Outlook not Responding (many 'solutions' already tried)

[BulaBula]

Hi all,

I am hoping someone can help me. Yesterday, after upgrading the Giant
Antispyware to the New Windows Defender, and at the same time doing the
Windows security updates (including upgrading to IE7), my Outlook 2003
ran into problem. It will load, but then it hangs (not responding).

I have tried many things:

1) Removed IE7 and Windows Defender (to no avail)
2) Uninstalled Office (using the Office 2003 Editions Resource Kit for
cleaner uninstall) and reinstalled Office (that also did not help)
3) Did a clean up of my registry using registryfix (no help)
4) Created a new mail profile for Outlook (no help)
5) Renamed the toolbar file to force a new default toolbar (no help)
6) Tried a system restore to a point before the installation of the
upgrades (the system didn't allow me)

I am running out of ideas an options. Does anyone know what this can be
or how I can get a clean outlook again?

Any help is appreciated

Patrick

 

[Roady [MVP]]

What mail account type are you using?
Can you start Outlook in safe mode?
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /safe

 

[BulaBula]

Hi,

Thanks for the fast response.

What mail account type are you using?
POP3

Can you start Outlook in safe mode?
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /safe

Yes, I can start in Safe more but it does the same. It 'starts', but as
soon as I want to do something (e.g. check mail, change to a different
folder) Outlook hangs up. The only difference is that in Safe Mode I
don't see the "(not responding)" in the blue title bar.

:-(

Patrick

 

[Roady [MVP]]

When you logon as a different user on that computer do things work correctly
then?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

 

[BulaBula]

No, Outlook still hangs up even when I logon as a different user :-(

Patrick

When you logon as a different user on that computer do things work correctly
then?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

Hi,

Thanks for the fast response.


Yes, I can start in Safe more but it does the same. It 'starts', but as
soon as I want to do something (e.g. check mail, change to a different
folder) Outlook hangs up. The only difference is that in Safe Mode I
don't see the "(not responding)" in the blue title bar.

:-(

Patrick

 

[BulaBula]

Sorry, I misinterpreted your last question: I just created a new user
on my PC and logged in and for the new user Outlook works...

Patrick

When you logon as a different user on that computer do things work correctly
then?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

Hi,

Thanks for the fast response.


Yes, I can start in Safe more but it does the same. It 'starts', but as
soon as I want to do something (e.g. check mail, change to a different
folder) Outlook hangs up. The only difference is that in Safe Mode I
don't see the "(not responding)" in the blue title bar.

:-(

Patrick

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Normally uninstall Office again (through Control Panel-> Add/Remove Programs
not by using the ORK tool) and then reinstall it again and apply all update
to it.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

No, Outlook still hangs up even when I logon as a different user :-(

Patrick

When you logon as a different user on that computer do things work
correctly
then?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

Hi,

Thanks for the fast response.

Roady [MVP] wrote:
What mail account type are you using?

POP3

Can you start Outlook in safe mode?
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /safe

Yes, I can start in Safe more but it does the same. It 'starts', but as
soon as I want to do something (e.g. check mail, change to a different
folder) Outlook hangs up. The only difference is that in Safe Mode I
don't see the "(not responding)" in the blue title bar.

:-(

Patrick

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Alright, so that means a configuration issue and not an installation issue.
Locate extend.dat and outcmd.dat and rename them to .old. Then again
recreate your mail profile without attaching your original pst-file. Do
things work now?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

Sorry, I misinterpreted your last question: I just created a new user
on my PC and logged in and for the new user Outlook works...

Patrick

When you logon as a different user on that computer do things work
correctly
then?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

Hi,

Thanks for the fast response.

Roady [MVP] wrote:
What mail account type are you using?

POP3

Can you start Outlook in safe mode?
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /safe

Yes, I can start in Safe more but it does the same. It 'starts', but as
soon as I want to do something (e.g. check mail, change to a different
folder) Outlook hangs up. The only difference is that in Safe Mode I
don't see the "(not responding)" in the blue title bar.

:-(

Patrick

 

[BulaBula]

I reinstalled Outlook and applied all the updates. I found the
outcmd.dat and renamed it, but extend.dat was nowhere to be found. From
what I read online both those files should be normally in the same
directory but it wasn't there and a scan of the whole C drive did not
reveal extend.dat anywhere.

So I tried to start Outlook with a new profile (not assocaited with any
..pst file) but same problem :-( Then I copied the extend.dat file from
another user profile I had created and tried to start Outlook again...
no change :-(

What I noticed is that with the new Outlook mail profile, Outlook
starts in Personal Folders - Outlook Today and in the left bottom
corner I see "(2 items remaining) Loading dataset...". This stays there
since Outlook has frozen by then.

:-(

Thanks a lot for your help. I hope you have some other ideas

Patrick

Alright, so that means a configuration issue and not an installation issue.
Locate extend.dat and outcmd.dat and rename them to .old. Then again
recreate your mail profile without attaching your original pst-file. Do
things work now?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

Sorry, I misinterpreted your last question: I just created a new user
on my PC and logged in and for the new user Outlook works...

Patrick

When you logon as a different user on that computer do things work
correctly
then?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more

-----
Hi,

Thanks for the fast response.

Roady [MVP] wrote:
What mail account type are you using?

POP3

Can you start Outlook in safe mode?
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /safe

Yes, I can start in Safe more but it does the same. It 'starts', but as
soon as I want to do something (e.g. check mail, change to a different
folder) Outlook hangs up. The only difference is that in Safe Mode I
don't see the "(not responding)" in the blue title bar.

:-(

Patrick

 

[BulaBula]

It is going slightly in the right direction. I noticed that when I
remove/rename the directory \ApplicationData\Microsoft\Outlook\ and I
start Outlook with a brand new profile it works. However... when I
close Outlook (and a new directory \ApplicationData\Microsoft\Outlook\
is created) and restart Outlook again with the new profile, it hangs up
again!

This is driving me nuts!

Any ideas?

Patrick

Alright, so that means a configuration issue and not an installation issue.
Locate extend.dat and outcmd.dat and rename them to .old. Then again
recreate your mail profile without attaching your original pst-file. Do
things work now?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

Sorry, I misinterpreted your last question: I just created a new user
on my PC and logged in and for the new user Outlook works...

Patrick

When you logon as a different user on that computer do things work
correctly
then?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more

-----
Hi,

Thanks for the fast response.

Roady [MVP] wrote:
What mail account type are you using?

POP3

Can you start Outlook in safe mode?
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /safe

Yes, I can start in Safe more but it does the same. It 'starts', but as
soon as I want to do something (e.g. check mail, change to a different
folder) Outlook hangs up. The only difference is that in Safe Mode I
don't see the "(not responding)" in the blue title bar.

:-(

Patrick

 

[BulaBula]

For those of you that have the same problem, I found out what was the
problem.. it was IE7.

Uninstalling IE7 did not help. However I had a Norton Ghost backup from
before I installed this update. I installed all the other updates I
needed to install, including Windows Defender and Outlook continued to
work properly. However, as soon as I installed IE7 Outlook stopped
responding.

Lesson: I will stick with Firefox and only use IE6 if/when needed.

I hope this helps other people that have the same problem.

I also want to thank Robert Sparnaaij for trying to help me.

Patrick
http://beachultimate.org

It is going slightly in the right direction. I noticed that when I
remove/rename the directory \ApplicationData\Microsoft\Outlook\ and I
start Outlook with a brand new profile it works. However... when I
close Outlook (and a new directory \ApplicationData\Microsoft\Outlook\
is created) and restart Outlook again with the new profile, it hangs up
again!

This is driving me nuts!

Any ideas?

Patrick

Alright, so that means a configuration issue and not an installation issue.
Locate extend.dat and outcmd.dat and rename them to .old. Then again
recreate your mail profile without attaching your original pst-file. Do
things work now?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more

-----

Sorry, I misinterpreted your last question: I just created a new user
on my PC and logged in and for the new user Outlook works...

Patrick

Roady [MVP] wrote:
When you logon as a different user on that computer do things work
correctly
then?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more

-----
Hi,

Thanks for the fast response.

Roady [MVP] wrote:
What mail account type are you using?

POP3

Can you start Outlook in safe mode?
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /safe

Yes, I can start in Safe more but it does the same. It 'starts', but as
soon as I want to do something (e.g. check mail, change to a different
folder) Outlook hangs up. The only difference is that in Safe Mode I
don't see the "(not responding)" in the blue title bar.

:-(

Patrick