Normal.dot error and Dot1xcfg.exe process

On a Dell Latitude laptop running XP SP2 and Office 2003:

When shutting down, user keeps getting a Word error that says changes have been made to Normal.dot, even though he hasn't done anything in Word.

I checked the Processes running, and I saw WINWORD.EXE was running, and hogging CPU usage, even with all programs closed.

Then I saw Dot1xcfg.exe also high on the usage list. I Googled both of these, and there's some talk of this being normal and some talk that one or both of these might be caused by some kind of virus. Possible solutions were all over the place, and nobody seemed satisfied with any suggestions posted.

Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.