The hardest problem EVAR (apache Related)

So, a headache of a problem has landed in my lap and launched a searing pain all through out my body, which is understandable, but let me explain something even more painful about the problem:

Apcache 1.3 on windows 2k3 server.

Yeah, nuff said. Well - here is the deal - we have a php written script which will allow a user to initiate a mail-merge using Word 2k3 on the server. The process writes a temporary file to the server, and then the server grabs that temp file and a template and writes a new word document to the server (deleting the old one if it is already there). Well, the process seems to crash server-side when word or (winword.exe) is spawned. Now, their users are authenticated in apache with htaccess controls, and they use a seperate login for this site than they do for the network. However, they seemed to rectify themselves when we added their network credentials to the local system as administrators. Then we deleted those rights, and *bam* it worked. The problem is reoccurring, and the old fix aint working. Any ideas about this problem guys?

ANYTHING!?

I'm no expert when it comes to webservers, especially on Server 2003, but it sounds like a permissions problem to me. It would make sense since making them admins corrected the problem. Can you check that they have write permission to the folder that it's creating the temp file in?

Yes, the did, and they absolutely still do. The old fix is no longer working. I had brought up the fact that we just need to get apache 2.0+ on the server, at least. IT seems to be the best permanent fix.