Error: "WinWord has caused an error in KERNEL32.DLL ..."

This error occurs on my HP Pavillion N5340 laptop if I have MS Word open.
- on random days, no discernible pattern, avg. 1 or 2 times/week.
- always at exactly 10:42AM !

and Word crashes. Nothing else.

I disconnected any externals, e.g. network, to rule these out.
I checked what else might be running, via Task Manager, and usually bare-bones with nothing obviously unusual.
This was happening under WindowsME, so I loaded Windows98 and BootMagic. It still occurs even when booted to Win98!

The laptop is in an office area adjacent to a manufacturing facility that may have some strange equipment running (I have no idea).
Could some sort of radio or power interferrence be causing this?

Thanks, DaveBo

If it's at a particular time, I would say that some other app could be trying tostartup and reference/use Ms Word - maybe call on it's spellchecker for example & overloading it.

If you're on windows ME or 98, I would check 2 places to try & disable any programs you don't recognise or which may call on word from starting:

1) MSConfig (goto start menu>run & type MSConfig in - look under the startup tab & disable the app here).
2) The task scheduler is it? win9x's version of the nt services - the red/white icon that sits in the taskbar system tray, or is under the start menu > programs > accessories menus...

Thanks alex_read,
I've trimmed my startup (via msconfig) to bare-bones and I believe I've ruled the remaining items out.
The only scheduler jobs I have are my own now, and they run at least 2 hours before the error.

DaveBo