Broken Outlook Express

Discussion in 'Software' started by Jakamoko, May 10, 2005.

  1. Jakamoko
    Honorary Member

    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    Hey All,

    I have a friend who is rather less than forthcoming with info about the problem she is experiencing (aka standard user !)

    Last week, she downloaded an email from a friend with a "very large" video attachment and "some" photos, using OE on dial-up. (Took "ages but not hours", so I'm guessing maybe anywhere between 2-10 Meg). She says the message downloaded, and she can see it in her Inbox, but can't open it, as OE freezes. She can't even click on any options along the top (as I asked her to go Tools>Options to check OE's attachment-blocking security feature). All she gets when she opens OE is the egg-timer, then ultimately "This program is not responding ...."

    I tried getting her to set up Outlook 2003 with the same email account to see if she could continue to use her email, regardless of this rogue message, but it does the same. I've also had her use the dreaded System Restore, but to no avail

    I'm running out of options prior to actually visiting her later in the week to see for myself. My only thoughts at this stage would be to change the Store Folder in OE, but even that wouldn't explain the fact that Outlook seems broken as well ?

    I do stress that anything she has told me over the phone is to be treated with scepticism, but I've hopefully got enough out of her to at least give you Guys the general idea of what is going on. She says she his run the AVG that I installed on the PC when setting it up, but like I say, I remain unconvinced ....

    All and any input gratefully received :)
     
    Certifications: MCP, A+, Network+
    WIP: Clarity
  2. tripwire45
    Honorary Member

    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    This is a long shot since e-mail is not my forte. I used to use OE on dial up and experienced a limit on the size of attachments I could download. I suspect it was more of a limit with my ISP but I did have a workaround. For me, the download would never complete.

    I would logon to my e-mail account using webmail (most ISPs will let you do that) and download the attachments from there. Was still slow over dial up but I wouldn't experience a lock up. I don't know if this will work since apparently, your friend completed the download.

    The other thing I was thinking is that she may not have gotten the entire file or the file was corrupted. Have her login to her mail account using webmail. If it's there, she might be able to retrieve it and just delete the corrupted email in her OE mail box.

    Just shooting from the hip.
     
    Certifications: A+ and Network+
  3. Jakamoko
    Honorary Member

    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    Thanks Trip - but already tried. I logged onto her webmail from here - only 2 small mails sitting there, so working fine. Also advised her how to send me some info using webmail - also working. The message shows as downloaded in OE, although I take your point about poss being corrupted) so would not show in webmail (unless "leave a copy of message on server" was ticked)

    Don't mean to trumpet-blow or sound ungrateful here, but troubleshooting email probs constitutes a big part of my daily workload, so I do feel I have been fairly exhaustive so far. I think it's more a OE / Windows issue I'm seeing here (well, will actually see on Thurs when I visit)

    Thanks anyway :)
     
    Certifications: MCP, A+, Network+
    WIP: Clarity
  4. Mitzs
    Honorary Member

    Mitzs Ducktape Goddess

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    it almost sounds like she running out of virtual memory. And if the attachment is that big is she giving it enough time to open? Sometimes outlook will seem like it has frozen up but it just needs extra time to do it job.
     
    Certifications: Microcomputers and network specialist.
    WIP: Adobe DW, PS
  5. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    When you go, to rule out any possibility that it's the email account itself that is causing the problem, use a utility like MailWasher to pre-download any remaining headers on her account. You should be able to delete any mails that may be causing a problem if that is what's happening.

    It's a great anti-spam program also, and free to download ...
     
    Certifications: A+, N+, MCP, MCDST, MCSA 2K3, MCTS, MOS, MTA, MCT, MCITP:EDST7, MCSA W7, Citrix CCA, ITIL Foundation
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  6. Phil
    Honorary Member

    Phil Gigabyte Poster

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    Perhaps she has a preview pane and it's trying to open the attachment every time it is clicked on. Maybe if she disables the preview pane she will then be able to click on the message and delete it.
     
    Certifications: MCSE:M & S MCSA:M CCNA CNA
    WIP: 2003 Upgrade, CCNA Upgrade
  7. Jakamoko
    Honorary Member

    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    All good suggestions Guys - many thanks. Will be going to see her tomorrow - let you know how it goes :)


    EDIT: Just edited a slight part of this post that made NO sense !
     
    Certifications: MCP, A+, Network+
    WIP: Clarity
  8. Jamin.

    Jamin. Nibble Poster

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    Hi,
    I always have problems opening vids in apps, when the temp dir is not set correctly?
    just an idea
    Jamin.
     
    Certifications: MCSA: Security! GCSE Nautical studies
    WIP: On a break.
  9. Jakamoko
    Honorary Member

    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    Hey Guys,

    Just got home, one fixed OE later. Bloody strange(ish) one though.

    To my friends credit, she had actually described the situation really well - when OE starts, it just hangs on the hour-glass. Can only close it with task manager, which also shows msimn.exe hogging around 95% of CPU time.

    Full virus scan brings up nothing, but when I boot to safe mode, it opens up just fine. Re-boot to normal, same problem. Unfortunately, as time was against me, I had to carry out two tasks at the same time, so I'm unsure exactly which had the desired effect.

    My main decision at this stage (think I mentioned it previously) was to move the store folder to the root of C:\, but as I said, I was pushed, so instead of restarting and testing, I also removed all messages from OE as well.

    One reboot later, open OE - job's a good 'un, So if any of you can draw anything from the above, I'd be more than interested.
     
    Certifications: MCP, A+, Network+
    WIP: Clarity
  10. bignom

    bignom New Member

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