Thanks Paul Edstein! What Paul has said is correct in totality. Bu thanks to those who are trying to help me!!
Paul, I have done as you suggested and ran Word 2003 'safe mode with Control Key' no success. I also restarted the computer in safe mode and tried it with and without Control key with no success. I further tried a cold boot with no success.
I suspect like you that some program is conflicting with Word 2003 converting .docx files.
It is a Gateway 4012GZ 15" Laptop, 2GB RAM, 1.5GHz. WIn XP Pro SP3, Office 2003 SP2.
So how do I go about eliminating problematic conflicting problems??
Paul