The fact that you're having problems with Northwind means that there's
most likely something wrong with the installation of Access, Office, the
Jet database engine, or Windows. (I know, that's a big help!)
The next thing I'd try is to re-register the dll files that handle
importing and exporting:
accwiz.dll
msexcl40.dll (Excel)
msxbse40.dll (dBase)
mspdox40.dll (Paradox)
mstext40.dll (Text, CSV, tab-delimited))
In Access 97, the filenames contain 35 instead of 40.
Here's one way of re-registering a DLL file,
1) Locate it (usually all these are in the Windows\System32 or
WINNT\System32 folder.
2) Locate the file regsvr32.exe.
3) Drag the DLL file's icon onto the regsvr32.exe icon.
After that, try exporting from Northwind again. If Access still crashes
at that point, the choices (I feel) are as follows. (By the way, when
Access gives you the message about "encountered a problem and needs to
close", have you been allowing it to send diagnostic information to
Microsoft? If not, please do so: it may produce an automated response
with a cure for the problem):
1) Raise a support incident with Microsoft (mentioning that the hotfix
didn't solve your problem).
2) Search the knowledgebase at
http://support.microsoft.com for
instructions for fully uninstalling Office 2003. Follow these, and then
re-install Office 2003, the Service Pack, and any subsequent updates.