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How can I fix a word 2000 system is dangerously in low resources error?

Posted By : Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on September 11, 2003

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when i try to open windows 2000 the program does not respond. once the words 'Microsoft Word 2000 appear in the middle of the screen the computer freezes. when i press ctrl + alt + del the message 'your system is dangerously low in resources. would you like to terminate this application?' appears. resource meter shows performance of mid to high 70s; GDI approx. 80%

i have cleared more memory- presently using approx. 8GB

This question was answered on September 11, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.

If the problem persists, contact the program vendor

When you click Details (on Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, press ALT D), you receive the following message:

WINWORD caused an invalid page fault in WINWORD.EXE at address

NOTE: The actual memory address may vary Followed by the following error message:

System is dangerously low on resources

This behavior may occur under any of the following circumstances:

You open Word.

You try to print a document.

Word appears to stop responding (hangs), and you press CTRL ALT DELETE to quit Winword.exe through the Task Manager.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if the default Word template (Normal.dot) is damaged

RESOLUTION

Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) or Microsoft Windows 2000:

Quit all instances of Word If you use Word as your e-mail editor, be sure to quit Microsoft Outlook also.

Click Start, point to Search, and then click For Files or Folders.

In the Search for Files or Folder Named box, type Normal.dot.

In the Look in box, select your local hard disk (or an alternate user template location if you are running Word from a network server).

Click Search Now to search for the file.

For each occurrence of Normal.dot that appears in the Search Results window, right-click the file, and then click Rename on the menu that appears Type a new name for the file, such as OldNormal.dot or Normal-1.dot, and then press ENTER.

Close the Search Results window Restart Word normally (without using the /a switch).

If Word starts correctly, you have resolved the problem In this case, the problem is a damaged Normal.dot template You may need to change a few settings to restore your favorite options.

If the Normal.dot file that you renamed contains customizations, such as styles, macros, or AutoText entries that cannot be easily recreated, you may be able to copy those customizations from the old Normal.dot file to the new Normal.dot file by using the Organizer.

For more information about using the Organizer in Word 2000 or Word 2002, click Microsoft Word Help on the Help menu, type using the Organizer in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

More than one copy of Normal.dot may reside on your computer if multiple users are enabled, or if there are multiple installations of Word (for example, on different operating systems) It is important that you rename the correct copy of the Normal.dot template file.

Use the following path information to select the correct location and instance of Normal.dot:

Profiles enabled (multiple users use this computer and each user must use individual credentials to log on):

drive letter:\Windows\Profiles\your user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Template

Profiles not enabled:

drive letter:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates

To further narrow the search, use the following criteria:

Look at the time and date when the file was last modified These variables should correspond to the time and date when the problem first occurred.

The size of the damaged file is often well in excess of 100 kilobytes (KB).

About the author

Posted by Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on September 11, 2003

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