What other programs are you using - or can you disable firefox addons - i think its addons - I think you need to Spark up, and try to attack the situation, as you can see whats in front of you - you need to be ruthless to resolve the problem - uninstall till you find something but choose carefully that way it should show quicker. Anything that can be linked to word should be scrutinised - try some of my other suggestions below firstly.
Have you rebooted the PC and gone straight to word7 to see if it works before other programs are opened? You can take startup programs out of the startup folder in all programs (dont delete altogether as you can restore them from the recyle bin) you can also run msconfig.exe (type in search) and disable programs from starting on reboot .
You could try this also run WORD7 in compatitbility mode with vista :
To run a program in compatibility mode - right click a shortcut to the program - click properties - click compatibility - check run in compatibility with vista - check run as administrator - leave the rest blank. Start the program.
I've just opened this - you say it was leaving a spool error well you can change settings to do with spooling - open control panel - devices and printers - right click your printer - select printer properties - go to advanced settings, and try some different spooling settings.
Did you upgrade to Windows 7, and which version 64 bit or 32 bit are you running - if you upgraded there is a patch on the hp site to fix functionality :
http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Looku...bmit=Go+%C2%BB