some point in the future I guess I'll do a full reinstall of XP but not now (want to do things in my time not the computers...male ego kind of thing)

Any other ideas in the interim?

 

In admitting defeat (for the time being) I downloaded a copy of Open Office. Perhaps a serendipitous situation just to get me to try something new

 

Well maybe I haven't totally admitted defeat....Upon looking in the registry again, following your hack instructions, I find files for Office 10, 8, 9 in that order followed by common, outlook and word. V 9 is the only folder that has word as an option within it. But it is V 10 that I have and it contains multitudinous folders while V 9 has only common, shortcut bar and word (that's the one I renamed). V 10 does not have a word file within it.
Is this something I should be thinking about changing and if so, how?

 

You have hkeys referring to and belonging to versions 8,9,and 10?

If using office 2000 why is there an officexp (2003 ver.10) hkey in the registry? I'm not saying it "shouldn't be" but am inquiring why? What's the history on this?