How to stop Outlook2003 from crippling my PC

[ship]

Hi

Does anyone know how to get Ms Outlook 2003 to use less resources?
(i.e. less processor time, less disk time etc)

I have a large .PST file (c.1GB) , windowsXP Pro, plenty HD space, 2GB
of RAM and LOADS of rules (all of which I need because I get so much
junk mail!).

The problem is that whenever Outlook downloads emails, it more or less
locks up the entire PC and I can't do very much else at the same time!!

Also particularly bad is that can barely compose emails whilst
downloading emails.
But I need to have it *automatically* download email on a regular basis
because
otherwise 1st thing in the morning there is FAR too much to download
and it seems
to get slower and slower the more that there is *to* download!

With thanks


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

[ship]

Cut down the amount of spam you have to download and cut down on the number

of rules you need to run.

Yes sound advice I agree, but for now I can't do either of the above...


Any other suggestions, anyone?


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

[Rafal Harrison-Staska]

Check your .pst file for errors. Scanpst should be in :
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033\SCANPST.EXE"
Start it and point it to your pst file.
If it finds any errors choose an option to "make backup of scanned file
before repairing"
Also you should try to archive some of the old emails from your .pst file.
Don't forget to compact the .pst after all this.

Rafal

 

[ship]

Yes (Rafal), I do *REGULARLY* run SCANPST.EXE !

I run it on average about every 2 or 3 days because Outlook KEEPS
throwing errors and saying "click here to restart" or something
similar...

And yes it helps but Outlook STILL takes far too many resources,
even straight after a "repair".

And yes I do archive stuff off too. But there is a limit to how much I
can
archive without massive inconvenience.



Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

[DL]

Does your email provider not have web access and built in spam filters?
This worked for me when I was receiving +500 spam / day from someones
infected sys, barely a handfull got through to OL
Is your AV scanning incoming mail?

 

[ship]

Actually that's a good question to re-visit, I do concede...
But either way it's still DAMNED irritating that whenever my email
starts downloading I cant write any emails!

(I also get a lot of legit emails though because I run an auction site
and need to get copies of everyone's bidding receipts...)

Come *ON* Microsoft!!
Afterall you built the operating system AND the application.
Please can we have a useable system!!


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

[Osiris]

boy, then you are really busy...
maybe switch to specialized database software, let the computer do
things for you...
relly... a PST of over 2 gig ????

 

[ship]

boy, then you are really busy...
maybe switch to specialized database software, let the computer do
things for you...
relly... a PST of over 2 gig ????

Yep damned busy! :[
I have managed to archive quite a lot of stuff and now the PST is back
down to about 1.0 GB.

What sort of "specialized database software" did you have in mind?



Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

[Osiris]

boy, then you are really busy...
maybe switch to specialized database software, let the computer do
things for you...
relly... a PST of over 2 gig ????

Yep damned busy! :[
I have managed to archive quite a lot of stuff and now the PST is back
down to about 1.0 GB.

What sort of "specialized database software" did you have in mind?



Ship
Shiperton Henethe

Well, from what I understand you are doing, gathering data from the
net by e-mails, you could build a site where ppl can fill in a data
form, have the data sent to you, and put it in a database.
instead of retyping data from an e-mail.

have a look at
http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/ddws/index.html
for the general idea.
and google around with search words "database driven website"

My point is, you don't want to retype incoming data. That is what
computers can do better/

 

[ship]

Osiris

Yes it already *is* a database driven website!

We receive a carbon copy of the invoices simply as a backup
and also so that we can see *precisely* what the users are
receiving on their invoices at any moment in time.

But Outlook2003 still seems tor cripple my PC when it runs.

Worse, it seem to download larger numbers of emails slower
and slower and SLOWER, the more that there are to download.

We have a good high-speed connection to the web, but
when there are more than about 500 emails to download
at once (which occassionally happens if my outlook falls over
during a weeekend) then it downloads them at about 1 every
3 seconds! Horrendously slow - particularly if it means that
the entire rest of my PC is crawling too!

Obviously I try to have the Outlook running and downloading
regularly all the time but that cant always be done...

I just wish that there was a way of making Outlook2003 take
up fewer resources! Puzzlingly it can cripple the PC and
still barely show up on the Processor's CPU useage...!


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

boy, then you are really busy...
maybe switch to specialized database software, let the computer do
things for you...
relly... a PST of over 2 gig ????

Yep damned busy! :[
I have managed to archive quite a lot of stuff and now the PST is back
down to about 1.0 GB.

What sort of "specialized database software" did you have in mind?



Ship
Shiperton Henethe

Well, from what I understand you are doing, gathering data from the
net by e-mails, you could build a site where ppl can fill in a data
form, have the data sent to you, and put it in a database.
instead of retyping data from an e-mail.

have a look at
http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/ddws/index.html
for the general idea.
and google around with search words "database driven website"

My point is, you don't want to retype incoming data. That is what
computers can do better/

 

[Gordon]

But Outlook2003 still seems tor cripple my PC when it runs.

Worse, it seem to download larger numbers of emails slower
and slower and SLOWER, the more that there are to download.

We have a good high-speed connection to the web, but
when there are more than about 500 emails to download
at once (which occassionally happens if my outlook falls over
during a weeekend) then it downloads them at about 1 every
3 seconds! Horrendously slow - particularly if it means that
the entire rest of my PC is crawling too!

Jumping in the middle of the thread here, have you got either an AV app that
scans email as it arrives, or some sort of desktop search that is indexing
as they arrive?

Just a couple of thoughts....

 

[Osiris]

Osiris

Yes it already *is* a database driven website!

We receive a carbon copy of the invoices simply as a backup
and also so that we can see *precisely* what the users are
receiving on their invoices at any moment in time.

But Outlook2003 still seems tor cripple my PC when it runs.

Worse, it seem to download larger numbers of emails slower
and slower and SLOWER, the more that there are to download.

We have a good high-speed connection to the web, but
when there are more than about 500 emails to download
at once (which occassionally happens if my outlook falls over
during a weeekend) then it downloads them at about 1 every
3 seconds! Horrendously slow - particularly if it means that
the entire rest of my PC is crawling too!

this suggests it is not the server side, but a local process that hogs
the PC.

try ProcessExplorer ? www.sysinternals.com

Obviously I try to have the Outlook running and downloading
regularly all the time but that cant always be done...

I just wish that there was a way of making Outlook2003 take
up fewer resources! Puzzlingly it can cripple the PC and
still barely show up on the Processor's CPU useage...!

suggests that the crippling is done BEFORE your PC.
And: is there another busy task to be seen in taskmanager , maybe ?
Or is the PC really doing hardly anything at all ?
you could play with the process priority in taskmanager... see what
that does...

 

[Rafal Harrison-Staska]

Ship,

What about hard drive fragmentation ? If your pst file is so big and the
disk is fragmented the CPU usage will not be high but everything will be
slow. Run defrag and check fragmentation of your drive - if its more than 20
% I recommend you defragment the drive.

Rafal