Entourage 11.4.0 freezing osx?

[aberrant]

Upgraded to 11.4.0 a couple days ago - everything seemed to go well. However, I've had complete system freezes 3 times since then - and I was doing the same thing each time (opening up an email message in Entourage). Different messages (one was a calendar invite; the others were standard msgs - no attachments).

System is pingable but the entire UI is frozen (the beachball eventually appears). No fan activity indicating heavy CPU use. Will try ssh the next time this happens. The only way to recover is to hard-power the laptop (MBP 2.4 GHz C2D).

Anyone else seeing this behavior?

 

[aberrant]

Update: I can repeat this behavior consistently by double-clicking the calendar event I received. SSH works but killing entourage does not cause the screen to become responsive. Mouse movements work during unresponsive display. Load on system is not heavy (0.10) during freeze.

 

[Diane Ross]

Upgraded to 11.4.0 a couple days ago - everything seemed to go well. However,
I've had complete system freezes 3 times since then - and I was doing the same
thing each time (opening up an email message in Entourage). Different messages
(one was a calendar invite; the others were standard msgs - no attachments).

System is pingable but the entire UI is frozen (the beachball eventually
appears). No fan activity indicating heavy CPU use. Will try ssh the next time
this happens. The only way to recover is to hard-power the laptop (MBP 2.4 GHz
C2D).

Anyone else seeing this behavior?

Yours is the first report. Have you done the usual:

Restart your computer
Run Repair Permissions

The next time it freezes, open Activity Monitor, select Entourage and open.
At the bottom of the window click on "Sample". Copy this log and attach it
to a message. Crash logs are really hard to read for normal folks. They are
meant for developers, but sometimes we can see something that might help
direct you to a solution.

You should be able to Force quit from this window. Select quit then force
quit.

 

[aberrant]

Thanks for the reply! I've done the usual... nothing bad there. I can't open Activity Monitor when it freezes - when I say freeze, I mean the entire display: menu, dock, toolbar, other apps, everything - not just the Microsoft application. There's no way to run activity monitor. However, I did ssh into the box to run ps and top (and kill, which did force-quit Entourage but didn't help the freezing) and nothing stood out - the system load remained well below 1.00, and nothing else was noteworthy.

 

[aberrant]

Also, to further describe the freezing - the half-open window containing the calendar invitation remained permanently in place, and after the kill of Entourage, no part of the display changed - entourage and all its unresponsive windows remained visible.

 

[Diane Ross]

Thanks for the reply! I've done the usual... nothing bad there. I can't open
Activity Monitor when it freezes - when I say freeze, I mean the entire
display: menu, dock, toolbar, other apps, everything - not just the Microsoft
application. There's no way to run activity monitor. However, I did ssh into
the box to run ps and top (and kill, which did force-quit Entourage but didn't
help the freezing) and nothing stood out - the system load remained well below
1.00, and nothing else was noteworthy.

Can you test Entourage in a new User to see if that improves? Try first in a
new blank Identity, then bring over your current Identity via Shared folder.
Drag it from Shared (this actually makes a copy). Test to see if it's your
Identity?

Before you install the next update, stuff your Office 2004 folder as backup.
This way if things go belly up you can revert to the previous version.

 

[aberrant]

Creating a new identity didn't solve anything - trying to open the same calendar invitation hangs the system, just like the old identity.

Maybe it's time to go to Entourage 2008 - do you know whether I can just install Entourage from Office 2008? Can it coexist with Word/Excel/Powerpoint 2004? (I need VBA.)

 

[Diane Ross]

Creating a new identity didn't solve anything - trying to open the same
calendar invitation hangs the system, just like the old identity.

Can you delete that invitation?

Maybe it's time to go to Entourage 2008 - do you know whether I can just
install Entourage from Office 2008? Can it coexist with Word/Excel/Powerpoint
2004? (I need VBA.)

Yes, you can use Entourage 2008 with all the Office 2004 applications except
Entourage 2004. Can't use both at the same time.

 

[aberrant]

I can delete that invitation, but I've found 3 others that do the same thing. I can accept the invitations in preview without ill effect; it's just when I double-click them to view the whole invite that the system hangs.

 

[Diane Ross]

I can delete that invitation, but I've found 3 others that do the same thing.
I can accept the invitations in preview without ill effect; it's just when I
double-click them to view the whole invite that the system hangs.

Can you send me one of the invites to test?

diane @ entourage dot mvps dot org

 

[tyrantofsyracuse]

Can you send me one of the invites to test?

diane @ entourage dot mvps dot org

Hi,

I have a user with a similar issue; new iMac 20-inch with 10.5.1 (at
the time) using Office 2004 (with MS updates). I chose to "create" a
new user (machine is a part of an Active Directory domain) rather than
use the migration utility, and no matter what I tried, the result was
that the entire UI froze when I clicked on the Entourage Calendar
button. I've tried the following:

- Remove/reinstall Office using the utility on the Office CD
- Delete/recreate the user
- Rebuilding the Entourage database
- Deleting the Main Identity

One thing I tried, that worked for about a week, was that I copied the
Main Identity from the old computer onto the new computer and it
worked like a charm....until last Thursday, when it appears that the
11.4 update may have broken it again. I'm very close to installing
Parallels and having the user use Outlook. Any ideas?!? Thanks!

- D
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Diane Ross]

I have a user with a similar issue; new iMac 20-inch with 10.5.1 (at
the time) using Office 2004 (with MS updates). I chose to "create" a
new user (machine is a part of an Active Directory domain) rather than
use the migration utility, and no matter what I tried, the result was
that the entire UI froze when I clicked on the Entourage Calendar
button. I've tried the following:

- Remove/reinstall Office using the utility on the Office CD
- Delete/recreate the user
- Rebuilding the Entourage database
- Deleting the Main Identity

One thing I tried, that worked for about a week, was that I copied the
Main Identity from the old computer onto the new computer and it
worked like a charm....until last Thursday, when it appears that the
11.4 update may have broken it again. I'm very close to installing
Parallels and having the user use Outlook. Any ideas?!? Thanks!

First thing is to install 10.5.2. Use the combo instead of downloading via
Software update.

Mac OS X 10.5.2 Combo Update

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1052comboupdate.html>

Let's check for corrupted Calendar events. Make a duplicate of the Identity
first.

You can't delete the calendar, but you can delete every event easily enough.

Hit cmd-opt-F when in calendar view, to bring up the 'advanced find' window.
Do a Find for events whose subject contains "a" OR subject does not contain
"a" - this will find every event (there is a custom view already created
called 'all events', which you could use instead).

Select an event, then do a 'select all' and hit the delete key. All events
will be deleted.

Does the problem go away? If yes, then it's a corrupt event. If not, then
drag this Identity to the Shared folder. Go to System Preferences --> Create
a New User in Accounts. Switch to the New User by logging out/in or use Fast
User Switching. Open Entourage to create a new Microsoft User Data folder.
Now drag over (it will copy) the Identity to the MUD folder. Test there. If
it works in the new User, then you know the problem is in the Users folder.
If not, then it's a system wide problem. The combo updater might fix the
underlying problem.

I suspect that after the SR 1 release for Office 2008, things will work much
better....I sure hope so.

 

[tyrantofsyracuse]

First thing is to install 10.5.2. Use the combo instead of downloading via
Software update.

Mac OS X 10.5.2 Combo Update

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1052comboupdate.html>

Let's check for corrupted Calendar events. Make a duplicate of the Identity
first.

You can't delete the calendar, but you can delete every event easily enough.

Hit cmd-opt-F when in calendar view, to bring up the 'advanced find' window.
Do a Find for events whose subject contains "a" OR subject does not contain
"a" - this will find every event (there is a custom view already created
called 'all events', which you could use instead).

Select an event, then do a 'select all' and hit the delete key. All events
will be deleted.

Does the problem go away? If yes, then it's a corrupt event. If not, then
drag this Identity to the Shared folder. Go to System Preferences --> Create
a New User in Accounts. Switch to the New User by logging out/in or use Fast
User Switching. Open Entourage to create a new Microsoft User Data folder.
Now drag over (it will copy) the Identity to the MUD folder. Test there. If
it works in the new User, then you know the problem is in the Users folder..
If not, then it's a system wide problem. The combo updater might fix the
underlying problem.

I suspect that after the SR 1 release for Office 2008, things will work much
better....I sure hope so.
--
Diane, Microsoft Mac MVP (MVPs are not Microsoft Employees)
Entourage Help Page   <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog  <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>- Hide quoted text-

- Show quoted text -

Thank you for your fast response; one major issue I have with trying
what you suggested is that I can't get to the Calendar view. Any
attempt to go to the Calendar results in Entourage freezing,
everything else works fine (Contacts, Tasks, etc.). Also, the user is
now at 10.5.2, so unless there's an "easy" way to go backwards, we
might be stuck.

I have tried creating a new user, but I haven't tried having that new
user open the "broken" Main Identity. I'll give that a shot.

I don't have a copy of Office 2008 yet (our University won't have it
until March-ish), but if your suggestions don't work, and if my
workaround doesn't work (Parallels with XP and Outlook 2003, in
Coherence mode), then I may have to purchase a copy by Thursday or
Friday of this week.

- D
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Diane Ross]

Thank you for your fast response; one major issue I have with trying
what you suggested is that I can't get to the Calendar view. Any
attempt to go to the Calendar results in Entourage freezing,
everything else works fine (Contacts, Tasks, etc.). Also, the user is
now at 10.5.2, so unless there's an "easy" way to go backwards, we
might be stuck.

Another user just reported the same thing with the Calendar. I'm suspecting
it's a corrupt calendar event. I would duplicate the Identity and rename the
copy Test. Open Test and delete all calendar events. There is a custom
Calendar View "All Events". Select All and delete. If the problem goes away
then we know it was a bad event. Don't ask how to find the bad event, I have
no clue. One option would be to use File --> Export --> Entourage archive,
select calendar event and delete after exporting. Then Import the events
back. Sometimes this will clear up any corruption. If not you might have to
create a new Identity and import all of your data.

I have tried creating a new user, but I haven't tried having that new
user open the "broken" Main Identity. I'll give that a shot.

Definitely try this first. It helps to identify the source of the problem.

 

[aberrant]

Problem solved and it's not Microsoft. The Leopard "Graphics Update" released last week is causing problems for newer MBP owners. See <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6602842> for more information. It appears that Entourage is tripping this bug, though, as it's repeatable - dismiss all calendar notifications, then open calendar invitation on external monitor. Boom.

Anyway, the fix for me was to archive/reinstall OS X, and then update but exclude the Graphics Update.