outlook 2007 slow, hangs - fix from microsoft support

[Guest]

Another possible fix????

After installing Office 2007 at one of my clients, I ran into serious speed
problems as well. I read up on the net only to find more and more people
with the same speed issues, and no real fix. A co-worker of mine stated that
it will ONLY run well on 2Gig of RAM, and that she doesn't install it on a
machine if it has less than that, but that just didn't sound right either,
given the minimum requirements are only 256MB. We have Business Contact
Manager enabled on all the workstations, and they all run off a central
database running on an Exchange server without issues. However, SQL
databases were installed by default (need to go through the install and see
if I missed a check box or something to disallow this) running on them as
well. Uninstalling the SQL 2005 installation only (there are four or five
SQL install pieces shown under Add/Remove Programs, and I believe a portion
is needed to connect to the one running on the Exchange Server), speeds up
the workstation dramatically, and the problems of waiting between 2-5 minutes
for an email to open or an excel file to open over the network dropped to 10
second load times at worst case.

Hope this helps,

CalGuY

 

[Luca Villa]

Another possible fix????

Did you apply the Microsoft official fix?

 

[Guest]

I cannot uncheck "outlookaddin" I get an error message - 'the connected
state of office add-ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed'.

I am using a dell inspiron 6400 with a core duo, 2 gig ram on vista business.
how do i fix this to fix my very very very sloooow outlook?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Another possible fix????

After installing Office 2007 at one of my clients, I ran into serious
speed problems as well. I read up on the net only to find more and
more people with the same speed issues, and no real fix. A co-worker
of mine stated that it will ONLY run well on 2Gig of RAM,

On my home PC, Outlook 2007 runs well with 1 GB (which is the most the
motherboard will handle).

 

[Brian Tillman]

I cannot uncheck "outlookaddin" I get an error message - 'the
connected state of office add-ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
cannot be changed'.

Uninstall it in Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs.

 

[Guest]

ok... this is the REAL fix - thanks "ntm"!!!

a few things for the "less-learned" (like me)...

1) to find the files, I believe Brian mentioned to search hidden
files/folder... go to Start / Search / click on Use Search Companion / all
files and folders / more advanced options / check box on "search system
folders", "search hidden files and folders" / "search subfolders" - this will
allow you to see the files! Go to "my computer" and follow the thread from
"ntm":

STEP 1: Turn off Outlook 2007 and Locate these files

For some reason, during the upgrade these four files can become corrupted -
the migration from 2003 to 2007 isn't the smoothest but not having to create
all your POP3 accounts again is excellent.

1. extend.dat - you will find this file in the location | Drive
Lettter:\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\extend.dat //change it to extend.old

2. views.dat - may not find it most of the time

3. frmcache.dat - Drive Letter:\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\FORMS\FRMCACHE.DAT //change it to
FRMCACHE.old

4. outcmd.dat - C:\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outcmd.dat //change it to OUTCMD.old


STEP 2: Restart Outlook 2007

1. Send yourself some test emails and watch the messages appear.


We contacted Microsoft Office 2007 support and workshopped this fix with
them. They did not hear of this problem until we made first contact.
Together, with the help of their support team (merv m. specifically), we
found this simple solution above in a matter of 40 minutes. I was very
impressed with their willingness to work through a fix together.

As of today, they do not have plans to create a patch for this small bug but
they are gathering bug fixes for a future service pack down the road. Right
now (MS said) their focus is building a service pack for VISTA's bugs.


Good luck everyone!

Shane Keller
Keller Internet Marketing
www.KellerInternetMarketing.com


http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1233093&SiteID=17

Thanks Shane... THEN - go to Tools / Trust Center / Add-Ins - then click
"go" under add-ins... "un-check" the box for Outlook Add-In...

One other note - in my stupor, I wandered into Best Buy and bought the
actual upgrade to Office Small Business - thinking it would help... it didn't
- but still pertinent info that I was off of the trial...

For me, this combination = FREEDOM!!!! I was in about 20 hrs of searching,
trying, etc, after upgrading from 2003 to 2007... Shame on Microsoft for
putting me (us) through this needless nightmare of ghost typing, etc... where
is Bill Gates? I can't comprehend the misinformation, etc... on the Office
2007 site... it will take me quite some time to make up the lost hours...
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Finally 2003 performance! Hope this helps others....

 

[Guest]

Many thanks for this - I think it's made a huge difference. I found something
interesting, though, when I found the files - each was labeled as a "Video CD
Movie", but had no file extension. So, obviously corrupted! Can these files
be deleted?

Thanks again.

 

[Guest]

I'm sorry to say that I tried Outlook when it was still in Beta and went over
to Thunderbird because of the slowness of outlook in dealing with my 10-12
email accounts and various rules. Once again I have downloaded Outlook and
hoped it would be better but it just isn't. I removed Outlook before
installing this and the files mentioned below are not in the directory
indicated. I don't know what that means. I also can't find my .pst file on
this computer. I have used the microsoft system search using *.pst and it
doesn't find anything.

Anyone have any suggestions or should I just give up on this particular MS
product?

 

[Guest]

Hi there

Thanks once again! As it turns out, though, I have just a bought a new PC
and so did a clean install of Outlook rather than an upgrade. Your
explanation makes good sense ... ie it was an upgrade problem.

Hope it helps someone else, too.

All the very best

FlyingKiwi

 

[Guest]

his thread seems to have not been very active lately but I am having the same
problem as most in this thread. I just bought and installed Office 2007 Small
Business upgrade (unfortunately I did not see any reviews mentioning these
problems before I purchased the upgrade).

Anyway my notebook running XP becomes unresponsive when receiving mail thru
Outlook 2007. I have renamed the files mentioned in this thread. It actually
seemed to make the problem worse. I tried to download and install the patch
that was released earlier this year, but when it starts to install I get a
message saying that this update is already installed on my computer.

So I am stuck with a computer that bogs down whenever mail comes in. If any
new solutions have been found for this, Please let me know.

I am mad at myself for not investigating further before buying this program
but I am even madder at MS for wither not warning of the slow down and for
not providing a fix to get this to run the way it should. I know MS will not
give me my $$ back, so they should get this thing fixed.

Sorry for the rant, but for $250 this program should run better; Anyway, if
anyone has any additional steps to try I would appreciate hearing them.
Thanks.

 

[Luca Villa]

InnoMan ha scritto:

his thread seems to have not been very active lately but I am having the same
problem as most in this thread. I just bought and installed Office 2007 Small
Business upgrade (unfortunately I did not see any reviews mentioning these
problems before I purchased the upgrade).

Did you install the MS official fix to this problem?

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your response. If you are refering to the April 2007 update, I
have tried to install it, but when I do, I get a message that it has already
been installed on my computer. So apparently it is on my computer already. I
just recently installed Office 2007 about 2 weeks ago. I guess it was part of
the updates that were downloaded via Microsoft Update. Am I missing something
somewhere (wouldn't be the first time!!)?

 

[Guest]

I am experiencing some serious problems. I have a brand new HP machine, 2.2
Core Duo Intel Proc, 2 GB dual channel RAM. Running Vista Ultimate and a
clean install of Office Ultimate.

Everything worked fine for a week. Then one night I finished a meeting,
closed my machine to "sleep mode" and went home. The next morning when I
opened the machine Outlook wouldn't work. It eats 50% or more of the CPU and
I get that infuriating blue donut....

I have done the following with no solution:

* Unchecked all the COM add-ins that I can (I get the HOT-KEY message for
other office apps)
* Left the machine to "index" overnight in case that is the problem (tho
when I first set-up my account two weeks ago this wasn't an issue)
* Turned off indexing for Outlook in Vista Indexing options when that
didn't help
* Made sure all updates are installed (including the april one, I am up to
date)
* Uninstalled and then REinstalled all of Office Ultimate 2007 (doesn't
actually let you do a clean install, very annoying)
* Deleted all unused .pst and .ost files in the /program
files/microsoft/outlook folder
* Checked my .pst file size - My .pst file is not even close to a gig.
Try a 10th of that.
* Removed the mail account from outlook (which freed up outlook, but
doesn't allow me to use MAIL!!
* Checked w/ our mail server admin, everyone elses email accounts are
working fine.

Now -
* When I try to set up my IMAP mail account Outlook downloads all the mail
(about 1500 mails) and then proceeds to choke and hang when I try to do
anything. I even tried letting it sit for 4 hours to make sure it wasn't an
indexing issue.
* If I go into control panel and into Mail, delete the account, then
Outlook stops hanging, but has to email account attached to it.

 

[Guest]

Well it is fixed, thanks to Henry H under Outlook / Install and Configure
threads

To quote his post from over there

"As I said in my last post, I thought that I might be on to something and I
was. Since the problem showed up after running some Windows Updates last
week (coincidental?, perhaps), I thought that I would try something perhaps a
little risky. I looked at the updates installed, looked at M$ site to see
what was happening with the updates and decided that this one: MS07-058:
Security Update for Windows (KB933729) was most likely the culprit since it
was fixing a problem with RPC, which Outlook/Exchange uses. So, I
uninstalled this update and my problem was resolved. I don’t really know if
leaving it uninstalled will cause a great security risk or not, but I don’t
think that I have much of a choice; unless I want to use the web interface
all of the time (no thank you)." - Henry H

My problems had started exactly on friday morning last week, the morning
after KB933729 was installed. I removed it and now Outlook works like a
charm. Whew!

- San

 

[Guest]

Has this solution continued to be effective for you guys? I uninstalled 2007
and reinstalled 2003 and the difference is like night and day. Outlook feels
like it is running on a brand new computer. No hangs when downloading mail
and I don't notice the indexer running all the time to also slow down the
machine.

I am hesitant to reinstall 2007 even though I paid for it until a service
pack of some sort comes out, but if enough people tell me this solution
works, I may get bold again (although I recall Outlook running slow before
that security update was applied).

Anyway thanks for any additional information.

Mark

 

[Guest]

I must say I tried everything in this thread to resolve my problem with
Outlook 2007 hanging on receiving mail. What chaps me is that the problem
was right in front of my nose the entire time and I didn't see it. It seems
one of the routers between me and our pop3 server had its maximum transmit
units set to something other than default. I finally discovered this by
pinging the email server with a normal packet size and got a message that the
packet needed to be fragmented. WHY I didn't try this sooner (it's been two
weeks) is beyond me but now I know the culprit.

To check if this might be the problem you face do the following:

--start / run / CMD
--type in "ping <your_email_server> -f -l 1500"
--If you get any type of message that the packet needs to be fragmented
reduce the "1500" by 10 or more until you find a number that pings
successfully several times.
--Now comes the fun part, you get to edit your registry.
--start / run / REGEDIT
--Go to the following key:
HKLM/SYSTEM/CURRENTCONTROLSET/SERVICES/TCPIP/PARAMETERS/INTERFACE.
--Here you will find all the interfaces configured on your machine. Find
the one that corresponds to the network card you have installed.
--On the right side, RIGHT click and select "NEW" followed by "DWord"
--In the value type "MTU", it must be in all caps.
--Next right click this value and select "Modify".
--Change the base to DECIMAL and the value data to the number you found
worked in your ping attempts.
--Exit the registry and reboot

Hope this helps someone faster than I figured it out (well with some network
assistance from MS).

Joe

 

[Guest]

Office 2003 upgraded to 2007, XP Standard edition

I was able to manage steps 1 and 3, however, when I restart Outlook,
frmcache.old re-duplicates itself and reverts back to .dat. I've done it
twice and watched it happen...not sure what to do with that. Steps 2 and 4
were nowhere to be found.
The problem remains, still freezing.

 

[gnXfan]

alot better than anything microsoft's mvps have offered up

It might fix some issues for some people, but it is not going to be a
magic bullet that fixes all these issues, sorry.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
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

Re: threads/posts regarding the slow operation of outlook 2007 after upgrade;

We have the fix for you.

Part of the issue comes from upgrading from Outlook 2003 or earlier because
Outlook 2007 uses your account settings to create new ones for you. When you
upgrade to 2007 you will need to locate four .DAT files and rename them...


STEP 1: Turn off Outlook 2007 and Locate these files

For some reason, during the upgrade these four files can become corrupted -
the migration from 2003 to 2007 isn't the smoothest but not having to create
all your POP3 accounts again is excellent.

1. extend.dat - you will find this file in the location | Drive
Lettter:\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\extend.dat //change it to extend.old

2. views.dat - may not find it most of the time

3. frmcache.dat - Drive Letter:\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\FORMS\FRMCACHE.DAT //change it to
FRMCACHE.old

4. outcmd.dat - C:\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outcmd.dat //change it to OUTCMD.old


STEP 2: Restart Outlook 2007

1. Send yourself some test emails and watch the messages appear.


We contacted Microsoft Office 2007 support and workshopped this fix with
them. They did not hear of this problem until we made first contact.
Together, with the help of their support team (merv m. specifically), we
found this simple solution above in a matter of 40 minutes. I was very
impressed with their willingness to work through a fix together.

As of today, they do not have plans to create a patch for this small bug but
they are gathering bug fixes for a future service pack down the road. Right
now (MS said) their focus is building a service pack for VISTA's bugs.


Good luck everyone!

Shane Keller
Keller Internet Marketing
www.KellerInternetMarketing.com


http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1233093&SiteID=17

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Funny, I seem to recall that EVERY Outlook MVP has offered this suggestion. Wonder how you missed it?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, gnXfan asked:

| alot better than anything microsoft's mvps have offered up
|
| "Patrick Schmid [MVP]" wrote:
|
|| It might fix some issues for some people, but it is not going to be a
|| magic bullet that fixes all these issues, sorry.
||
|| Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
|| --------------
|| http://pschmid.net
|| ***
|| 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
||
|| ||
||| Re: threads/posts regarding the slow operation of outlook 2007
||| after upgrade;
|||
||| We have the fix for you.
|||
||| Part of the issue comes from upgrading from Outlook 2003 or earlier
||| because Outlook 2007 uses your account settings to create new ones
||| for you. When you upgrade to 2007 you will need to locate four .DAT
||| files and rename them...
|||
|||
||| STEP 1: Turn off Outlook 2007 and Locate these files
|||
||| For some reason, during the upgrade these four files can become
||| corrupted - the migration from 2003 to 2007 isn't the smoothest but
||| not having to create all your POP3 accounts again is excellent.
|||
||| 1. extend.dat - you will find this file in the location | Drive
||| Lettter:\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local
||| Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\extend.dat //change it
||| to extend.old
|||
||| 2. views.dat - may not find it most of the time
|||
||| 3. frmcache.dat - Drive Letter:\Documents and
||| Settings\user-directory\Local Settings\Application
||| Data\Microsoft\FORMS\FRMCACHE.DAT //change it to FRMCACHE.old
|||
||| 4. outcmd.dat - C:\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Application
||| Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outcmd.dat //change it to OUTCMD.old
|||
|||
||| STEP 2: Restart Outlook 2007
|||
||| 1. Send yourself some test emails and watch the messages appear.
|||
|||
||| We contacted Microsoft Office 2007 support and workshopped this fix
||| with them. They did not hear of this problem until we made first
||| contact. Together, with the help of their support team (merv m.
||| specifically), we found this simple solution above in a matter of
||| 40 minutes. I was very impressed with their willingness to work
||| through a fix together.
|||
||| As of today, they do not have plans to create a patch for this
||| small bug but they are gathering bug fixes for a future service
||| pack down the road. Right now (MS said) their focus is building a
||| service pack for VISTA's bugs.
|||
|||
||| Good luck everyone!
|||
||| Shane Keller
||| Keller Internet Marketing
||| www.KellerInternetMarketing.com
|||
|||
||| http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1233093&SiteID=17
|||
||| --
||| ntm

 

[Brian Tillman]

alot better than anything microsoft's mvps have offered up

This newsgroup is chock full of those exact same answers, posted by numerous
MVPs. Clearly you did not search for the answer before posting.