Word freezes when using modern comments with tables

Hi everyone,

I’m running into a very frustrating issue with Microsoft Word and I’m hoping someone has seen this before.

Word Desktop consistently freezes when I try to use modern comments with tables. The freeze happens after typing into the comment field and trying to save the comment. The application becomes unresponsive and needs to be force-closed.

What’s strange:

The exact same document works perfectly fine in Word for the Web. I can add and edit comments in tables there without any issues.

Brand new Lenovo laptop (Windows 11)

Microsoft 365 (latest version)

Issue started immediately on this device

Same workflow worked fine on my previous laptop

What I’ve already tried:

Running Word in safe mode (winword /safe)

Creating a new Windows user profile

Quick Repair and Online Repair of Office

Fully reinstalling Microsoft 365

Disabling / removing McAfee antivirus

Testing with a completely new document

Disabling modern comments (old comments work, but are not ideal)

Testing local vs OneDrive files (same behavior)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!