Lost my email with Outlook express!.. Ack!...need help!

[Karen Woods]

I bought a new computer thru Dell with Windows XP and Outlook Express as my
email provider this past June. I needed Word and Excell and Publisher but
this package did not include any Microsoft Office programs. I had an old
Office 2000 disk I had purchased and still had the code so I downloaded the
first of two disks, that had Word, Outlook, Excell, and some other tools. I
told Outlook that it was not my preferred email as I thought it would be the
old version and I didn't want it to override my Outlook Express 6.0.
Everything installed seemingly fine but now if I try to open my email with
Outlook Express icon I get this message over a black OE screen:

16 bit MS-Dos Subsystem
NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction
CS:054e IP:0100 OP: FF FF FF FF FF

I have tried removing Office 2000, a system restore, checked the file type
and it is still Internet Explorer, and called Dell who said I should save all
my files and do a complete PC restore. It will mean I lose all the saved
messages in my OE and my address book, and I have a lot of business and
personal emails saved that I do not want erased. Also it means reinstalling
many other programs that are on the computer, like my printer, scanner,
camera, etc. Please tell me there is a fix that won't do that to me! I
have scoured the Microsoft files using the error message contents but can't
find anything like this. Did the Office 2000 do this and should I throw it
away? I am totally frustrated!

Karen

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP P/I]]

I have a hunch that "black OE screen" isn't OE at all; both the fact that
it's black and that the error message refers to a problem with the Command
Prompt (used to run MS-DOS programs and NOT involved with either OE or
Outlook), I suspect the OE shortcut may be damaged. Right click it and
select 'Properties'. On my Windows XP system, the "Target" line in the
shortcut reads "C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msism.exe", yours should
read something very similar. Entering this line (including the quotes) into
'Start||Run' should bring up OE.

I should also point out that, even though the question involves Outlook
2000, it deals with an OE problem and the folks in one of the OE newsgroups
may have more insight into the issue.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
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