Word 97 is slowing down HELP!!

Hi,
a friend of mine has word 97 it worked fine allways
but now when he opens a document and types something
the program becomes verry slow.
like if you type 3 times the letter s
the program hangs a few seconds then the letter does appear
but sss
and he cant work with the program like this ofcourse.

i have checked the major systems files but they appear to be ok.
he is running Windows 98 second edition.
windows itself or other programs run fine.
except words 97 that he needs fore his work verry badly.
and he has another major problem, i wanted to re-install
everything fore him, but when he said i bought this pc from a friend, and his friend didnt give him any install cd's. so my quistion is does anyone know a solution to this word 97 problem?

 

Have you tried error checking and defrag?
just a thought,
HooT