Outlook freezing up - NEED HELP!!!!

[TechnologicNet]

I've been dealing with an intermittent problem for the past 2 or 3 weeks that
I am now, and I really need some assistance.
Starting about 3 weeks ago, Outlook 2003 connecting to Exchange 2003
standard (for all users) started being sluggish for an office of about 20
users. Not all were complaining, except of course 3 users specifically and a
handful of others. I have scanned the network for viruses and confirmed it
is clean. I began to suspect the firewall might have been causing a
broadcast storm after doing some testing so I swapped that out. Afterwards
almost all users stopped complaining of Outlook being slow (requesting data
from the server) except 3 specific users. They are experiencing something a
little different. Outlook will operate normally for hours (maybe even a day
or two) then mail will suddenly stop coming in on one of the workstations
(which is running Windows Vista Ultimate + Outlook 2003), closing Outlook and
going back into it will produce a message that another program is using the
..OST file. Killing other applications and trying to reopen Outlook will
produce the same message, and the system needs to be restarted for Outlook to
start functioning properly again. I have already blown away the .OST file
and recreated it, problem still persists.

The other two workstations (running Windows XP + Outlook 2003) will just get
the Trying Retrieve Messages from the Server message and will freeze up,
needing to be closed and reopened to get it working again.

I have not tried running fixmapi.exe on these workstations yet, but that is
my next step. I am also going to confirm the connections (and RPC
replication) between the workstations, exchange server and domain controller
are all working. Other than these two steps, I don't know where else to go
with this. It can't be the OS or Office installs on these machines, because
it is happening on all 3, and the problem just suddenly started happeing as I
said about 2-3 weeks ago. Has anyone see anything like this?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

on the ost in use error - was outlook.exe running in task manager (processes
tab) ? Are these 3 syncing with a pda device?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

 

[TechnologicNet]

The Vista machine is running Blackberry Desktop Manager v4.3 (ATT Wireless'
version, which is the lastest build available from them). After i killed
Outlook.exe I had also killed all Blackberry Desktop processes, so nothing
should have been accessing Outlook.

on the ost in use error - was outlook.exe running in task manager (processes
tab) ? Are these 3 syncing with a pda device?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

I've been dealing with an intermittent problem for the past 2 or 3 weeks
that
I am now, and I really need some assistance.
Starting about 3 weeks ago, Outlook 2003 connecting to Exchange 2003
standard (for all users) started being sluggish for an office of about 20
users. Not all were complaining, except of course 3 users specifically
and a
handful of others. I have scanned the network for viruses and confirmed
it
is clean. I began to suspect the firewall might have been causing a
broadcast storm after doing some testing so I swapped that out.
Afterwards
almost all users stopped complaining of Outlook being slow (requesting
data
from the server) except 3 specific users. They are experiencing something
a
little different. Outlook will operate normally for hours (maybe even a
day
or two) then mail will suddenly stop coming in on one of the workstations
(which is running Windows Vista Ultimate + Outlook 2003), closing Outlook
and
going back into it will produce a message that another program is using
the
.OST file. Killing other applications and trying to reopen Outlook will
produce the same message, and the system needs to be restarted for Outlook
to
start functioning properly again. I have already blown away the .OST file
and recreated it, problem still persists.

The other two workstations (running Windows XP + Outlook 2003) will just
get
the Trying Retrieve Messages from the Server message and will freeze up,
needing to be closed and reopened to get it working again.

I have not tried running fixmapi.exe on these workstations yet, but that
is
my next step. I am also going to confirm the connections (and RPC
replication) between the workstations, exchange server and domain
controller
are all working. Other than these two steps, I don't know where else to
go
with this. It can't be the OS or Office installs on these machines,
because
it is happening on all 3, and the problem just suddenly started happeing
as I
said about 2-3 weeks ago. Has anyone see anything like this?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

was an update installed for either BDM or office about the time the problem
started? Look in add/remove programs and check 'show updates'.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

The Vista machine is running Blackberry Desktop Manager v4.3 (ATT
Wireless'
version, which is the lastest build available from them). After i killed
Outlook.exe I had also killed all Blackberry Desktop processes, so nothing
should have been accessing Outlook.

on the ost in use error - was outlook.exe running in task manager
(processes
tab) ? Are these 3 syncing with a pda device?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


message

I've been dealing with an intermittent problem for the past 2 or 3
weeks
that
I am now, and I really need some assistance.
Starting about 3 weeks ago, Outlook 2003 connecting to Exchange 2003
standard (for all users) started being sluggish for an office of about
20
users. Not all were complaining, except of course 3 users specifically
and a
handful of others. I have scanned the network for viruses and
confirmed
it
is clean. I began to suspect the firewall might have been causing a
broadcast storm after doing some testing so I swapped that out.
Afterwards
almost all users stopped complaining of Outlook being slow (requesting
data
from the server) except 3 specific users. They are experiencing
something
a
little different. Outlook will operate normally for hours (maybe even
a
day
or two) then mail will suddenly stop coming in on one of the
workstations
(which is running Windows Vista Ultimate + Outlook 2003), closing
Outlook
and
going back into it will produce a message that another program is using
the
.OST file. Killing other applications and trying to reopen Outlook
will
produce the same message, and the system needs to be restarted for
Outlook
to
start functioning properly again. I have already blown away the .OST
file
and recreated it, problem still persists.

The other two workstations (running Windows XP + Outlook 2003) will
just
get
the Trying Retrieve Messages from the Server message and will freeze
up,
needing to be closed and reopened to get it working again.

I have not tried running fixmapi.exe on these workstations yet, but
that
is
my next step. I am also going to confirm the connections (and RPC
replication) between the workstations, exchange server and domain
controller
are all working. Other than these two steps, I don't know where else
to
go
with this. It can't be the OS or Office installs on these machines,
because
it is happening on all 3, and the problem just suddenly started
happeing
as I
said about 2-3 weeks ago. Has anyone see anything like this?