MS Outlook using 100% CPU

[Guest]

Does ANYBODY know why MS Outlook 2000 with SP3 (and as i recal before SP3)
using 100% CPU. I've searched the web and all sorts of reason for various
combination but knowbody seems to be able to answere, including Microsoft who
appear to keep out of it. It does it on three different machine - all with
legit software.
It is impossible to use your computer during this time (which can last days
or weeks) unless you close Outlook.
Sick to death of it of this ongoing problem

 

[Guest]

Try downloading Spybot S&D from Download.com and running that. Also, have you
tried doing a repair of Outlook or a reinstall?

 

[Guest]

Steve,

You don't give much information about your configuration, memory, free disk
space, anti-virus software, or anti-spyware software. I would start with the
basics to narrow down the problem.

1. Is your antivirus software up to date and have you scanned your
system(s) lately? I scan ours every night.
2. When was the last time you defragmented your disk(s)? I defragment ours
at least once a month.
3. How much free space do you have? Since disk space is so cheap, I never
let my disks get more than 50% full.
4. Are you running Raid on your disks? If so, have you checked lately to
make sure one of your disks hasn't gone south while the other rebuilds?
5. Have you tried rebuilding or reinstalling Outlook?
6. Have you installed the latest and greatest patches for Windows
(hopefully XP Professional)?
7. Have you checked for updates to drivers for your disks and other non MS
equipment?
8. Have you run several different anti-spyware programs to see if there is
something out there causing you problems?
9. Are you running any shareware? Most of it is loaded with spyware and is
difficult to detect, will not uninstall, and tracks your every keystroke.
Next time your system is running slowly, open a DOS prompt and type NETSTAT.
You may be amazed at what is going on with your system.
10. Are you using a disk on another system or server to hold your mail
files? If so, have you checked to make sure that system has followed all of
the above steps?
11. Does your system have enough memory? While the minimum system
requirements are quite low, in order to get optimum performance, you need to
have 512 MB of memory (like disk space, memory is cheap these days).
12. How fast is your CPU? I cannot touch the capacity of my system, but
you may have maxed yours out.
13. How big are your mail files? Have you created new folders in seperate
files to hold your old mail files? I generally keep 60 days of mail in my
inbox. The rest is migrated to other files and folders.

These are a few things off the top of my head I think you should check.
There are others that are more knowledgable than I am that can probably give
you some additional suggestions.

I do wonder why you have a problem with closing Outlook and restarting it.
It behaves like any other program with open files and occasionally needs to
have its internal pointers reset.

 

[Guest]

Hi Bob
Tried spybot etc etc, checked startup with HiJack etc - there is nothing
there that shouln't be. Have repaired Outlook and have reinstalled at various
times on different machines. Problem always returns. It is something to do
with the data held in the pst file. Outlook appears to be stuck in some
'loop' trying to deal with the pst file. Once you have this problem and load
a new pst file it's fine, import from old pst or include the old pst as a
data file and the problem returns next time you restart outlook.
Many thanks for you input
Best regards Steve

 

[Guest]

Hi Jim
Thanks for your time. In answere to your questions

1. Run Sophos on three machines and Norton on two. - all updated on an
ongoing basis - at least every day.
2. Defrag etc makes no difference.
3. somedrives have minimal dat on other more. Only one machine is more than
50% full.
4. Raid is not used
5. yes - see my reply to Bob
6. yes all updated - running XP Pro on 4 machines and XP Home on one. Office
all updated.
7.Yes. I check for updates on all machines, No two machines are the same
make or configuration so I don't think it is to do with the machine (hardware)
8. Yes, tied most of them. Again i have searched all the machines for
anythin like this and have found nothing. Used HiJack to check startup files
and nothing in there that shouldn't be. In fact removed all startup except
from the basic in all machines at various times to no avail.
9. Do not use shareware, i understand the spyware problems you can get. I am
quite sure it is nothing to do with spyware. never had this problem running
office 2000 and pre Windows XP.
10. No there is no link between machines regarding mail, they are all stand
alone.
11. Each machine has btween 1meg and 4 meg.
12. The machines vary but again i am sure this is not the problem.
13. Again they vary, but this appears to make no difference, the largest is
about 600mb. Mine achieves every thirty days.

The strange part about it is this high usage can last for a few hours to
weeks. If you leave Outlook running it will eventual sort it's self out and
start to run normally again after this for no fixed time. It may start again
within a few days or not for another 9 months or more.

As i said in my reply to bob, it's like outlook is stuck in a 'loop' trying
to do something. Use a new pst file and the problem goes immediatly. Add or
import an old pst file and it will work fine untill you close and restart
outlook. This is why i think it is something not closing or whatever in the
PST file correctly.
Microsoft had a problem with something like this when running dual
processors and issued a fix but they seem very quite on this subject although
a lot of people have the same problem.

Thanks for you time

thanks for you time

 

[Pete]

Does ANYBODY know why MS Outlook 2000 with SP3 (and as i recal before
SP3)
using 100% CPU.

Steve,
I have the same problem. Outlook 2000 SP3 has started using 50-60% of the
cpu. If I can't find and fix the problem soon I'm gonna switch to a
different email program.
Steve, if you find a fix please report it here.

Pete

 

[John Crim]

I'm having the same problem with Outlook 2003 SP2, with all add-ins
disabled. Really pissing me off, I haven't had the problem before on other
boxes running Outlook 2003 SP2.

Here's the problem description I submitted to MS support - I'll let you
know if I find a resolution.
------------------------------------------

Outlook 2003 is hanging and consuming 100% of 1 cpu. I've disabled all
add-ins, but still see the problem any time I switch to another
message. It appears identical to the problem described here:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...1f3edeacf78bfc7?sa=X&oi=groupsr&start=0&num=3

Also, when I debug outlook.exe, I see a TON of these in the debugger
window, while it's hanging:
First-chance exception at 0x7c81eb33 in OUTLOOK.EXE: Microsoft C++
exception: _com_error @ 0x0013fa5c.
First-chance exception at 0x7c81eb33 in OUTLOOK.EXE: Microsoft C++
exception: _com_error @ 0x0013fa5c.
First-chance exception at 0x7c81eb33 in OUTLOOK.EXE: Microsoft C++
exception: _com_error @ 0x0013fa5c.

 

[Guest]

Hi Pete
No problem, if i have any news i will update this thread as it seems to be a
popular problem if you look on the web at various boards.
Mine has started to reduce CPU power now to around 30% which makes my
machine more usable but it still not good. I have written to Microsoft for
their thoughts, but no reply yet, except to say they will reply.
Please update if you find a soloution
Best regards
Steve

 

[Guest]

Hi Pete
It is an impossible problem. If i have any news I will update this thread.
Still waitng for a reply from Microsoft.
If you find out anything please update this thread.
Best regards
Steve

 

[Guest]

Hi Pete
Opps - soory sent a reply to you to John - Outlook is driving me crazy.
But for sure if i have any news you guys will be the first to know.

 

[Guest]

I have a problem similar to yours. I don't know if this will help solve it,
but here's a twist. I have two users set up on my Windows XP machine. When
I run Outlook under one user, I have CPU usage of 50-60%. When I run Outlook
from the second user - usage of 0-3%.

Does this help narrow the problem?

 

[Guest]

I found a fix, at least for my machine.

There's a timing problem with Outlook 2000 Reminders when running in
Internal Mail Only mode. There's an update (patch) that fixes this. Look
for article 811167 or else use Microsoft's Update tool (the one that searches
your computer and tells you the updates you need.)

My Outlook was taking 50-60% of the CPU. It now uses 0-1%.

 

[Guest]

I have the same problem with Outlook 2003, in fact, this is the second time
this has happened, in the last year. And for some reason the first time this
happened it just went away, probably due to some auto update, but now it is
back again, with a vengence.

Anyone found a resolution?

Many thanks in advance,

Rich

 

[Guest]

Oops, I posted in the wrong thread, so sorry.

Rich