Delay at start up

[poncho]

I've used Entourage as my default email client for years. Lately, I am
experiencing a delay at start up.
I tried emptying out all my mailboxes (saved them to a hard drive and
deleted on Entourage). No difference. I tried creating a new user on
the Mac itself, and logged in as that user. I set up Entourage as
basic as I could. Still I get this delay. At times I get the spinning
beach ball.
I can't think of anything different that I've done to cause this.
I use a Mac Pro; OS 10.4.11. Loads of RAM, lots of disc space.
I switched over to Apple's Mail program for a while and have no
trouble there. But I prefer Entourage.
Any help? Thanks

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I've used Entourage as my default email client for years. Lately, I am
experiencing a delay at start up.

Did you add a lot of contacts and or e-mails to a project ??? That woudl
do it...

Corentin

 

[poncho]

Nope. I don't have any "projects." I don't use that function.
Likewise, I have not added any unusual amount of contacts.
I remain stumped.

 

[Diane Ross]

I've used Entourage as my default email client for years. Lately, I am
experiencing a delay at start up.
I tried emptying out all my mailboxes (saved them to a hard drive and
deleted on Entourage). No difference. I tried creating a new user on
the Mac itself, and logged in as that user. I set up Entourage as
basic as I could. Still I get this delay. At times I get the spinning
beach ball.

Do you have any schedule set to run at startup? What type of account? (POP,
IMAP, Exchange). Is this Office 2008? If yes, did the change start when you
upgraded?

I know you say you have load of RAM, but have you checked the Activity
Monitor when this happens.

Beachballitis Basics:

Beachballitis happens when you're running with too little memory for what
you're doing. Which means that in general the situation you're describing IS
happening but not to things you can deal with but with the Virtual Memory
system. What you describe can happen when the memory system is constantly
having to unload from and load into memory from the disk drive.

Have you run Activity Monitor from the Utilities folder? And have you
watched the value for Free when the System Memory tab (at the bottom) is
selected. From what I've seen when this number gets below 50MB the system
will start to slow down. When it gets down to 20MB or 10MB you get what you
call Beachballitis.

They only real cure is to run fewer programs or buy more memory.

Now if you're leaving your system running for days at a time and also not
quitting programs you might be running into a situation where one or more of
the common programs you use "leaks" memory. This means it doesn't release
memory when done with it and over time will consume more and more memory.
Which can lead to the shortage noted above. And the only cure is to quit the
program and at times restart the computer to get things back to a decent
state. posted by David Ross on TidBITS talk.

 

[poncho]

Diane
Thanks for the detailed response. I considered all that you said.
Here's what I have:

No, no schedules set to run at startup - unless you mean Calendar
events. Not the Project Calendar, the regular calendar. I do use it to
leave reminders to myself. Not extensive, maybe 3 days in a week have
some kind of notice in them.
Type of accounts are POP and IMAP (one my local provider, the other is
a .Mac account - which I think is IMAP?)
This is Office 2004 (for Mac)
I took your suggestion and opened Activity Monitor. It showed 2.77 GB
free. Then I opened Entourage and it only dropped to 2.72 GB free.
I have tried shut down and restart. No difference.
I switched to Apple Mail and have been using that for the past several
days to compare. No problem in Mail.
I literally dumped all my mail out of all my folders (saving them as
mbox archives on an external drive.

The only other thing I can think of is to go to my User>Docs>Microsoft
User Data folder and drag the entire Office 2004 Identities folder out
and replace it with a previous one I had copied to my laptop. (I have
found that an easy way to sync stuff when going on the road).

Frustrated...
George

 

[Justin Beek]

Have you tried rebuilding the database?

Also, if you are copying the folder from one machine to another, wouldn't
that goof up permissions?

Justin

 

[Diane Ross]

On 4/23/08 7:58 40AM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "poncho"

Let's consider this. You have 2004 and have been OK until recently. You need
to look at what could have changed that is causing this.

No, no schedules set to run at startup - unless you mean Calendar
events. Not the Project Calendar, the regular calendar.

Projects could be the cause. Check this out:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/project_center.html>

Any change in number of fonts?

The only other thing I can think of is to go to my User>Docs>Microsoft
User Data folder and drag the entire Office 2004 Identities folder out
and replace it with a previous one I had copied to my laptop. (I have
found that an easy way to sync stuff when going on the road).

Check your HD for fragmentation and free space. If you are copying back and
forth a lot, this could result in fragmentation.

If you have a backup drive, I would clone your current drive and then write
it back. It will write back without the fragmentation. Of course, you can
also buy software that does this too.

 

[poncho]

Anybody kind enough to still be there?

Justin:
Following your suggestion I rebuilt my database.
Interesting things came from that (never tried it before). I was
hopeful since it reported problems - I went ahead and rebuild it (I
backed it up beforehand.) No help. But I like to think it did some
good anyway.

Diane:
I read the info via the link you posted. I don't think this is it
because, I just don't have any projects. Unless "project" means
something more than the Project option itself.

I considered Fonts. I don't need WYSIWYG, and I don't need my entire
font library to be available. But I see no options for creating a
small library just for Entourage.

Plenty of free space and only 1% fragmentation.

Then I resorted to what I mentioned earlier: I dragged the entire
Identities folder out and dragged in a previous one. One that existed
before I started experiencing this problem.
But I still have the problem!!
This is telling, isn't it? But what's it telling??

I did not yet do the cloning and writing back. I don't want to if I
don't have to.

Other than the Fonts question, I just cannot come up with anything
else.
Thanks a bunch for all help thus far.
George

 

[Diane Ross]

Then I resorted to what I mentioned earlier: I dragged the entire
Identities folder out and dragged in a previous one. One that existed
before I started experiencing this problem.
But I still have the problem!!
This is telling, isn't it? But what's it telling??

Next step is to test in a new Identity. If that works then your User's
folder is OK. If it does not work, try in a new User. Go to System
Preferences --> Create a New User in Accounts. Switch to the New User by
logging out/in or use Fast User Switching. Test Entourage there. First test
in a new Identity. If that works, then move your current Identity to Shared
so you can access in the new User and drag it to the Microsoft User Data
folder and see if it works in the new User. If that works, then you know
it's our User's folder that has the problem.

So basically, we are testing if your database is OK with Identities. We are
testing your files in your User and a new User eliminating preferences. If
all of these fail then it's your base OS that's the problem. That takes a
Combo updater fix, an "Archive & Install" or an "Erase & Install" to fix.