Office 2003 Problems?

[joeshmo1985]

I just upgraded my computer from a AMD 3200+, 1 gb crucial, dfi lanparty Ultra-D NF4, SB Audigy 2 zs to conroe e6400, 2gb g. skill ddr2 800, gigabyte 965P-DS3, SB X-Fi Xtreme Music. Computer is overclock to 2.8 gHz, ram running at 700.

I reinstalled everything over a week ago, orthos was stable for 24 hours, everything is running fine. Programs open fast, there's little to no delay, windows loads fast.

Office programs, however, are a different story. When I open the programs without loading a document(like from the start menu), they show the splash screen as always and load very quickly. If I go to open a file from ANY office program(powerpoint,excel,word) it takes about 10 seconds to bring up the open file screen, and then about another 15-20 seconds to open the file. Browsing through folders is fast, but clicking on the "cancel" button again makes it hang for about 5-10 seconds. It also hangs like this when I click the save button and it has to bring up the browse dialogue box to allow me to pick a save location.

Also, trying to open a file by double clicking the document results in no splash screen of the program(word, excel, etc) being shown, and the computer takes a good 20 seconds to open the document. It seems like whenever the program has to browse my computer or I double click a file to open it, it hangs.

Every other program I have is fine, winzip, notepad, paint, games, aim, any web browser, thunderbird, etc.

I have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling office. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[John]

Do you have any Norton/Symantec Antivirus, Internet Security, or System Works installed?

 

[MichaelD]

Have you tried a REPAIR of Office? Insert the CD and when it runs, choose the REPAIR option.

Also, adding onto what John said: Do you recall getting any popups you may have clicked through too quickly? Something along the lines of "Microsoft Office is trying to access a DNS server. What do you want to do? "Block -Recommended" "Allow-not recommended"?

Have you checked your firewall programs for "blocked applications" to see if maybe Office got blocked/locked down somehow?

 

[Markbnj]

Does this apply?


http://www.runpcrun.com/node/156

It was a well-known problem caused by a security update last April, applies to people who have certain HP printer-related software installed.

 

[joeshmo1985]

I just did a fresh install of Windows XP home. I installed Office 2007 this time instead of 2003...same problems. Office programs open fast, but clicking on the open or save buttons(and the cancel button in those dialogues) results in a wait of about 10 seconds(for the cancel button this is ridiculous). Same kind of wait when opening documents directly, takes about 10-15 seconds. Just opening Word or Excel(with no document), they open fast, but using open or save is extremely slow.

Since I did this one the fresh install, no Anti-Virus or Firewall was installed. I double checked the exceptions for Windows Firewall(office and its programs were there) and then shut off the firewall entirely.

I also tried the fix for that other issue that Markbnj described, also did not fix the problem.

I'd like to note that this issue seems okay when the computer has first turned on or restarted and eventually(after comp is on for maybe 10 minutes) gets to this state. Could this be a possible dual core issue?

Edit: Anytime this "freezing" or lagging occurs, CPU usage on winword.exe goes up to about 50%, except when double clicking a document to open it, which just results in that folder window freezing for about 20 seconds, and then opening the office program WITHOUT the document, like it gave up or something. I'd like to note I did not have this problem before my upgrade.

Further Edit: The problem seems to be gone in safe mode. Earlier, when I would double click a document to open it, it would lag a tiny bit and then open the document. After the computer was one for a couple minutes, it would lag for the 20 or so seconds mentioned above. Now, for the first time, the splash screen of the program opening(word, excel, etc) displays when double clicking a document. Does this point to some kind of software conflict? Possibly the X-fi drivers or software or the ATI drivers/software? I had the ATI stuff on my system before the upgrade, but this is my first time with xfi. Suggestions? Could it be anything else if the problem goes away in safe mode?