Board index » Outlook » OE6 freezing up when not on line

Outlook668
If I am working off line and I send an e-mail. occasionally instead of it

going in my outbox, when I press send and receive nothing happens "OE

freezes up" if When I get the task manager up it says "status, not

responding" I have then to close OE and when I restart it asks if I want to

send an error report.



Why does it do this ? only does it when I am off line.



David.


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Try points 3a and 3b below and see if that makes any difference.



steve



"Chap." <david.chap@btopenworld.com>wrote in message =





1. Blocked attachments. MS has now set OE to block all attachments. =

See

these articles for explanations:



Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=3D329570



OLEXP Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6 (Q291387)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q291/3/87.ASP





2. Outlook Express crashes when composing messages



MS introduced a bug in the latest security patch (810847).



Go to Windows Update and get the latest IE security patch and that =

should

fix it.



See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=3D813489





3. All messages are lost.



There are two contributing factors to this problem. To fix this issue

a. Turn off background compaction under Tools | Options | Maintenance =

for

each Identity you have, and then compact manually and frequently using =

File

| Folder | Compact all. This will make OE more stable.

b. Turn off email scanning, autoupdate, and internet filter with your

antivirus software. Many antivirus products interfere with the =

operations

of OE resulting in loss of messages. Turning off these options does not

affect the ability of your antivirus software to block infections.



If you do lose your messages, you can try using my DBXtract program to

attempt to recover the lost messages. Note that dbx files are hidden in

Windows 2000 and Windows XP. =20

http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/



Alternatively one can also use DBXpress, which is faster and more =

accurate than DBXtract,

and it also has the capability of reading directly from the disk and =

bypassing the file system.

http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/



If you have upgraded your version of IE and OE or your OS version, and =

all

your messages are lost, then see this article (note that the technique =

in

the article does not only apply to the issue addressed in the article

title):



OLEXP: Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After =

You

Upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=3Dkb;en-us;313055



If File | Import | Messages does not work, ignore the error message, =

which

is erroneous in itself, and try one of the following techniques to get =

your

messages back:

aa. Right click on each dbx file or a selection of them and go to =

Properties

and clear the read only attribute of the files. Then try File | Import =

|

Messages again.

bb. Import the dbx files individually. See the last paragraph on this =

page

for how to do that:

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

cc. As a last resort use DBXtract

http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/





4. How does one reinstall IE and OE?



This article seems to work for other OSs than just XP:



How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=3DKB;EN-US;Q318378



See point 11 below first.



5. How does one backup and restore or transfer OE messages and =

settings:



Note that there is also a link in this article to MVP David Guess's free

OEBackup program (www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/)

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm





6. Links in email don't work:



see the links on this page

http://www.oehelp.com/





7. Outlook Express is slow.



See the various performance issues and how to address them on this page:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm





8. Outlook Express won't start.



This is usually due to a conflict between what is recorded in the =

registry

and what is in the message store. Often, one can fix this problem by

deleting folders.dbx. If that doesn't work, then try moving all the dbx

files to another directory and see if that fixes it. Alternatively, see

these articles and also point 3a above:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm#nostart

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q245/4/19.asp





9. Address book information:



The Windows Address Book

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm





10. Links are broken in email messages:



This is fixed with the Mondo Patch for OE6 SP1 (which is the millimeter =

the

MVPs got the behemoth to move):



October 2002, Cumulative Update for Outlook Express 6.0 SP1 (Q331923)

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/recommended/q331923/default=

.asp





11. Installation issues:



Most of the problems with a faulty installation are due to other =

programs

running during the install and interfering with the updating of =

necessary

files. Antivirus software is notorious for this. To minimize such

interference, in Win98, WinMe, and WinXP go to Start | Run and type =

msconfig

and disable all startup items and non Microsoft services. Then reboot.

Then proceed with the installation. Startup items can then be =

re-enabled.



Since Win2000 does not have msconfig, one has to manually go to this

registry key:



HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run



You can export this key and then delete all values under it. Then =

disable

all antivirus services under Computer Management | Services and then =

reboot.

Then install. After the installation you can import the key back into =

the

registry to restore the values and re-enable the services.



12. Microsoft does not email security patches to you.



If you get an email that appears to come from Microsoft with a security

update attached, do not open the attachment. It is a virus. No matter =

how

official the email looks, it is a hoax.



See this article:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/news/patch_hoax.asp



13. Screening unwanted email and Spam



Everybody gets unwanted email these days. Much of this email is either

trying to sell you something you probably don't want or else is trying =

to

infect you with a virus via an email attachment. What can you do?



a. Never open an attachment. First save an attachment to disk and then

scan it with your antivirus software to ensure it is not infected (make =

sure

your antivirus software definitions are up to date). If the attachment =

is

from someone you don't know, don't even bother opening it. Its not =

worth

it.



b. Screen email. Disable the Preview Pane (you can put a button on the

toolbar to turn this on and off). Then go to View | Columns and enable =

most

of the headers. That way you can scan the headers and pick out the =

various

obvious unwanted mail. Once you find messages that you don't want to =

open,

select the headers of those messages without opening the messages and

perform a Shift-Delete to permanently remove them from the folder. Once

they are removed, they will no longer be accessible, so don't do this on

messages you might wish to keep.



c. On messages left that might be worth opening, go to Tools | Options =

|

Read and check the box that says "read all messages in plain text"

(available only with IE6 SP1 or WinXP SP1 and higher). Reading in plain

text prevents any returns to the spammer's server, so your email address

cannot be validated in that fashion. In addition, it prevents malformed =

or

malicious HTML code from executing. If you find the message is worth

viewing as HTML, then you can go back to Tools | Options | Read and =

uncheck

the option to read in plain text only and then reopen the message to =

view it

as HTML (note that you can put this button on a toolbar with OETool

(www.oehelp.com/OETool/).



d. If you get unwanted email repeatedly from the same source, you can =

set

up message rules to block out some of these messages. See the help file =

in

OE and also http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/tips/rules.htm .





e. If you find a message that is spam and that offends you or is =

deceptive,

go to Message | Forward as attachment and send it to uce@ftc.gov .



The US Federal Trade Comission is launching a major crackdown on =

deceptive

and offensive spam. Visit their site at www.ftc.gov/spam for more info.







I've probably left off some issues, but I believe these address the most

common problems that users encounter with OE. In addition, please check =

the

websites of the individual OE MVP's that address other issues not listed

here:





Tom Koch:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/



David Guess

http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/



Jim Pickering

http://home.attbi.com/~jimpickering/



Frank Saunders

http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/index.htm



and my site at http://www.oehelp.com





If you don't find your problem addressed, then feel free to post a =

question

in these newsgroups and we will be more than happy to respond and =

attempt to

help.





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