[carl43m]

I have XP with service pack 2, 2GB ram. My MS word program has been giving
me fits both in startup and in cl;osing. When I first click the word icon it
takes about 45 seconds to open (not the end of the world but generally it use
to open in like 10 seconds). But what is really annoying is after it is
open, even if I have not typed anything and just try to close it -- it
takes well over a minute to close down. The document1 page take about 30
seconds before it disappears and then the program window itsel takes another
30 seconds. I also notice that CPU usage for winword.exe is up at 100%
during all this time. I went to two neighbors with similar system as mine
and both of theirs open in just a few seconds and close almost
instantenously. Both systems used less than 1% of cpu. We all have the
same 2GB of Ram on our systems. The beginning lag seems like it might be due
to a virus scan from microsoft security essentials. But the long lag on
closing is baffling.
Any suggestions?