All of a sudden tonight, I am unable to open Word or any Word docs. When I try to open one, the system hangs up, can't even get out of it with Ctrl-Alt-Del. The only way out is to shut down. I get a warning that the system resources are dangerously low, even though the resourse meter says I have over 80% memory available.

After reading some previous posts here, I ran InoculateIT, then I ran housecall.antivirus; neither found anything. Then I downloaded AdAware and ran that; it found a few minor things, which I got rid of. But Word still won't work. This is bad because I do my work reports with Word. I could uninstall and reinstall it - would that be a good idea?

jimi-l or anyone please help, and thank you in advance!

I am running ME, emachine 466i, 256MB ram, 20 GB harddrive. Everything else seems to work fine.

Suzi

Suzi,
You said about uninstalling and reinstalling that is where I would start(might have been corupted like my spelling is)
:-) STAR

Have you tried a system restore? That is where I would start. If that wont help the next step I would try is to look here>>

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q87/8/56.ASP

I know its for 97 but the techniques are the same I'm sure. Will it create and re-open NEW documents? How about a document you didn't create,will it open them? Does it seem to be all documents or only ones with a ".doc" extension?
jimi_l

Suzi, after you do that your Word program and work probably uses a lot of resources when you are using that turn off your zone alarm and virus protection, there is a program called StartStop, its good can give you info if you want, I keep my resources real high because I have nothing running un-necessarly at start up, even my Internet access icon My Works pulls alot and my Photoshop so if I work in those programs I am ready when I turn on my machine, and when I go online I just click my zone alarm and my internet access don't even turn on my virus, till I do my weekly update and scan, I send all my mail thru hotmail, so it is scaned thru them and when I do read my mail I sometimes turn it on otherwise I don't. I only have 128 MB and 166 MHZ, have MSN Works, Photoshop 6, PhotoDeluxe, and System Mechanic (all use alot of resources but only use one at a time, I am never under75-70 %, you may want to try it, especially with your work. Sue

Suzi

If above doesn't solve it
Search your "c:\ drive for the following

admin.dll----don't want ANY these
riched20.dll--more than ONE of these (it could be corrupt)
readme.exe----don't want ANY of these

Post back if ANY yes's above..NIMDA

If no admin...only (1)riched20.dll and no readme.exe I would use msconfig and extract new riched20.dll from Word CD..rename old riched20.dl_ first.

Might be other things but try this before reinstall..

Good Luck

Terry

Terry -

I searched for those and found only one riched20.dll, neither of the others.

I'm not clear about extracting as you described, can you give more details?

Thanks. I haven't had time to try the other things yet.

Suzi,

I have the same exact problem. I am on Windows Me with a Pentium4 (1500) and about 40 gigs free hard drive. I have at least 128 Ram but I get the same darn message about dangerously low resources. I have been running Norton Anti-virus with no virus found. I tried reinstalling windows with all the little frills like directx etc. I am clueless at this point. Please let me know if you figure it out. I also use my pc for work reports. I wonder if an uninstall and a reinstall will erase all my word files?

Ok! try this link people (Suzi: http://www.nocrash.com/bb/messages/1231.shtml)There were many follow ups responding to this solution with great praise. They all had the same problem as us. Look for Kristy
's post. "I had almost the same problem as you but I have Windows ME. My computer would freeze when starting Microsoft Word 2000. After many hours of headache, calling tech support to be charged $40 and the problem still not fixed, I am happy to say I fixed it myself! It was so simple, I could not believe it. Try this to see if it helps you. Go to search, for files or folders, type in Normal.dot, search and see what normal files you have. Rename each one such as Normal to OldNormal.dot or Normal1.dot, etc. That solved my problem! Kristy"

OMG!!!! It Worked!

John, Thank You So Much. That was easy. I was about to unintstall/reinstall Word.

I am curious, do you know why it worked?
I didn't read Kristy's post yet, just did what you posted with normal.dot.

I would have had to handwrite my reports, or dictate them. when I dictate them, they aren't so good. I forget and leave out stuff and they don't make sense. I am really visual, so typing them is so much easier. Well, now I have no excuse not to get back to work!

Thanks again! suzi

NICE post Sue...!

Terry