OL 2003 SP2 won't send mail, it sits in outbox, no error messages

[Greta Grip]

I'm using MS OL 2003, SP2 on Office 2003 student/teacher edition, Win XP, on
a stand alone laptop - not on any networks. Laptop purchased August 2005.
Office 2003 installed by me.

Around November or December, first occasionally and now almost exclusively,
OL will not send messages. I am running Norton Antivirus software, but it
doesn't matter whether I disable it or not.

After replying to, or composing a new email message, and hitting the send
key, messages go into the outbox and remain there, in bold font but
unitalicized. They never send, and we get no error messages. A workaround
of copying and pasting info into a newly composed note, and deleting the old
email hanging in the outbox, would sometimes correct the problem. Today even
that stopped working.

If you open the message within the Outbox and hit the send key again, the
note remains in the outbox, but the font is then plain, i.e. it's not bold.
On my PC I only occasionally had this problem, using MS 2k and OL 2000 (I
think), and if I opened the email within the outbox and hit the send key, the
message would then appear italicized and it would send.

I am using sbcglobal DSL as my ISP, and I have it configured to receive
email through my website, luckylounge.com.

Tried posting to newsgroups in the past and someone suggested making sure
Norton isn't working with my mail program. BUT - I had this exact version of
Norton on my PC mentioned earlier (Win 2k etc), and it was never a problem.

thanks
greta grip

 

[Greta Grip]

I had to put a call in to Tech Support. She said my .pst file was too large.
She tested this by creating a new profile in Outlook. Within this profile
she created a new email account identical to the one I'd been using in my
original profile (with all of the mail server info i.e. smtp.sbcglobal.etc).
Using this she was able to send mail fine.

So I've been working on reducing the size and already I can send mail from
the original profile.

I think she said performance degrades from about 500 Mg size .pst file, and
Outlook will crash when you get to 1 Gig. Mine was about 700 Meg.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I had to put a call in to Tech Support.

Who's Tech SUpport?

I think she said performance degrades from about 500 Mg size .pst
file, and Outlook will crash when you get to 1 Gig. Mine was about
700 Meg.

These numbers are inaccurate. Performance will begin to degrade probably
above 1 GB and Outlook will fail when the PST reaches 1.87 GB, although some
have experienced problems above 1.5 GB.

 

[Greta Grip]

Hi

To answer your question, Tech Support is Microsoft's Telephone Tech Support
(at microsoft.com and they offer you three methods of support). You get two
calls for free if you purchased their product (as opposed to having their
product already installed on your laptop at time of purchase).

My brother used the same numbers as you Brian - that performance degrades
somewhere above 1 Gig, but that's what the woman from MS Phone Tech Support
told me.

However, I reduced the folder size to about 454 MG and it sent mail for a
while, but now will send mail only intermittently. I tried troubleshooting
using MS phone supports method mentioned in my first post: sign in to MS OL
using the new profile she created. But this time, the new profile won't send
mail either. I'm contacting MS to re-open this case.

 

[Brian Tillman]

My brother used the same numbers as you Brian - that performance
degrades somewhere above 1 Gig, but that's what the woman from MS
Phone Tech Support told me.

I think she misunderstood what you told her. Those phone lines to Bangalore

However, I reduced the folder size to about 454 MG and it sent mail
for a while, but now will send mail only intermittently. I tried
troubleshooting using MS phone supports method mentioned in my first
post: sign in to MS OL using the new profile she created. But this
time, the new profile won't send mail either. I'm contacting MS to
re-open this case.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.