HELP - Outlook 2003 freezes

[Alicia]

Up until recently I had no problems with Outlook 2003. Lately however, if I
reply or forward an email it will either just freeze up or will give me a
message about Word as my email editor and hang there. I want to use Word as
my editor.

When it freezes up, I have to Ctrl - Alt - Delete to get program to close.
However, it does not show that the program is not responding when I do this.

I have all the latest updates and I have also tried the Fix and Repair, but
it tells me that the installation source cannot be found.

Someone recently sent me a document that was a 2007 version document and I
had to download the compatibility pack for the 2007 Office system in order to
view it, but I don't know if that could be the issue or not.

I've researched the internet and it appears a lot of people have had this
problem. One of the recommendations was to change the name of the Normal.dot
file to Normal.old and then reopen Outlook which would create a new file.
I've done this and it will work briefly but then I have the same issues.
I've also done a restore to an earlier period, but that didn't fix it either.

Any help would be appreciated!!!

 

[K. Orland]

What is the message you receive about Word as your email editor?

 

[Alicia]

A box comes up that says:

Microsoft Office Outlook
Starting Microsoft Word 2003 as your email editor...

then it just hangs there and does nothing.

 

[K. Orland]

I use the compatibility pack here and the only delay I've seen is when you
open a 2007/2008 document/spreadsheet and it needs time to do the conversion.

What does your event viewer tell you? Are there any Office or Outlook
related errors in the Application Event Viewer?

Have you tried starting Outlook in safe mode to see if the behaviour changes?

Start > Outlook > outlook.exe /safe

 

[Alicia]

Not sure what an event viewer is ... but I will check if you could give me an
idea where to look.

And I haven't tried to start it in safe mode. I will give that a try.

 

[K. Orland]

Right-click on My Computer and scroll to Manage. The Event Viewer is under
System Tools. There are three components to it. Check Application and System
for errors. Application should display any Outlook or Office errors.

Alternatively, you can click on Start > Run and then type in eventvwr (then
hit enter).

 

[Alicia]

There are several errors and warnings under Application and a few under
System. But I have no idea what these mean or what to do with them.

This is a sample of what some of these are under Application:

Type Date Time Source Category Event User Computer
Information 1/29/2009 4:50:28 PM gusvc None 0 N/A ALICIA
Information 1/29/2009 4:48:28 PM gusvc None 0 N/A ALICIA
Error 1/29/2009 11:41:59 AM Application Hang (101) 1002 N/A ALICIA
Error 1/29/2009 11:26:58 AM Application Hang None 1001 N/A ALICIA
Error 1/29/2009 11:26:56 AM Application Hang None 1001 N/A ALICIA
Error 1/29/2009 11:26:46 AM Application Hang (101) 1002 N/A ALICIA
Error 1/29/2009 11:26:44 AM Application Hang (101) 1002 N/A ALICIA
Warning 1/29/2009 11:01:14 AM MsiInstaller None 1015 Peter ALICIA
Warning 1/29/2009 11:01:13 AM MsiInstaller None 1015 Peter ALICIA
Information 1/29/2009 10:55:31 AM MsiInstaller None 11728 Peter ALICIA
Error 1/29/2009 10:00:30 AM Application Hang None 1001 N/A ALICIA
Error 1/29/2009 10:00:24 AM Application Hang (101) 1002 N/A ALICIA
Information 1/29/2009 9:38:29 AM MsiInstaller None 11708 Peter ALICIA
Warning 1/29/2009 9:34:05 AM WinMgmt None 63 Peter ALICIA
Warning 1/29/2009 9:34:05 AM WinMgmt None 63 Peter ALICIA
Error 1/29/2009 9:32:51 AM Application Hang (101) 1002 N/A ALICIA
Error 1/29/2009 9:24:01 AM QuickBooks Disk 4 N/A ALICIA

Any suggestions?

 

[K. Orland]

You need to open the errors to find out what the source is. The eventID,
source, and the explanation in each error is important.

 

[Alicia]

OK, there are several errors and not all of them are applicable to Outlook
.... but info on one of the errors is:

Event ID - 1002 (in others it may be 1001)
Source - Application Hang

Description: Hanging application OUTLOOK.EXE, version 11.0.8206.0, hang
module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

Then it gives me the option for more information at the microsoft web site,
but if I follow that link it just leads me to the support page.

One of the other errors states: event id-1001, application hang,
description: Fault bucket 68229423 ... but I don't know what application it's
referring to.

Not sure what this information means or what I should do about it.

BTW, I really appreciate your help.

 

[K. Orland]

Did you try running Outlook in safe mode yet?

Another thing to try is to run Detect and Repair from the Help Menu. You may
need your Microsoft Office CD for that.

 

[Alicia]

I haven't tried to start in safe mode yet. When I do that is there anything
specifically I'm to look for .... or am I just checking to see if Word as my
email editor will work in safe mode.

I've tried to run the Detect and Repair and I've loaded my CD, but I keep
getting the message that the installation source for this CD is not
available. So I have not been able to run detect and repair.

 

[K. Orland]

Running Outlook in safe mode removed any external software integration with
Outlook that might interfere with it's performance. Things like antivirus,
antispam, synch software, Plaxo, etc. that don't always play well with
Outlook. If Outlook runs as expected in safe mode, then you know to disable
all your add ins and then add them back one at a time, testing inbetween.

 

[Alicia]

I opened Outlook in safe mode but you do not have the choice to tell it to
use Word as your email editor. Those options are grayed out. Using Word as
my email editor is the problem that causes it to hang up ... so not sure how
to test it since it won't allow me to utilize Word in safe mode.

How do I know what add-ins there are and would there be any specifically
that I would need? Is there a way I can disable these one by one when it is
in regular mode and determine if that is the problem?

 

[Alicia]

One other thing, I really think might be the problem is this seems to have
all started happening when I had to add in that compatibility pack for 2007.
If I go to the control panel and remove that program, would it cause any
other problems?

 

[K. Orland]

It's expected that would happen. Safe mode removes all integration with
Outlook and it runs all by itself.

I'm not using 2003 where I am right now, but try something along the lines
of Tools > Options > Other > Advanced to check both your Add Ins and COMs.

Go ahead and uninstall the compatibility pack and test.

 

[Alicia]

Under addins there are only 2 listings:

Exchange Extensions property pages and Fax Server Extension

Under COM is TMAS addin which is for my Trenc Microcillin virus protection.

I just recently replaced my printer which is also a fax machine ... maybe
the fax server addin is the issue. I'm going to try removing that and see
what happens.

 

[Alicia]

OK, I removed the fax addin and tested. When I "replied" to a message the
screen came up that said starting Word as my email editor but then it
promptly brought up the mail screen to send the reply. So ... hopefully this
is the issue.