Outlook 2003 saturates CPU after installing SP3

[Ralph]

I run WIN XP Home and Office 2003. I use Outlook for e-mail. Yesterday I
ran Office Update and installed SP3 for Office 2003. I also ran Windows
update, but it was up-to-date.

Since I installed SP3, whenever I start Outlook, CPU usage jumps to near
100% almost immediately. At intervals of about a minute, CPU usage drops to
near zero, then jumps immediately back up to near 100%. This persists
regardless of how long I leave Outlook running. Other Office programs are
not affected.

I tried cleaning & defragging, but that did not help. Hard drive is only
20% full.

I went to Control Panel / Add or Remove Programs / Microsoft Office 2003 and
selected Repair. After repair, I checked Office Update again and installed a
small update for Outlook. No improvement.

I use Norton for security, and one possibility is that there is some issue
between Norton & Outlook, but I don't know how to verify or correct that.

There were no problems before I installed SP3.

It's probably not relevant, but I deleted Office One-Note before updating.

Any suggestions?

TIA

Ralph

 

[Roady [MVP]]

How does it perform in Safe Mode?
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /safe

In addition to that, disable Norton's integration with Outlook. Check
Norton's documentation on how to do that properly.

 

[Ralph]

How does it perform in Safe Mode?
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /safe

In addition to that, disable Norton's integration with Outlook. Check
Norton's documentation on how to do that properly.

 

[Ralph]

Robert:

Thanks for your response.

Yesterday I spoke to a Norton tech. We disabled Norton and determined that
it's not a Norton/Outlook problem.

Yesterday I ran scanpst.exe on Outlook.pst. It found and corrected some
errors.

This morning, after I got your response, I ran Outlook in safe mode. CPU
usage went to ~100%. It generated several years of Reminders from the
calendar (there were about 2600 of them). When it finished I clicked
"Dismiss All". It started generating the same reminders again. I clicked
"Dismiss all" again, and Outlook closed. I repeated this process with the
same result.

I restarted safe mode once more, and now there are no reminders. Task
Manager still tells me that Outlook is using 93-99% of CPU, but I can
navigate normally through my mail, calendar, and contacts.

Last Feb/Mar, my hard drive died and was replaced. The installer recovered
some of my data, and it seems to include an old Outlook.pst file in a
recovery folder. I also ran scanpst on that file - it found and corrected
some errors. The old reminders may have come from that old file, even though
it is in a different folder. I don't remember if I tried to import the
recovered pst file after the hard drive was replaced.

In safe mode Outlook now seems to be stable, even though CPU usage is
staying near 100%.

Ralph

 

[Ralph]

I spoke too soon. Every time I open in safe mode, it goes through 2600
reminders going back to 2001. Always the same reminders. It repeats these
reminders a few times, then stops reminding me. I can then ignore the
Reminders window for a while and review e-mail/calendar etc, but every so
often it will repeat the same reminders and saturate the CPU. When it's
trying to display the reminders, CPU is at ~100% - when it isn't trying to
display reminders, it's usable.

Found a few possible solutions in an on-line search - none worked.

Some people with this problem corrected it by removing Add-ins or
subsequently-installed software. I have no active Add-ins. The only things
I installed were what Microsoft Update & Windows Update wanted to permit
updates. After installing those, I downloaded & installed Office 2003 SP3.
Problem began as soon as I restarted.

Thanks again

Ralph

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Start Outlook with the /cleanreminders switch
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /cleanreminders

 

[Ralph]

Thank you, that seems to have fixed it!

Ralph