Question : Slow save for corrupted Word doc with Ethernet connected (document closes slowly when connected to LAN, Word 2003)

I believe parts of a 5 MB Word document are corrupted, and that this caused Word to take a long time (3 min, 44 sec) to save or close on my local C: drive.  When I unplugged the Ethernet LAN cable, the file closed in 3 seconds.  By tedious trial and error, I isolated and deleted a 174 character paragraph (that I assume was corrupted) from the document, pasted it back in as unformatted, and the doc now closes in 1 min 34 sec with the Ethernet connected, but this is still way to long.

(1) How can I find the other corrupted parts without tedious trial and error, and still keep my formatting?
(2) Why does the file close slowly to my C: drive only when the Ethernet is connected?

DETAILS:

The Ethernet connection is to a LAN in an office environment with multiple servers and Internet access.  I'm running Word 2003 in WinXP Pro on a Dell Optiplex GX280 desktop.  A colleague on the same LAN had the same experience with the same file.  Another odd thing is that the Windows task manager showed WINWORD at 0 % CPU utilization and the System Idle Process at 96-99% for the 3 + minutes it takes to save the file.  Two months ago, this document closed quickly with the Ethernet cable connected.

This same document takes 41 seconds to close on my home PC running Word 2002 (compared to 1 min 34 sec with Word 2003 at the office).

This slow save happens on some files, but not all.  So far, I have noticed that two files that I originally created in Word Perfect  in the early 1990's and then imported into Word 95 (and updated over the years) close very slowly.  The other file is 1.4 MB and closes in 2 min 38 sec.  Neither document has graphics; the docs have text in headings, bullets, numbered lists and tables.  I have some 5 MB files originally created in the past few years, and these close in less than 5 seconds.

I isolated the corrupted 174-character paragraph by the tedious effort of deleting portions of the doc.  The resultant "corrupted" document with only that 174-char paragraph took 1 min 14 seconds to save on my PC and on the PCs of two of my colleagues on the same LAN!

Before finding and deleting the corrupted paragraph, I saved the full 5 MB file as Web page, NOT filtered (in order to preserve formatting).  Closed Word.  Re-started Word & opened the .htm file in Word.  Saved as .doc in 2 sec w/o Ethernet.  I plugged in Ethernet and it took 3 min & 43 sec to save on the local C: drive.

I experimented further with the slow-closing 5 MB document on my home PC discovered that it was *NOT* any faster to save/close the file:

(1) With my Antivirus program disabled.
(2) With Word access to the Internet denied by Zone Alarm
(3) After doing an "Open and Repair" in Word
(4) After isolating another "slow-closing / corrupted" paragraph and removing it

-- BenBurned

Answer : Slow save for corrupted Word doc with Ethernet connected (document closes slowly when connected to LAN, Word 2003)

A reference in a document to a dead network resource on the network, typically a printer or a template, can cause it to be slow to open. If the network is accessible, Word waits for a  response.

I find that the best way to fix a corrupted document is to insert (Insert/File) into a blank document.