Mysterious

[Tinkerer]

This is weird. It could be pure coincidence but seems like a strange one.
A friend has a Medion PC running Windows XP and he uses Outlook Express to
get his emails from his POP3 server. For over two months his PC would not
bring down the emails, simply came up with the message that the server had
rejected the request, although everything else ran fine. We tried (many
times) re-creating the account but it never worked although if we created it
on another PC it worked every time. Then, this week, we noticed that the
power supply cooling fan was not working. The fan is a 12cm one mounted in
the bottom of the power supply and appears to double as a case fan. We
replaced the fan, started the PC and down came two months of emails into
Outlook Express and it still works fine. Like I said, it could be
coincidence, but it is a hell of a one if it is. Any thoughts out there as
to how a new fan can have that effect.

 

[Sjouke Burry]

This is weird. It could be pure coincidence but seems like a strange one.
A friend has a Medion PC running Windows XP and he uses Outlook Express to
get his emails from his POP3 server. For over two months his PC would not
bring down the emails, simply came up with the message that the server had
rejected the request, although everything else ran fine. We tried (many
times) re-creating the account but it never worked although if we created it
on another PC it worked every time. Then, this week, we noticed that the
power supply cooling fan was not working. The fan is a 12cm one mounted in
the bottom of the power supply and appears to double as a case fan. We
replaced the fan, started the PC and down came two months of emails into
Outlook Express and it still works fine. Like I said, it could be
coincidence, but it is a hell of a one if it is. Any thoughts out there as
to how a new fan can have that effect.

Because you opened the case? An loose cable or chip might be cured
temporally by handling things.
You might expect the error to return.

 

[Tinkerer]

Because you opened the case? An loose cable or chip might be cured
temporally by handling things.
You might expect the error to return.

That is possible although I think unlikely as when we first tried to get
Outlook Express working we opened the case because the graphics card's
cooling fan had fallen to pieces and we fitted a replacement card. After
that, Outlook Express still failed to bring anything down from the server
although in all other respects the PC and Windows still worked fine. To be
honest, when it first happened I suspected the ISP's mail server but
discounted that when I found that creating the account on any other PC
resulted in a successful download.

The only explanation that I can come up with is that, due to the power
supply/system fan not working, the PC was running too hot. The bit I don't
understand is why the only thing that was affected was Outlook Express's
ability to connect to the mail server while everything else continued to
work perfectly.

 

[Tinkerer]

Probably just one in a billion bizarre coincidence. Why
would it work on another system? Likely the mail server was
intermittently down, it just happened to work when you'd
tried on another system.

I agree that it was most likely a bizarre coincidence but when it worked on
one and not the original they were side by side. Plus the fact that it
would not get mail for around six weeks before suddenly working after the
fan was fitted. There obviously is an explanation for it all and it is
probably something perfectly simple but at the same time totally obscure (if
that makes sense).