This issue was resolved by using the template support.dot (pre-installed with Office 2003)
It was a great help as it guided towards the solution, which was caused by a bad COM Add-In (PDF Complete)
It seems that PDF complete was pre-installed with the HP Windows 7 factory installation.
The issue ceased to exist as soon as the application was Removed/Uninstall from
Control Panel
>Programs and Features
>PDF Complete