When my friend tries to open a file in Word 2000 under Windows ME, "Requesting virus scan" appears and then the system hangs.

Ctrl Alt Del gets rid of Word, but then nothing else will load. We just get "Sys dangerously low in resources" till we reboot.

Robert: It sounds like they've got Norton Antivirus installed, and it's not scanning properly.

Have them open NAV and go to the Miscellaneous settings (I think. I don't recall, and I use McAfee.) and turn off scanning of Office documents.

If that doesn't help, have them try the Word troubleshooting steps here:
www.theofficeexperts.com/word.htm

Try removing and reinstalling the anti-virus program. If this does not work, then uninstall and reinstall the MS Office suite.