outlook 2007 slow, hangs - fix from microsoft support

[Luca Villa]

Has anyone tried to solve the speed problem by putting the PST file in

I'd be surprised if that would help.

Why? the fastest USB drives have a sequential speed not superior to
HDs but an access times under 1ms (vs the 5-13ms of the HDs).
Furtherfore you would have the PST on a different drive, so that
Windows can read/write on it in parallel.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Why? the fastest USB drives have a sequential speed not superior to
HDs but an access times under 1ms (vs the 5-13ms of the HDs).
Furtherfore you would have the PST on a different drive, so that
Windows can read/write on it in parallel.

Because I don't think the limiting factors are in the I/O functions.

 

[Luca Villa]

Brian Tillman ha scritto:

Because I don't think the limiting factors are in the I/O functions.

So what do you think the limiting factors are?
I remember to you that the discussed delay the HD is in 100%
activity...

 

[Brian Tillman]

So what do you think the limiting factors are?
I remember to you that the discussed delay the HD is in 100%
activity...

I don't have any inside knowledge of Outlook 2007, but I'd say that the
problems lie in the overhead operations Outlook is performing and that its
internal data structures are less than optimal. This may result in more I/O
that necessary, but it's not technically "slow" I/O causing the delay.
Decreasing the latency of the I/O process is a bandage, not a cure.

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

Why don't you install the Performance Update and see if it helps your
situation? Since installing it, my HDD activity went down dramatically.
I'd concur with Brian that the problem was that Outlook was creating
more HDD activity than needed, and not that the speed of the medium was
the limiting factor.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
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[Luca Villa]

Since I don't believe that Outlook 2007 + Performance Update is faster
than Outlook 2003, and it's a fact on my PC that Outlook 2003 takes
several seconds of HD every email I receive (and in other
circumstances too), I believe that Outlook 2007 + Performance Update +
PST on fast flash would significantly better than Outlook 2007 +
Performance Update.
Don't you agree?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Since I don't believe that Outlook 2007 + Performance Update is faster
than Outlook 2003, and it's a fact on my PC that Outlook 2003 takes
several seconds of HD every email I receive (and in other
circumstances too), I believe that Outlook 2007 + Performance Update +
PST on fast flash would significantly better than Outlook 2007 +
Performance Update.
Don't you agree?

Try it an see.

 

[Luca Villa]

Try it an see.

I don't have a flash drive...

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

I meant the Outlook performance update

I don't have a flash drive...

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

No. Windows caches data from the hard drive as well. The more RAM you
have, the bigger the cache. I have my doubts that the performance
increase with a flash drive would be due to that really significant. The
flash drive is probably better used as ReadyBoost for Vista.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Luca Villa]

No. Windows caches data from the hard drive as well. The more RAM you

have, the bigger the cache.

Yes I know that Windows use RAM for HD cache as well but this doesn't
matter in this problem.
I have 4GB of RAM and the problem that I describe (*20-30 sec. HD
exasperate activity* that almost block the entire system every time I
receive an email) with Outlook 2007 is with this RAM quantity and
while the Task Manager shows that only 1 to 2GB of my physical RAM is
in use.

The flash drive is probably better used as ReadyBoost for Vista.

Actually I have Windows XP, not Vista, and anyway the first published
review on ReadyBoost showed that it doesn't give significant
improvements in systems that don't have low RAM (512MB-), as mine.

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

No. Windows caches data from the hard drive as well. The more RAM
you

Yes I know that Windows use RAM for HD cache as well but this doesn't
matter in this problem.
I have 4GB of RAM and the problem that I describe (*20-30 sec. HD
exasperate activity* that almost block the entire system every time I
receive an email) with Outlook 2007 is with this RAM quantity and
while the Task Manager shows that only 1 to 2GB of my physical RAM is
in use.

Sounds like the Performance Update would fix your problem.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Brian Tillman]

I don't have a flash drive...

They're cheap. Buy one.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I meant the Outlook performance update

But I meant the flash drive.

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

I know
That's what I get for not reading this in threaded form...

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Guest]

Well, unfortunately I'm in the "tried it, didn't help" camp. I tired it two
months ago, and again now. It basically grinds to a halt when taking
incoming email. Also, every single time I start it up, I get the "the data
file "personal folder" wasn't closed properly, and will be examined or
something, I forget what. Is that a separate problem? Related?

I've already cut my .pst file by 70%, even though MSFT claims that Outlook
has no practical limitations on size. I've disabled RSS feeds, and just
about every add-in. I went back to keeping the indexing add-in because
excluding it didn't seem to have a material impact, and it's a great feature.

I don't know what mrlirwin is talking about: there is no "outlookaddin" on
my list of add-ins, which may help answer his question "I have no idea why
Microsoft has not publicized..."

 

[Luca Villa]

Is that a separate problem? Related?

I suppose it's a separate problem, since I don't have it.

 

[Guest]

I cannot find any of the files you mention on my WinXP machine. I upgraded
outlook 2003 to outlook 2007 . Are the files for Vista?

 

[Brian Tillman]

I cannot find any of the files you mention on my WinXP machine. I
upgraded outlook 2003 to outlook 2007 . Are the files for Vista?

I suspect you haven't enabled viewing hidden files and folders.

 

[Guest]

I have the same problem with a dual core 3.0 GHz, 2GB mem Intel system
running Win XP Pro, with Office 2007 with Business Contact Manager and RSS
folders. As others have posted, I imported Outlook 2003 into 2007. I have
read alll the threads in this post and as soon as I am no longer "on the
road" I will try KB933493. I will report back to this thread with results.
I noticed something during troubleshooting that I have not seen mentioned
and I wonder if anyone else has the same symptom. I also wonder if this
event is significant to the problem. I turned off the send and receive, so
that, on Outlook start, no new e-mails are downloaded. I checked the size of
the pst file and found that it increases in size by almost 2MB each time
Outlook opens it. No new e-mails, no noticeable change in folders, but the
pst is 2MB larger each time I open Outlook. Very strange. I figure that on
average of opening outlook 13 times per week, I am adding a gigabyte to the
pst file about every 8 months.

Any thoughts?