MS Word 2000 hang

Every time MS Word 2000 is launched via Windows Explorer (by double clicking a xxx.doc file), then clicking either "Help, About MS Word" or "Edit, Find" or "File, Print", causes it to hang while blinking the title bar. I think Word is trying to display the message box behind itself. The only way out is to change to another active task (eg. explorer) and then change back to Word (you can also minimize Word but you must use the task bar to do it - you can't use any buttons in the upper right corner - and then you must maximize Word (using taskbar), close msg box, maximize Word again). I'm running XP ver 5.1 sp2 and Word 2000 ver 9.0.6926 sp-3. Anyone have any fixes?

 

Have you tried a Repair?

Go to Add/Remove in Control Panel, select Word, or if not individually listed then Office and click Change, then select Repair.

If that doesn't work then do a search for normal.dot and rename it to normal.old, then open word again and see if that helps.

 

Did repair but problem still there.

Renamed normal.dot to normal.old. Problem went away once but as soon as I close Word, it recreates normal.dot and then problem is back.

Notice that problem only happens when I launch Word via Windows Explorer (double clicking any xxx.doc file). Problem is not present when launching Word via Start, Programs, MS Word. This may be a clue.