Word freezes for a minute then resumes

R

Richard J.

For for the last month or so, I've been getting temporary feeezes in
Word. I'm running Word 97 on a Toshiba laptop under Windows XP (SP3).
From time to time, as I'm typing, I find that the last few characters I
typed haven't appeared on the screen, the cursor is either solid or
absent, i.e. not blinking, and the mouse pointer has disappeared. The
mouse pointer re-appears if I move it outside the Word window. I can
switch to other applications, but if I try to return to Word, the screen
still shows the previous application's content. After about a minute of
this, Word starts working normally, the missing characters I typed are
displayed, the cursor and mouse pointer return and I can carry on. I've
tried using Task Manager to see what's happening during the freeze, but
CPU activity is 0 to 2%, and there's no unusual process that is running.
Zone Alarm firewall and Avast! antivirus are running and are up to date.

I know that Word 97 isn't supported now, but can anyone suggest what
might be causing these freezes, or alternative diagnostic routes. I'm
only getting this problem with Word, not with Excel or any other
software. I've checked that there are no add-ons installed with Word.
 

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