Outlook 2007 slow, consumes high CPU and freezes

[Prima1]

I'm running Outlook '07 (Exhange), Win XP and Norton A/V and my system is
very slow, consuming nearly 100% CPU. I've tried the steps others suggest;
current Office and Windows updates, disabling add-ins in Trust Center,
scanning for viruses, adaware, malware and spyware and they run clean. Making
smaller data files and trying to keep inbox at an reasonable size. I've also
ran office diagnostics, scan.pst and repair and it's still very slow, freezes
and I have to end Outlook with the Task Manger. If anyone has any other ideas
it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[K. Orland]

The first thing I would want to do if I were you is disable any Norton
integration with Outlook. This would definitel slow it down and the
integration is not required. Your real time scanner would catch whatever it's
updated for, without having to scan incoming/outgoing email.

 

[Prima1]

I tried turning off scanning of inbound and outgoing e-mail in Norton and we
still have the same symptoms. In fact shortly thereafter, the system froze
again with an "out of systems resources" error. I would think it's a memory
issue, but the Dell D610 laptop has plenty of memory (2-533 SDRAM). Could my
hardware be failing? Thanks for your help.

 

[K. Orland]

Simply turning the scanning off doesn't disable the integration with Outlook.
With Norton, there isn't even a clean uninstall. You actually have to
download a utility to help you get everything off the PC.

I suggest starting Outlook in safe mode to see if behaviour improves. This
will disable ALL add ins. You can put them back one at a time, testing
inbetween.

Start > Run > outlook.exe /safe

 

[Prima1]

I started Outlook in safe mode and CPU usage still registered 80% to 100%.It
doesn't look like just an Outlook problem as I'm getting the same results
with just Internet Explorer open. When no programs are running the CPU usage
drops to around 60%, but that still seems high for idle. I appreciate your
help, any other ideas?

 

[K. Orland]

Try reinstalling your AV application. I had an instance here where McAfee
took up 100% consistantly on one PC. It was a corrupted installation. It had
to be uninstalled, the PC restarted, and reinstalled in order for it to work
properly.

 

[Prima1]

I tried reinstalling our A/V application and unfortunatly I still having the
same problem. I know the issue may lie outside Outlook so this may be my last
post for this forum, but would you recommend I just start uninstalling other
programs one at a time to find out what is causing the slow down? Again,
thanks for the advice.

 

[K. Orland]

Since the issue is not strictly related to Outlook, you may want to get a
utility that monitors performance or checks your processes for you. If you
feel this is related to Outlook, pare Outlook down to its base installation.
Remove integrated RSS feeds, MSN Messenger, etc.

If you open the task manager and check your processes, if you arrange your
processes by CPU usage what is taking the most? Do also the same for memory
usage to see if you have something going on there as well.

In addition, check your Application event viewer for errors as well as your
System Event Viewer.

 

[Prima1]

Task manager shows Outlook is still using the highest amount of memory at
137,000k. I'll also try the 2 event viewers you mentioned. How do I find
those? Thanks.

 

[K. Orland]

It's located in Computer Management. Right-click on My Computer, scroll to
Management.

 

[John Davy]

Hi,

I have a similar problem - it takes about 10 minutes to load outlook each
morning (no exaggeration).

I have a new quad core pc with 4 gig ram and the cpu doesn't seem to be
challenged at all.
While viewing an email it is also not uncommon for everything to frieze (no
mouse) for about 30 seconds.

One of my colleagues also has the same problem (both not using exchange)
I keep all emails but not in the inbox - the inbox is always near empty.
I use AVG to scan incoming emails. This has never presented a problem in the
past.

 

[K. Orland]

Start Outlook in safe mode:

Start > Run > outlook.exe /safe

Does the behaviour continue?

 

[Prima1]

Kathleen, I did see quite a few small errors and warnings in the viewers, I
checked each one and most look like they corrected themselves or are
insigniifcant. I I'll try your idea of checking the processes with a utility
to see what program is running the most and also Windows Debug utility. I'll
sign off now, but wanted to thank you for all your help.