ms word 2002 recovery error

MS Word 2002 when opened comes up with an error message saying word has encountered a problem and must close. It wants me to tick the box “recover my work and restart word. If I don’t open in safe mode it closes and if I do it won’t do anything. It has not happened before when this has been installed on the old PC. But taking it off and reinstalling has the same problem. The OS is win xp pro and its going on a brand nz windows laptop.

Helllpppp!

Thanks
bruce