Outlook 2003 freezes every 5 seconds

[Anonymous Poster]

This is really driving me crazy... I am using Outlook 2003 connected to our
office Exchange server. For the last few weeks every 5 seconds the following
happens -

The tray icon changes to the send/recieve icon. The tooltip says 'Microsoft
Outlook is synchronizing folders'.
After this the icon changes to a red ! inside a yellow diamond with the
tooltip 'Microsoft Office Outlook is requesting data from the server'.
And there it will stay forever (yes I have left it overnight!). Once in this
state send/recieve just hangs on about 55% until I right click the icon and
go 'cancel server request'. I then have another 5 second window to check my
mail!! I've tried the following -

Complete reinstall of outlook
Deleting and recreating mailbox on server
Disabling AV (mcafee)
Running a full virus scan (nothing found)
Removing offline folders
Running scanpst on my pst files.

I made it go away temporarily by deleting the offline folder file
(outlook.ost) but it came back after probably 10-20 mins

Please help restore my sanity

Simon

 

[Gordon]

This is really driving me crazy... I am using Outlook 2003 connected
to our office Exchange server. For the last few weeks every 5 seconds
the following happens -

Have you tried changing the polling time to something sensible, like ten
minutes?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Did you make a new profile?
It almost sounds more like a connection issue - did you check the connection
status? (Ctrl Click on the outlook icon in the tray)

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Thanks for the replies

@DIANE

I did make a new profile. I seemed to have fixed it now (hopefully!) by
deleting the file 'archive1.pst' in my docs\settings (which is strange as I
have autoarchive turned off...) maybe it was some legacy data from the old
profile?

@gordon

I have automatic polling turned off

Did you make a new profile?
It almost sounds more like a connection issue - did you check the
connection status? (Ctrl Click on the outlook icon in the tray)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/

This is really driving me crazy... I am using Outlook 2003 connected to
our office Exchange server. For the last few weeks every 5 seconds the
following happens -

The tray icon changes to the send/recieve icon. The tooltip says
'Microsoft Outlook is synchronizing folders'.
After this the icon changes to a red ! inside a yellow diamond with the
tooltip 'Microsoft Office Outlook is requesting data from the server'.
And there it will stay forever (yes I have left it overnight!). Once in
this state send/recieve just hangs on about 55% until I right click the
icon and go 'cancel server request'. I then have another 5 second window
to check my mail!! I've tried the following -

Complete reinstall of outlook
Deleting and recreating mailbox on server
Disabling AV (mcafee)
Running a full virus scan (nothing found)
Removing offline folders
Running scanpst on my pst files.

I made it go away temporarily by deleting the offline folder file
(outlook.ost) but it came back after probably 10-20 mins

Please help restore my sanity

Simon

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Correct - upgrading and keeping the old profile can cause a number of
issues. If the problem comes back <fingers crossed that it won't> look for
connection issues.

BTW - when using Exchange accounts, polling times are not an issue and not
readily configurable.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/

Thanks for the replies

@Diane

I did make a new profile. I seemed to have fixed it now (hopefully!) by
deleting the file 'archive1.pst' in my docs\settings (which is strange as
I have autoarchive turned off...) maybe it was some legacy data from the
old profile?

@Gordon

I have automatic polling turned off

Did you make a new profile?
It almost sounds more like a connection issue - did you check the
connection status? (Ctrl Click on the outlook icon in the tray)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/

This is really driving me crazy... I am using Outlook 2003 connected to
our office Exchange server. For the last few weeks every 5 seconds the
following happens -

The tray icon changes to the send/recieve icon. The tooltip says
'Microsoft Outlook is synchronizing folders'.
After this the icon changes to a red ! inside a yellow diamond with the
tooltip 'Microsoft Office Outlook is requesting data from the server'.
And there it will stay forever (yes I have left it overnight!). Once in
this state send/recieve just hangs on about 55% until I right click the
icon and go 'cancel server request'. I then have another 5 second window
to check my mail!! I've tried the following -

Complete reinstall of outlook
Deleting and recreating mailbox on server
Disabling AV (mcafee)
Running a full virus scan (nothing found)
Removing offline folders
Running scanpst on my pst files.

I made it go away temporarily by deleting the offline folder file
(outlook.ost) but it came back after probably 10-20 mins

Please help restore my sanity

Simon

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Ok it has come back It seems to be random. I now only have a 'extend.dat'
and 'outlook.ost' in the Docs...\Microsoft\Outlook folder. If I delete them
then it will go away for a few hours and come back... I don't have any
connection problems otherwise..?

Correct - upgrading and keeping the old profile can cause a number of
issues. If the problem comes back <fingers crossed that it won't> look for
connection issues.

BTW - when using Exchange accounts, polling times are not an issue and not
readily configurable.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/

Thanks for the replies

@Diane

I did make a new profile. I seemed to have fixed it now (hopefully!) by
deleting the file 'archive1.pst' in my docs\settings (which is strange as
I have autoarchive turned off...) maybe it was some legacy data from the
old profile?

@Gordon

I have automatic polling turned off

Did you make a new profile?
It almost sounds more like a connection issue - did you check the
connection status? (Ctrl Click on the outlook icon in the tray)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/






This is really driving me crazy... I am using Outlook 2003 connected to
our office Exchange server. For the last few weeks every 5 seconds the
following happens -

The tray icon changes to the send/recieve icon. The tooltip says
'Microsoft Outlook is synchronizing folders'.
After this the icon changes to a red ! inside a yellow diamond with the
tooltip 'Microsoft Office Outlook is requesting data from the server'.
And there it will stay forever (yes I have left it overnight!). Once in
this state send/recieve just hangs on about 55% until I right click the
icon and go 'cancel server request'. I then have another 5 second
window to check my mail!! I've tried the following -

Complete reinstall of outlook
Deleting and recreating mailbox on server
Disabling AV (mcafee)
Running a full virus scan (nothing found)
Removing offline folders
Running scanpst on my pst files.

I made it go away temporarily by deleting the offline folder file
(outlook.ost) but it came back after probably 10-20 mins

Please help restore my sanity

Simon

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

extend.dat tells outlook about the addins you have installed - it's not
that.. I doubt it's the ost - although a new ost probably fixes it because
it's busy downloading all the items again and doesn't pause. BTW - the ost
is on the local drive, correct? If not, put it local or disable cached mode.
You could try classic mode just to see if the problems go away...

Do you have mapped network drives? (Outlook sometimes freezes when you do,
but usually only when adding attachments) Are you using a firewall?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/

Ok it has come back It seems to be random. I now only have a
'extend.dat' and 'outlook.ost' in the Docs...\Microsoft\Outlook folder. If
I delete them then it will go away for a few hours and come back... I
don't have any connection problems otherwise..?

Correct - upgrading and keeping the old profile can cause a number of
issues. If the problem comes back <fingers crossed that it won't> look
for connection issues.

BTW - when using Exchange accounts, polling times are not an issue and
not readily configurable.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/

Thanks for the replies

@Diane

I did make a new profile. I seemed to have fixed it now (hopefully!) by
deleting the file 'archive1.pst' in my docs\settings (which is strange
as I have autoarchive turned off...) maybe it was some legacy data from
the old profile?

@Gordon

I have automatic polling turned off

Did you make a new profile?
It almost sounds more like a connection issue - did you check the
connection status? (Ctrl Click on the outlook icon in the tray)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/






This is really driving me crazy... I am using Outlook 2003 connected
to our office Exchange server. For the last few weeks every 5 seconds
the following happens -

The tray icon changes to the send/recieve icon. The tooltip says
'Microsoft Outlook is synchronizing folders'.
After this the icon changes to a red ! inside a yellow diamond with
the tooltip 'Microsoft Office Outlook is requesting data from the
server'.
And there it will stay forever (yes I have left it overnight!). Once
in this state send/recieve just hangs on about 55% until I right click
the icon and go 'cancel server request'. I then have another 5 second
window to check my mail!! I've tried the following -

Complete reinstall of outlook
Deleting and recreating mailbox on server
Disabling AV (mcafee)
Running a full virus scan (nothing found)
Removing offline folders
Running scanpst on my pst files.

I made it go away temporarily by deleting the offline folder file
(outlook.ost) but it came back after probably 10-20 mins

Please help restore my sanity

Simon