From: mal on 02/21/2002
Win ME: Word 2000
freezes when trying to open; press ctrl-alt-del and get error "system resources are dangerously low, close application... winword not responding" something like that, then have to reboot system to unfreeze. checked system resources and sitting at about 90% free so that is not the problem. Have uninstalled and re-installed Word 2000 a bunch of times but no solution yet. Any help would be appreciated.
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--- Replies to this Problem ---
From: phil on 09/16/2008
I have same problem.. except I need to delete normal.dot everytime I want to open word. When I am in word, I cannot open any existing docs... any ideas?thanks P
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From: Wiss on 08/01/2008
Rayez, from the number of the people you helped, i say you're the ultimate hero of this post/issue as up until now no fixes are easly found for this issue.Thanks a bunch!
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From: Joe on 01/23/2008
for six months i've been trying to fix Word 2000 - then i found Reyaz's post nearly six years after he posted it. PRESTO! Thank You
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From: George on 06/01/2006
I have been a computer engineer for years now, and that is one of the best fixes I have ever seen. I owe you a beer or several
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From: Lois on 01/19/2005
It is 4:29 AM in my city, and I have been uninstalling Word 2000, Micrsoft Works, Word in Works for HOURS, and I just decided to tell GOOGLE my problem! I typed, "A fatal exception OE has occurred at 017F:BFF9DFFF." It began "Out of the Blue" when I clicked on my Word Icon. Word 2000 froze and I saw this message: This computer is dangerously low on resources. Other times the message would be: There is not enough memory to run this program. Then, of course, I had to close my computer down "Illegally," because Control, Alt, Delete did not work!I followed the good advice on this web site and searched for two different copies of Normal and Normalb, but there was only one, Normal.dot. I deleted it, turned off my computer, and everything works just fine! I remember unpluggin every cord in my computer, lugging the thing in to my dealer and having to leave it there for days. Why could they have told me about this little secret? I have 320 RAM and I have plenty of memory and drive space, so nothing made sense. I do, however, blame my antivirus software and my firewall, because those two practically fill up the msconfig slots! Thank you!
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From: Dave on 01/13/2005
...now that you know to delete or rename normal.dot...here is the recommendation from MS to rename rather than delete....Renaming the Normal.dot template resets several options back to their default settings, including custom styles, custom toolbars, macros, and AutoText entries. It is strongly recommended that you rename the Normal.dot file rather than deleting it, so that you can restore these settings if the template is not corrupt. Certain installations of Word may yield more than one legitimate Normal.dot file. These situations include multiple versions of Word running on the same computer or several user profiles on the same computer. In these situations, pay special attention so that you rename the correct copy of Normal.dot.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q247028/
also view: http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=151
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From: tk on 01/05/2005
Help.... I have tried everything... still I can't open Word with cause the "deep" freeze. I have been working on this for weeks.
Help me please.
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From: thegink on 08/31/2004
I noticed that a couple of people were asking "what is normal.dot?" and so i figured id try to answer.
Normal.dot is the basic document template file for msword. it contains all of the settings that you have changed (ie, page size, orientation, default fonts/sizes, Heading formats, in fact, anything that has been saved as a default)As to why it can make word crash like that or how it becomes corrupted?? no idea.
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From: rav on 07/08/2004
I struggled with this problem for 20 hours nonstop. When I looked at this website I was glad to know I am not alone with the problem. And the fix was unbelivable. You saved me from being institutionalized man.
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From: Amy on 01/07/2004
Deleting the normal.dot was the perfect solution!!!!! Our Word would freeze up and we got the error "system resources are dangerously low" We had been working on this problem for 3 days - deleting things, reinstalling Word, etc. My son's research paper was locked up and we were in a major panic! Thank you, Thank you! Thank you for your help!!!!!
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From: BobD on 12/22/2003
Maybe try another approach which has just worked for me. Delete your Temporary Internet files and try Word again.This idea came from someone's reply to a similar problem on this site concerning Excel rather than word. The suggestion was that cache memory might be the issue.. hence the idea of tidying-up the temp files.
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From: jim on 12/18/2003
thank you so much. my word has been down for two weeks, such a simple fix! thank you, thank you, thank you
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From: Caleb on 12/11/2003
It worked for me too! Hard to believe somthing so simple could cause such a overblown error as a total system freeze. What exactly is the normal.dot file anyway? And what makes its deletion so effective at solving this problem?
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From: Brenda on 12/05/2003
Wow, a simple solution to a problem I thought
I would have to reinstall everything!
thank you thank you thank you!
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From: Al on 11/19/2003
I have IE 6.0 (128-bit). I always have problems downloading MS 2000 files from web sites (any thing that has .doc). The IE most of the times freezes. I deleted normal.dot, but the problem still exists. How can I solve this puzzle? Thanks.
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From: Carol on 11/16/2003
I also did the reloading of Word, virus scan, you name it! This problem has caused my quite a bit of grief! I am so glad that a solution exist! I only wish I had checked the web sooner! I am very grateful to the individual who shared this knowledge!
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From: Tod on 10/15/2003
Reyaz - you probably haven't seen this board for awhile, but Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I tried the MS (mostly superfluous) site and had reinstalled several times. Your suggested fix is easy and the problem was resolved immediately.
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From: Jerry on 10/09/2003
YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Thought if I ignored it it would go away....wrong....tried renaming the file about 2 weeks ago, thought about buying more memory,(going to anyway)but deleting the file was the trick. Now my kids will quit bugging me....Thanks.
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From: Jack on 10/02/2003
Reyaz...you the man. This has been annoying me for quite a while. I can't believe the solution was that simple. Couldn't find a damn bit of help on Microsoft's site. Thanks again!
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From: Annette on 10/01/2003
I am having the same problem but with excel. i.e. Excel freezes and I get a message that system resources are dangerously low, does anyone know a fix for this?Thanks
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From: Trent on 09/25/2003
Just wanted to say thanks to all of you. I have been without Word for 5 months. This was an excellent resource.Thank You
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From: Randy on 09/20/2003
Pinch me!!
It's only been a couple minutes since my earlier reply and I am now trouble free! I had located two "normal" files (Normal, and b-normal), and renamed them (Normal1 and Normal2). My problem is now gone. Thanks so much for having this site available. This is two fixes from this site in less than 3 days. This site helped me fix a problem on my laptop, where EXCEL and WORD would were giving me nightmares, and the fix was changing my default printer from "network" to "local". Now I can start glueing the hair back onto my head.Thanks!!! Randy
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From: Randy on 09/20/2003
I have had this exact same problem, however, I cannot find any file labeled normal.dot, or normal.bak, etc. Any suggestions? I can't open MS word or any MS word document withoiut my system freezing up.
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From: Susan on 09/09/2003
Whoever posted this saved me! I thought I would have to invest in a new word processing program! THANKS A BUNCH!!!!!!!!!!
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From: Ted on 08/08/2003
Thank you, Reyaz! I searched for the file normal.dot but instead found the file normal.bak. Deleting normal.bak fixed the problem instantly.
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From: MER on 08/08/2003
I was about to uninstall and reinstall Word, but found this site before so. It works!! and saved me a lot of time.delete normal.dot -- so simple.
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From: John on 07/31/2003
I was in the same boat as everybody else, the solution to delete normal.dot worked and I almost couldnt believe it! Thanks so much for this unbelievably simple solution to what looked to be a system critical problem. Im assuming that file is one of many useless files microsoft installs to screw everything up. Now I can look smart in front of my wife. Once again I really appreciate this.
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From: David on 07/11/2003
OK, I have to add my thanks to whoever figured this one out. I have been living without Word for a while because I could not get it to open and now it works great.
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From: Daniel on 06/30/2003
Wow! Thanks a lot. finding and then deleting normal.dot resolved the problem instantly. That was a life saver. I spent about 18 hours trying to solve the problem. Relief at last. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Much appreciated.
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From: Pam on 06/15/2003
Same problem on my MOTHER'S machine!! She was ready to throw it out. A million thank you's for the suggestion of deleting normal.dot. After spending hours uninstalling and reinstalling, I was able to have my mother make the fix over the phone. I have deleted that file from all my computers because it is a pain.
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From: SALLY on 05/29/2003
What a find!!!!!! Getting rid of that normal dot file instantly solved the problem. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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From: Diane on 05/10/2003
Nice job!!! I also tried to reload Word and then I found your easy solution and it works great now!!! Thanks a lotsearch for a file named normal.dot in the C: drive and delete it and that will fix it
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From: Jill on 05/06/2003
Thank you so much for the solution to Word 2000 error reply~I spent an hour trying to fix this. :)
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From: Lorenzo on 05/03/2003
REYAZ.... YOU CALLED IT RIGHT. FIND NORMAL.DOT, RENAME IT TO NORMAL.OLD AND WHEN START WORD IT CREATES A NEW NORMAL.DOT.
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From: Shane on 05/01/2003
This message is to Bob: Can you tell me what causes the normal.dot file to become corrupt and what the file is actually used for?
Thanks
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From: Bob on 04/29/2003
Very first post "search for a file named normal.dot in the C: drive and delete it and that will fix it".
Or rename it to normal.dat or .pat or .bak or .saved or just rename it to something else, then the program re-creates a new normal.dot for you, nice and clean.
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From: Eram on 04/28/2003
I see many messages praising whoever it is that has given the answer on how to correct the problem on MSWord freezing, up etc .. but where is the answer? Getting cold from the freeze ..
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From: Dick on 04/16/2003
Two of my W98SE wkstas just started exhibiting this problem only on specific users, other users same wksta were fine. Searched on normal.dot and deleted it in the Profile of user having problem. BANG, problem GONE. What a GREAT resource.
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From: J on 02/27/2003
Sweet. I've been really mad at my computer. I too was about to reformat everything...I'll have to give this a try and see if it works. If it does, I thank you in advance. Peace out!
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From: GSIB on 02/10/2003
Solution worked, I am curious as to what causes a corrupt normal.dot? Can I do anything to prevent this from happening?THanks
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From: John on 12/30/2002
Am I pleased I visited this website. Followed Reyaz's advice whilst on-line and problem solved - brilliant thanks again.
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From: Rachelle on 12/25/2002
Thanks Reyaz
Deleting the normal.dot file fixed my problem too. I was not able to open anything in Word 2000 without a freeze. Uninstalled and re installed Word and same problem. Deleted that file as you recommended
and everything was OK again and has continued to work fine.Thanks for the help. You saved me.
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From: Gary on 12/17/2002
Well add me to the list, a friend of mine called with the problem, I sat on the phone while he uninstalled office and reinstalled it. No help, then a virus scan and it revealed nothing. Then I did a net search and boom.Man thanks a lot!
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From: Dave S on 12/08/2002
Thank you, thank you , thank you.
I can`t believe how simple this was to repair. I too tried to reinstall word 2000 . Couldn`t open any file in word without a freeze.
Word is so important in our family as my girlfriend is a teacher, and all her class preps are in Word files. Thanks to the guy who posted the solution.
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From: David on 12/04/2002
I was so relieved to find your site and to find my problem described, and more importantly a simple solution. Thank you
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From: malc on 05/08/2002
: Win ME: Word 2000
: freezes when trying to open; press ctrl-alt-del and get error "system resources are dangerously low, close application... winword not responding" something like that, then have to reboot system to unfreeze. checked system resources and sitting at about 90% free so that is not the problem. Have uninstalled and re-installed Word 2000 a bunch of times but no solution yet. Any help would be appreciated. Wow....!
Reyaz was bang-on...I`ve had the problem with Word freezing my system for 3 weeks now, and couldn`t tell you how many different ways of uninstalling and re-installing I`ve tried! My system is a Gateway 500mz running Pentuim 3 - 128mb ram, 20 gb hard-drive.
I`m forever in your debt!
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From: George on 05/02/2002
: Win ME: Word 2000
: freezes when trying to open; press ctrl-alt-del and get error "system resources are dangerously low, close application... winword not responding" something like that, then have to reboot system to unfreeze. checked system resources and sitting at about 90% free so that is not the problem. Have uninstalled and re-installed Word 2000 a bunch of times but no solution yet. Any help would be appreciated.
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From: Don on 03/16/2002
Reyaz, Thanks a lot bud. I've been looking all day for a solution to this. I was just about to format my c:drive and re install everything. I removed and installed office 4 times. The idiots at microshit sure didn't have anything on this problem. Thanks again.
:
: search for a file named normal.dot in the C: drive and delete it and that will fix it
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