Old computer: Word screwed up Bryce. New computer, new installation, new everything. Word still screws up Bryce. sigh Soooo, if you have Bryce and Word and other stuff open at the same time, and Bryce goes south, suspect Word.

wow, I've got word and Bryce both open as we speak. Haven't had a problem. Hope I don't pay for saying that.

Which version of Word and what OS?

By the way, you're not the first one to say that. I recall a thread last year about this.

Word 9.0.4402 SR 1. OS is XP, latest as of yesterday. I have absolutely no other problems, so I should probably be counting my blessings. Well, the solution is simple: don't open Word while Bryce is open. You'd think I'd remember that............

I've got word 2002 just tested it running together with Bryce 5 and no problems.

I get the same problem if I run the MS Media Player 8 while brycing... which sucks because I listen to a lot of MP3s while working. Sigh, back to using my boombox and tapes. :c)

It sounds like a memory problem to me. What actually happens, does it crash or hang the system?

Peej, do you have Office's Fast Find utility loaded at startup? I think it might be the culprit. Cause it constantly indexes the contents of your hard disk, so any time any file changes (a tmp file, for instance) the utility writes into its database. But Word is notorious for being a memory hog. mboncher, what's wrong with Winamp? (2.7x, that is) I play mp3s in it while working in Bryce and rendering, and have never had any problems with it.

True, Winamp is a much more stable platform... I used to use it at work all the time, but never bothered at home. I love the pretty colors the MS Media Player has..... swiiiiiiiiiirrrrlllllllllllllllllllllllllllll..... Oh well, I listen to conservative news/opinion or public radio now instead. Maybe one day I'll install Winamp at home. :c)

Anybody that's experiencing problems with using multiple applications should check out their BIOS/Advanced settings and configure their RAS/CAS setting according to the RAM they are using. Setting T times to their highest possible setting will reduce the time it reads and writes to RAM and give you a stable system running multiple applications. You should know what type of RAM you are using. If you don't know the speed and type of the RAM take it out and look at it. It's written on it; take care of static not to harm the chip. Also if you are going to take the RAM out you should disconnect all power to the motherboard.

Found the problem, thanks to Erlik. Couldn't find a Fast Find utility in Office 2000, but did find and disable a Fast Find attribute under disk properties on one of my disks. The attribute on other two disks was already disabled. The problem is gone. Yippee! Thanks to all who replied. Peej