Outlook 2000 (SP3) slow to start, close and display emails

[Tim]

I have a client that has Outlook 2000 with Office SP3 recently added.

Some time ago, after receiving a mountain of spam one day, her Outlook
slowed to a crawl. It is very slow starting up, up to a minute, slow
closing, up to about 30 seconds or so, slow opening emails about 30
seconds, and if you close an email, it often looks like it's closing,
but will just return to an active state where it can be closed for
"real" the next time.

I have tried removing the virus scanner, dumping cache, compacting
folders, fresh install. After I re-installed the video driver, Outlook
nows causes the screen to go black and back again rapidly as it tries to
redraw it. The system has an ASUS 1050 AGP video card it it, using an
ATI chipset.

Oh and she also has a phone that she can hot sync to the Outlook info.
It uses the MS Active Sync I believe.

Any thoughts on this one?

Thanks,

- Tim -

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[DL]

And the size of the attached data files is?
And if OL is started useing the safe switch?

 

[Tim]

If you are referring to the email size, the one I worked with was a
small text only email. How does one start using the "safe switch" ?

- Tim -

 

[Tim]

I found how to start in in the safe modes. I will try that this
afternoon and let you know how it goes.

Thanks,

- Tim -

 

[DL]

I meant the size of the data file - personal folders

I found how to start in in the safe modes. I will try that this
afternoon and let you know how it goes.

Thanks,

- Tim -

 

[Tim]

OK, by using the safe switches, I found the problem was an enormous
outcmd.dat file (over 26 megs). I also found that this was a bug in the
original Outlook 2000, and was fixed later on. It turns out that the
Office Update SP3 did not remedy that issue. I installed the Office
Update SP2 and the issue is now resolved.

The blacking out problem was just a corrupt video driver.

Thanks for getting me going in the right direction.

- Tim -