Forum Discussion
MS Word Freezing when navigating between Chrome and Word. Safe mode works. now?
Hi All,
First, a bit of context. I teach online, so I constantly navigate between MS. Word and Chrome/Firefox. It is pretty much a requirement for what I do.
I am running Office 2016 on my home machine. This has worked completely fine until about two weeks ago. Now, after an indiscriminate amount of time (it varies), Word will freeze when I enter back into Word from another window. This has persisted even though I have deleted and reinstalled the program.
Safe mode allows me to work within Word per normal, and is a good short term fix. However, I am stumped at how to fix this long term.
Additional details
- Only Word freezes
- I have plenty of RAM (32gb DDR4)
- Windows is up to date
- Chrome is up to date
- Chrome does not have any extensions enabled
- I do not have any add-ins enabled for MS Word
- RAM/CPU usage are not spiking in Task manager
- Malware/Virus scan has no results
- It is not related to the computer sleeping/waking up
Given all of these factors, it seems like a Word issue only. I do not have the issue in PowerPoint or Excel - just word. My guess is a bad registry entry, or a corrupted file somewhere. What is puzzling to me is that the issue persists through a re-install.
Thoughts?
3 Replies
Do look at Stefan's response. That you have not intentionally installed any Add-Ins does NOT mean that you have none installed.
Since application Safe mode works around the issue, you should troubleshoot add-ins, both Startup folder add-ins and COM add-ins. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/word/issues-when-start-or-use-word.
While a video driver issue is another possible explanation, it seems less likely that it would affect just one program.
How about this:
- Disable Hardware Acceleration: Sometimes, hardware acceleration can cause freezing issues. To disable it:
- Open Word and go to File > Options > Advanced.
- Scroll down to the Display section and check the box for Disable hardware graphics acceleration.
- Update Graphics Drivers: Ensure your graphics card drivers are up to date. Outdated drivers can sometimes conflict with applications like Word.
- Disable Hardware Acceleration: Sometimes, hardware acceleration can cause freezing issues. To disable it:
