Office 2010 applications frequently Not Responding

Question

Desktop config: Windows XP SP3 + Office 2010 + SP1 activated via KMS
We seem to be getting a large number of cases where the Office 2010 application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) locks up and just displays 'Not Responding'
The only clue we can see if that in ALL cases just before the Not Responding issue occured the following was logged in the clients event log - there are no other event logged such as application hangs.
Type : Information
Date : 22/02/2012
Time : 10:24:51
Event : 900
Source : Office Software Protection Platform Service
Category : None
User : N/A
Computer : XXXXX
Description: The Software Protection service is starting.
Type : Information
Date : 22/02/2012
Time : 10:24:51
Event : 1066
Source : Office Software Protection Platform Service
Category : None
User : N/A
Computer : G15-16
Description:
Initialization status for service objects.
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\OSPPOBJS.DLL, msft:rm/algorithm/phone/1.0, 0x00000000, 0x00000000
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\OSPPOBJS.DLL, msft:rm/algorithm/pkey/2005, 0x00000000, 0x00000000
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\OSPPOBJS.DLL, msft:spp/TaskScheduler/1.0, 0x00000000, 0x00000000
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\OSPPOBJS.DLL, msft:spp/volume/services/kms/licenserenewal/1.0, 0x00000000, 0x00000000
Type : Information
Date : 22/02/2012
Time : 10:24:51
Event : 902
Source : Office Software Protection Platform Service
Category : None
User : N/A
Computer : G15-16
Description: The Software Protection service has started. 14.0.370.400
Type : Information
Date : 22/02/2012
Time : 10:24:52
Event : 1003
Source : Office Software Protection Platform Service
Category : None
User : N/A
Computer : G15-16
Description:
The Software Protection service has completed licensing status check.
Application Id=59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663
Licensing Status=
1: 191301d3-a579-428c-b0c7-d7988500f9e3, 1, 0 [(0 [0xC004F014, 0, 0], [(?)(?)(?)(?)(?)(?)])(1 )(2 )]
2: 6f327760-8c5c-417c-9b61-836a98287e0c, 1, 1 [(0 [0x00000000, 1, 0], [(?)(?)( 1 0x00000000 30 0 msft:rm/algorithm/volume/1.0 0x00000000 249335)(?)(?)(?)])(1 )(2 )]
3: fdf3ecb9-b56f-43b2-a9b8-1b48b6bae1a7, 1, 0 [(0 [0xC004F014, 0, 0], [(?)(?)(?)(?)(?)(?)])(1 )(2 )]

Answer 1

Max - 
No offense intended, but while I agree that this could be the case, your answer is for XP and I find it lacking a good solution with a rather bland explanation.
I'm seeing this problem with Windows 7, but we are not using a KMS, however the OPPSVC does run rather frequently, as seen in the Event Logs.
When opening Word documents in Office 2010, the computer will "hang" and applications show the "Not Responding" message for several minutes before returning, if at all. It will not happen every time the application is opened, and happens regardless of whether
or not Word is already open at the time the document is opened. It almost seems as though the Office Platform Protection Service is the CAUSE of the problem, and when looking at the process in SysInternals Process Explorer, I don't see anything out of the
ordinary that would explain why the system resources are being tied up by that service, although I admit I have not been able to capture the problem when it's occurring because it happens pretty randomly. 
I'm less convinced that there is a third-party software causing the problem and more convinced that if the OPPSVC is already running, and you happen to open a document at the exact same time that the service fires off to do it's check, it enters a minor
race condition of some kind and either never responds, or takes a long time to resolve/timeout.
This issue is having a major impact during sales demonstrations that my organization does because it causes the entire demonstration to pause or crash and is totally unacceptable. All of our licenses are in order and I can't shut off the OPPSVC to verify
if it's causing the problem because Word will not start if the service is disabled.
A better solution would be much appreciated.