can't open certain doc files (word 97-03)

[Eekie64]

I received a number of doc files from a colleague tourmanager. When trying to open them a window appears with the text: An error occurred during opening (and then more text which I won't translate from the dutch version I use) It proposes help options that I all tried unsuccessfully.
On my laptop I have the same word version, but there these files open flawlessly. So I compared all the settings and made them equal. Didn't help.
When I save the doc files as docx on my laptop my desktop can only open them in write protected mode.
Restoring word did not help either.
Can anybody help me?