Office 2003 Extremely Slow?

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I just upgraded my computer from a AMD 3200+, 1 gb crucial, dfi lanparty Ultra-D NF4, SB Audigy 2 zs to conroe e6400, 2gb g. skill ddr2 800, gigabyte 965P-DS3, SB X-Fi Xtreme Music. Computer is overclock to 3.0 gHz, ram running at 750.

I reinstalled everything over a week ago, orthos was stable for 24 hours, everything is running fine. Programs open fast, there's little to no delay, windows loads fast.

Office programs, however, are a different story. When I open the programs without loading a document(like from the start menu), they show the splash screen as always and load very quickly. If I go to open a file from ANY office program(powerpoint,excel,word) it takes about 10 seconds to bring up the open file screen, and then about another 15-20 seconds to open the file. Browsing through folders is fast, but clicking on the "cancel" button again makes it hang for about 5-10 seconds. It also hangs like this when I click the save button and it has to bring up the browse dialogue box to allow me to pick a save location.

Also, trying to open a file by double clicking the document results in no splash screen of the program(word, excel, etc) being shown, and the computer takes a good 20 seconds to open the document. It seems like whenever the program has to browse my computer or I double click a file to open it, it hangs.

Every other program I have is fine, winzip, notepad, paint, games, aim, any web browser, thunderbird, etc.

I have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling office. Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
I'm back at stock now and it seems like it will be doing it again. When the computer first starts it's pretty quick, but then as it's on the problem gets worse. It's not starting Office applications that's the problem, they all start just fine. It's when I open any document, click on "open" or "save" in any office program.

I really don't get this one. I even tried reverting to an earlier bios now that I'm at stock, still same problem. I'd rather not have to do a repair install of windows...

Edit: I've tried reinstalling office, updating office, etc. Maybe I'll try installing office on a different hard drive, see if that does anything...

Further Edit: Tried installing on a different drive...same problem persists.
 
Did you change your virtual memory settings? If you moved your swap file or changed it's size try setting it back to let windows manage it. To be honest I'm guessing at things here because it doesn't make sense to me either. :confused:
 
alphanumeric said:
Is it posible that it's your anti-virus software scanning the files when opened?
Click to expand...

Disabled it to be sure, so that's definitely not it. I also have not touched the virtual memory settings since I installed windows(had to reinstall, upgraded recently).

I also tried a repair install of windows. Next step is formatting and reinstalling I guess...or trying to get Office 2007 and see if that makes a difference.
 
Just a hunch, but most of the earlier 965 boards had problems with the ide controller being suck in pio mode. Maybe when you go to "open" your documents it tries to access the cd/dvd drive and thus is slowing you down. Try to "open" files with another program to see if it slows you down as well. Again, just a hunch but it's a possibility.
 
rapperwith1p said:
Just a hunch, but most of the earlier 965 boards had problems with the ide controller being suck in pio mode. Maybe when you go to "open" your documents it tries to access the cd/dvd drive and thus is slowing you down. Try to "open" files with another program to see if it slows you down as well. Again, just a hunch but it's a possibility.
Click to expand...

What are you suggesting with this? I went into the hardware manager and ensured that everything was running in DMA mode. I also did hard drive speed tests with HD Tach, and the speeds are much faster than they could be in PIO mode(had a drive stuck in it a couple months ago).

Update: Reinstalled windows after reformatting the drive AND installed office 2007 instead of 2003. Same problem persists, office programs open fast, bu trying to open documents or do anything within an office program that requires browsing(opening, saving) is extremely slow. Are there any known dual core issues? I feel as though it's not office per say since the programs open fast, it's anything involving browsing within these programs or opening documents. Help!?

Edit: Anytime this lag occurs(saving, opening, etc) windword.exe's cpu usage goes up to 50% during the lag, except when double clicking a document to open it, which just results in that folder window freezing for about 20 seconds, and then opening the office program WITHOUT the document, like it gave up or something. I'd like to note I did not have this problem before my upgrade.

Further Edit: The problem seems to be gone in safe mode. Earlier, when I would double click a document to open it, it would lag a tiny bit and then open the document. After the computer was one for a couple minutes, it would lag for the 20 or so seconds mentioned above. Now, for the first time, the splash screen of the program opening(word, excel, etc) displays when double clicking a document. Does this point to some kind of software conflict? Possibly the X-fi drivers or software or the ATI drivers/software? I had the ATI stuff on my system before the upgrade, but this is my first time with xfi. Suggestions? Could it be anything else if the problem goes away in safe mode?
 
Yeah, the nerd side of me wants to know what the cause of this is. No, I'm serious. :D
 
Open up your task manager and kill the netdde process if it is running. This gives me huge slowdowns with all office applications and acrobat reader at work.
 
Sorry to bring back such a long dead post, but I never told everyone what the cause of the problem was.

After toying around, I decided to uninstall the creative software that came with the x-fi and install only the drivers. The slow down was gone. I reinstalled the software and it was back, uninstalled and it was gone.

Apparently, Creative's software and MS office don't play well together. Sucks that I can't install the software for the card, but it works with just the drivers.

Am I missing out on any really nice features that the software has?
 
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