Word 2003 closes on its own shortly after opening

[joneswil]

When I open Microsoft Word (or Wordpad or an Outlook message) it closes
itself after about ten seconds. If I open Task Manager after opening a
Word document I can watch the winword.exe process start off using 11K
of memory, then incrementally jump around 20K at a time until around
250K, at which point the application closes. I'm wondering if anyone
has seen this before.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm

 

[3DPeruna]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm

I needed to rebuild my computer. Had a fresh install of Office XP
(2003). All apps seem to work just fine, except Word. I can open in
safe mode, I can open with the /a switch. However, in all cases, when I
open a previously created document, it crashes. The event log error
doesn't really give anything other than a GPF error in the winword.exe app.

I've tried most everything in the link above, including completely
removing (as completely as "Add/Remove Programs" does it) and
re-installing--first just Word, then the entire Office suite and Word
still crashes.

I'm not looking forward to re-installing XP AGAIN just to fix this...

I've also run all updates and patches--the system, including office,
appears to be current.

What other options might I have?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The printer driver is an often-overlooked source of such problems.

 

[3D Peruna]

The printer driver is an often-overlooked source of such problems.

Why, then, using the same XP, the same office and the SAME printer
driver as I had used previously on the same machine do I get this error?

In other words, I cleared off the drive and re-installed the system to a
"clean" version of what was there. Nothing has changed from before I
reformatted and reinstalled. I'm still using the same stuff.

So...I'm not so sure I'm buying the printer driver being the issue.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Have you reinstalled all the Office service packs?

 

[3D Peruna]

Have you reinstalled all the Office service packs?

Yes.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Does this summarise you problem correctly:

You have made a fresh install of Windows XP and Office 2003 and updated both
will all the latest SPs and patches.
Word Crashes on opening.
Word only opens if you use the /a switch.
After starting with the /a switch, opening any previous document causes Word
to crash.

Is the above a correct summary? If you open Word with the /a switch and
create a new test document, save it and close it, can you reopen and edit it
OK?

Have you tried deleting and reinstalling the printer driver in case it
corrupted? Is it the latest driver for your printer under XP?

How were the documents (presumably the contents of the My Documents folder)
stored when you reformatted and reinstalled your system?