"WINWORD.EXE" causing 100% CPU Usage

Dempsey

I'm trying to fix a laptop for someone else. Their complaint is that its slow.

I start it up, an out of date Norton antivirus annoys me for a subscription. I uninstall that and I put on AVG Free, thus saving some RAM.

Anyways I notice that "WINWORD.EXE" is using 95%-100% CPU Usage constantly for no apparent reason. The application isnt trying to start. The is no apparent startup command in msconfig.

When I delete this process, the laptop gets a new lease of life.

I've noticed that Office 2003 needs to be activated but it hasnt been done yet. Has this anything to do with this issue?

Also for some strange reason, the integrated network adapter is working but wont recognize a cable connected to it. Windows believes that the adapter is on but I dont think it is. I turned off power saving, no joy also.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

seamus

Dempsey wrote:

I've noticed that Office 2003 needs to be activated but it hasnt been done yet. Has this anything to do with this issue?

Possibly, but I'd be surprised if Office started itself up automatically to attempt to activate itself.

Winword generally crashes in the background because another process has attempted to launch it, or another process is attempting to use it while you're trying to close it down. Outlook is the biggest culprit for word crashes in my experience.
Are there any other applications launching on startup, or any strange applications which have word integration.

A repair install may sort it, but it's worth activating it first just to check that.

Also for some strange reason, the integrated network adapter is working but wont recognize a cable connected to it. Windows believes that the adapter is on but I dont think it is. I turned off power saving, no joy also.

I've found Windows XP on laptops to be terribly fussy about ethernet adapters. XP is set up by default to shut down the adapter when running on batteries. I've found that often XP can fail to re-initialise the adapter when mains power is reconnected, or when bringing the machine out of standby/hibernation.

First things first, make sure that the cable you are using works, and that you have the other end plugged into a switch/router

Go into the device manager, right-click on the adapter -> Properties. Click on Power Management and untick the relevant box. Reboot the machine and try again.

Dempsey

seamus wrote:

Possibly, but I'd be surprised if Office started itself up automatically to attempt to activate itself.

Winword generally crashes in the background because another process has attempted to launch it, or another process is attempting to use it while you're trying to close it down. Outlook is the biggest culprit for word crashes in my experience.
Are there any other applications launching on startup, or any strange applications which have word integration.

Yea, its memory usage tops at 13Mb but the CPU Usage remains very high for a considerable time, Celeron M CPU. I cannot activate the Office because of the Ethernet Adapter issue. Grrr

A repair install may sort it, but it's worth activating it first just to check that.
I've found Windows XP on laptops to be terribly fussy about ethernet adapters. XP is set up by default to shut down the adapter when running on batteries. I've found that often XP can fail to re-initialise the adapter when mains power is reconnected, or when bringing the machine out of standby/hibernation.

First things first, make sure that the cable you are using works, and that you have the other end plugged into a switch/router

Go into the device manager, right-click on the adapter -> Properties. Click on Power Management and untick the relevant box. Reboot the machine and try again.

Ya know them link and speed lights that usually be beside the the connection port on the laptop? Neither are lit. I've removed the power management and im running off the main for good measure. Ignore the possibility of the cable being the issue

Thanks for the input seamus. Never anything simple with other people's computers. You always end up solving everything.:rolleyes:

Dempsey

I activated via telephone, it solved the problem although WINWORD.EXE still appears on startup, it doesnt take up any notable CPU time like before.

I also changed the GFX memory from 64Mb to 32Mb to help the laptop performance.

Still couldnt get the ethernet working though