Greetings from Berkshire
I hope its not dark and raining there!
Its sounds as though you may have an OLE component problem, I can't promise that Maxdoc will resolve your problem, but you can get a 60 day trial on the website so at least you can try it first.
Which version of MDAC did you try? what operating system are you using? I'm sure we can probably shed a little light on the situation.
Maxdoc has worked when the word integration has been failing on some machines, the Multiactive word integration seems to get itself tied up in a transfer, if you minimize word maximize maximizer and switch back to word you may well find it will work.
Please try Maxdoc and give us a little feedback it helps us to improve the products and add the features that people want.
Regards
Nick Welburn
CABC Support