Inbox scrolling lag/slow crawl ++ Custom Forms button "can't displ

[Dale Networkguy]

The past couple of days I've been trying to get to the root cause of a new
performance degradation issue within Outlook 2003. Initially the first thing
I noticed was that the scrolling of the Inbox or any other folder with mail
was now at a crawl. I can hit page up/down and get immediate responses but
not with the scrollbar or with my middle mouse wheel. Opened email scrolls
with instantaneous response. So I started scratching my head as to watch has
changed and what could be at fault. ...as a thorough troubleshooting step I
unchecked the two Advanced -> COM Add-Ins (Microsoft) and two Add-In Manager
(Microsoft) items.

An accidentally found symptom or pointer to the problem was discovered when
I clicked the Advanced Options -> Custom Forms button. I get a message
stating with a yellow caution triangle icon "Unable to display the dialog
box. No pages in the property sheet due to low memory. Close some windows or
programs." aha a memory shortfall - that makes sense ...well almost - the
rest of the system is functioning fine and there isn't any memory issue
whatsoever going on in the Task Manager. BTW as an additional precaution I
moved the paging file to an entirely different empty drive - no change
resulted.

My system has 2 GB of RAM and the task manager is not reporting any large
amount of usage. In fact I am able to invoke and view video intensive
programs without any lag. As a troubleshooting step I've run a boot disc
memory check program for hours without any faults being reported.

I booted into Safe Mode w/ networking and the problem went away. ...So I
started trying to pare down through MSCONFIG what might be the root cause
service or startup program. After several hours I pared it down to finding
that no start-up items had any affect nor did any non-Microsoft services. So
to be thorough I unchecked the Microsoft services and restarted. The result
is problem is gone. OK now this is interesting but not necessarily easy to
focus on the root cause still. There are MANY Microsoft services and often
they are interdependent so that even if one is check to run at boot it might
not because its dependent service isn't started.

I am befuddled. I had been getting a shutdown hang due to the Microsoft
Office Alternative Input "CiceroUIWNDFrame" and had to disable this in
Office, FrontPage, Visio, & OneNote. Before I went to bed at 3am last night
all seems well and the Inbox was scrolling but NO it is back to misbehaving
this morning.

I have no desktop search toolbars installed. I do have Live Toolbar but not
enabled the desktop search and that is it. I run OneCareLive for AV. I'm a
Microsoft guy through and through and that is why I've partnered with the
mothership and am a MAPS subscriber.

If you have any reasonable suggestions I am willing to entertain any ideas.

TIA - Dale

 

[Dale Networkguy]

I intended to be exhaustive in providing information but left out a few
important things:

1. I've ran SFC /scannow to no avail
2. I've done a repair of Outlook 2003 Professional to no avail
3. This installation does have BCM integrated FYI
4. no malware or viral issues discovered

BTW I'm now digging around the net looking for the "custom form" error in
the hopes of it being more unique to spot a similar case.

 

[Dale Networkguy]

lol OK solved that mystery with a KB - unchecking the Add-in Manager item for
Exchange Server extensions was responsible
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256118

....ugh

 

[Dale Networkguy]

**another report of clues/info**

after tiring of the unproductive research today I turned on WinAMP to view a
broadcast TV stream (which coincidently is what was on last night/3am this
morning when the problem went away) ...well the problem has disappeared once
again - scrolling has returned to normal

....hmmm is it that I'm using all available bandwith by streaming in video?

....next time I restart I'll disable all NIC's and report if it made a
difference

 

[Dale Networkguy]

OK that experience hinted at a link between Outlook and WinAMP and the one I
drew on was the audio. Further investigation proved this true but I can't
say this makes any sense. I've not altered any codecs recently that I'm
aware of; however, with the recent Windows Media Player 11 update perhaps
this did something. I've gone through my list of codecs and such in Device
Manager and then Add/Remove and have yet to find the root cause. As a
temporary work around I've unchecked the "provide feedback with sound" in
Outlook->Options->Advanced and things are behaving. If my memory is correct
to get those sounds working in the first place I had to download a sounds.exe
file or something similar from the Office downloads library. Perhaps I can
reinstall it. ...hmm

....once again I posted here not for therapy but for help so if you can
contribute anything your ideas are very welcome.