Outlook Freezing when using Word 2003 as Editor during a reply

[Sunset Superman]

I have a windows 2K machine with 1.2Ghz Cpu and 512Mb RAM. When I try to
reply to a email and word opens up as the editor my system locks up and I
have to ctrl+Alt+Del to end the "Not Responding" Outlook 2003 instance.
I have completly uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003. i have renamed
the outcmd.dat to outcmd.bat and nothing seems to help.
I can send a email with no problem it is only when I try to reply to an
email.

Any Ideas would be apreciated!!!!
TIA

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Does it lock up when you use Outlook as the e-mail editor?
Does Word function without issues?
Rename normal.dot to normal.old and see if it works now.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

 

[Sunset Superman]

Yes i found out today it does lock up when using Outlook as the editor.
I also found another post that suggested the renameing of the normal.dot to
the normal.old and also to just delete the normal.dot file and let Outlook
recreate it upon opening it again.
The program is still locking up and when doing the Ctrl+Alt+Del and ending
the task it is still closing Word also (and it's not the editor anymore)
causing me to have many recovered files when opening word back up. It's
really starting to get on my nerves and I'm thinking of just going back to
Office 2000

Does it lock up when you use Outlook as the e-mail editor?
Does Word function without issues?
Rename normal.dot to normal.old and see if it works now.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----

I have a windows 2K machine with 1.2Ghz Cpu and 512Mb RAM. When I try to
reply to a email and word opens up as the editor my system locks up and I
have to ctrl+Alt+Del to end the "Not Responding" Outlook 2003 instance.
I have completly uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003. i have renamed
the outcmd.dat to outcmd.bat and nothing seems to help.
I can send a email with no problem it is only when I try to reply to an
email.

Any Ideas would be apreciated!!!!
TIA

 

[divenow2]

I am encountering the same problem with Outlook 2002 with XP Pro SP2. When
trying to reply or create new mail my system just hangs up. I use
ctrl-alt-del to restart and and get message program not responding. I
unchecked using word as the email editor and outlook works OK.

Think the problem is in Word. When I open Word it's a little slow but does
open. I close word and shut down the machine but a message comes up to close
all Word documents first before shutting down Windows.

Help

Yes i found out today it does lock up when using Outlook as the editor.
I also found another post that suggested the renameing of the normal.dot to
the normal.old and also to just delete the normal.dot file and let Outlook
recreate it upon opening it again.
The program is still locking up and when doing the Ctrl+Alt+Del and ending
the task it is still closing Word also (and it's not the editor anymore)
causing me to have many recovered files when opening word back up. It's
really starting to get on my nerves and I'm thinking of just going back to
Office 2000

Does it lock up when you use Outlook as the e-mail editor?
Does Word function without issues?
Rename normal.dot to normal.old and see if it works now.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----

I have a windows 2K machine with 1.2Ghz Cpu and 512Mb RAM. When I try to
reply to a email and word opens up as the editor my system locks up and I
have to ctrl+Alt+Del to end the "Not Responding" Outlook 2003 instance.
I have completly uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003. i have renamed
the outcmd.dat to outcmd.bat and nothing seems to help.
I can send a email with no problem it is only when I try to reply to an
email.

Any Ideas would be apreciated!!!!
TIA

 

[divenow]

I followed previous advise and found the normal.dot file. Renamed it to
normal.dot.old and restarted. Word starts normally and reset Word as the
Outlook email editor. Apparently original .dot file corrupted as new .dot is
slightly samller size.

Life is sweet

I am encountering the same problem with Outlook 2002 with XP Pro SP2. When
trying to reply or create new mail my system just hangs up. I use
ctrl-alt-del to restart and and get message program not responding. I
unchecked using word as the email editor and outlook works OK.

Think the problem is in Word. When I open Word it's a little slow but does
open. I close word and shut down the machine but a message comes up to close
all Word documents first before shutting down Windows.

Help

Yes i found out today it does lock up when using Outlook as the editor.
I also found another post that suggested the renameing of the normal.dot to
the normal.old and also to just delete the normal.dot file and let Outlook
recreate it upon opening it again.
The program is still locking up and when doing the Ctrl+Alt+Del and ending
the task it is still closing Word also (and it's not the editor anymore)
causing me to have many recovered files when opening word back up. It's
really starting to get on my nerves and I'm thinking of just going back to
Office 2000

Does it lock up when you use Outlook as the e-mail editor?
Does Word function without issues?
Rename normal.dot to normal.old and see if it works now.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----
I have a windows 2K machine with 1.2Ghz Cpu and 512Mb RAM. When I try to
reply to a email and word opens up as the editor my system locks up and I
have to ctrl+Alt+Del to end the "Not Responding" Outlook 2003 instance.
I have completly uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003. i have renamed
the outcmd.dat to outcmd.bat and nothing seems to help.
I can send a email with no problem it is only when I try to reply to an
email.

Any Ideas would be apreciated!!!!
TIA

 

[Alain-3.14159]

i'd realy like to know if this is going to last ?
I have a similar pb, and i delete the normal.dot file its fine ...
for a while. But then all the same as before!
Al

I followed previous advise and found the normal.dot file. Renamed it to
normal.dot.old and restarted. Word starts normally and reset Word as the
Outlook email editor. Apparently original .dot file corrupted as new .dot is
slightly samller size.

Life is sweet

I am encountering the same problem with Outlook 2002 with XP Pro SP2. When
trying to reply or create new mail my system just hangs up. I use
ctrl-alt-del to restart and and get message program not responding. I
unchecked using word as the email editor and outlook works OK.

Think the problem is in Word. When I open Word it's a little slow but does
open. I close word and shut down the machine but a message comes up to close
all Word documents first before shutting down Windows.

Help

Yes i found out today it does lock up when using Outlook as the editor.
I also found another post that suggested the renameing of the normal.dot to
the normal.old and also to just delete the normal.dot file and let Outlook
recreate it upon opening it again.
The program is still locking up and when doing the Ctrl+Alt+Del and ending
the task it is still closing Word also (and it's not the editor anymore)
causing me to have many recovered files when opening word back up. It's
really starting to get on my nerves and I'm thinking of just going back to
Office 2000

:

Does it lock up when you use Outlook as the e-mail editor?
Does Word function without issues?
Rename normal.dot to normal.old and see if it works now.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----
I have a windows 2K machine with 1.2Ghz Cpu and 512Mb RAM. When I try to
reply to a email and word opens up as the editor my system locks up and I
have to ctrl+Alt+Del to end the "Not Responding" Outlook 2003 instance.
I have completly uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003. i have renamed
the outcmd.dat to outcmd.bat and nothing seems to help.
I can send a email with no problem it is only when I try to reply to an
email.

Any Ideas would be apreciated!!!!
TIA

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Normal.dot is a file where Word stores the default template settings and
some Word customizations. When it's getting corrupted it has to be caused by
something. This can be something simply like your PC crashed while the file
was open or something less obvious like a virusscanner, add-ins or VBA
applications/macro's you created. Since this about Word not functioning
correctly (with as a result Outlook not functioning correctly) it's best
that you continue this in a Word newsgroup and find the cause of the
normal.dot corruptions.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-FREE tool; QuickMail. Create new Outlook items anywhere from within Windows
-Properly back-up and restore your Outlook data

-----

i'd realy like to know if this is going to last ?
I have a similar pb, and i delete the normal.dot file its fine ...
for a while. But then all the same as before!
Al

I followed previous advise and found the normal.dot file. Renamed it to
normal.dot.old and restarted. Word starts normally and reset Word as the
Outlook email editor. Apparently original .dot file corrupted as new
.dot is
slightly samller size.

Life is sweet

I am encountering the same problem with Outlook 2002 with XP Pro SP2.
When
trying to reply or create new mail my system just hangs up. I use
ctrl-alt-del to restart and and get message program not responding. I
unchecked using word as the email editor and outlook works OK.

Think the problem is in Word. When I open Word it's a little slow but
does
open. I close word and shut down the machine but a message comes up to
close
all Word documents first before shutting down Windows.

Help



:

Yes i found out today it does lock up when using Outlook as the
editor.
I also found another post that suggested the renameing of the
normal.dot to
the normal.old and also to just delete the normal.dot file and let
Outlook
recreate it upon opening it again.
The program is still locking up and when doing the Ctrl+Alt+Del and
ending
the task it is still closing Word also (and it's not the editor
anymore)
causing me to have many recovered files when opening word back up.
It's
really starting to get on my nerves and I'm thinking of just going
back to
Office 2000

:

Does it lock up when you use Outlook as the e-mail editor?
Does Word function without issues?
Rename normal.dot to normal.old and see if it works now.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----
I have a windows 2K machine with 1.2Ghz Cpu and 512Mb RAM. When I
try to
reply to a email and word opens up as the editor my system locks
up and I
have to ctrl+Alt+Del to end the "Not Responding" Outlook 2003
instance.
I have completly uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003. i have
renamed
the outcmd.dat to outcmd.bat and nothing seems to help.
I can send a email with no problem it is only when I try to
reply to an
email.

Any Ideas would be apreciated!!!!
TIA

 

[Alain-3.14159]

Thanks. But I am not sure its not Outlook because:
Word doesn't crash when Outlook is not running.
Also: if I delete the normal.dot I can use Word as manytimes as I please
without any pb, as long as I do not launch Outlook.
Now you are right : it could be a virus scanner.
I was using AVG. Got in touch with the guys there,
told me could be AVG causing a lag when loading .doc file,
but that the pb had been fixed with the last version.
Unfortunately this didn't bring any change.
Then I also uninstalled AVG and installed Norton AVG,
pb was the same.
So now, don't know what to do!

Normal.dot is a file where Word stores the default template settings and
some Word customizations. When it's getting corrupted it has to be caused by
something. This can be something simply like your PC crashed while the file
was open or something less obvious like a virusscanner, add-ins or VBA
applications/macro's you created. Since this about Word not functioning
correctly (with as a result Outlook not functioning correctly) it's best
that you continue this in a Word newsgroup and find the cause of the
normal.dot corruptions.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-FREE tool; QuickMail. Create new Outlook items anywhere from within Windows
-Properly back-up and restore your Outlook data

-----

i'd realy like to know if this is going to last ?
I have a similar pb, and i delete the normal.dot file its fine ...
for a while. But then all the same as before!
Al

I followed previous advise and found the normal.dot file. Renamed it to
normal.dot.old and restarted. Word starts normally and reset Word as the
Outlook email editor. Apparently original .dot file corrupted as new
.dot is
slightly samller size.

Life is sweet


:

I am encountering the same problem with Outlook 2002 with XP Pro SP2.
When
trying to reply or create new mail my system just hangs up. I use
ctrl-alt-del to restart and and get message program not responding. I
unchecked using word as the email editor and outlook works OK.

Think the problem is in Word. When I open Word it's a little slow but
does
open. I close word and shut down the machine but a message comes up to
close
all Word documents first before shutting down Windows.

Help



:

Yes i found out today it does lock up when using Outlook as the
editor.
I also found another post that suggested the renameing of the
normal.dot to
the normal.old and also to just delete the normal.dot file and let
Outlook
recreate it upon opening it again.
The program is still locking up and when doing the Ctrl+Alt+Del and
ending
the task it is still closing Word also (and it's not the editor
anymore)
causing me to have many recovered files when opening word back up.
It's
really starting to get on my nerves and I'm thinking of just going
back to
Office 2000

:

Does it lock up when you use Outlook as the e-mail editor?
Does Word function without issues?
Rename normal.dot to normal.old and see if it works now.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----
I have a windows 2K machine with 1.2Ghz Cpu and 512Mb RAM. When I
try to
reply to a email and word opens up as the editor my system locks
up and I
have to ctrl+Alt+Del to end the "Not Responding" Outlook 2003
instance.
I have completly uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003. i have
renamed
the outcmd.dat to outcmd.bat and nothing seems to help.
I can send a email with no problem it is only when I try to
reply to an
email.

Any Ideas would be apreciated!!!!
TIA

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Well I wouldn't want to call Norton an improvement ;-)

Do you have any Outlook add-ins installed? Especially ones that create a
toolbar in a new message form? If so it could be this add-in causing you the
corruption and you should check for updates. You can also try starting
Outlook in safe mode and see if it still occurs.

To start Outlook in safe mode;
Start-> Run; "path to Outlook.exe" /safe

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-FREE tool; QuickMail. Create new Outlook items anywhere from within Windows
-Properly back-up and restore your Outlook data

-----

Thanks. But I am not sure its not Outlook because:
Word doesn't crash when Outlook is not running.
Also: if I delete the normal.dot I can use Word as manytimes as I please
without any pb, as long as I do not launch Outlook.
Now you are right : it could be a virus scanner.
I was using AVG. Got in touch with the guys there,
told me could be AVG causing a lag when loading .doc file,
but that the pb had been fixed with the last version.
Unfortunately this didn't bring any change.
Then I also uninstalled AVG and installed Norton AVG,
pb was the same.
So now, don't know what to do!

Normal.dot is a file where Word stores the default template settings and
some Word customizations. When it's getting corrupted it has to be caused
by
something. This can be something simply like your PC crashed while the
file
was open or something less obvious like a virusscanner, add-ins or VBA
applications/macro's you created. Since this about Word not functioning
correctly (with as a result Outlook not functioning correctly) it's best
that you continue this in a Word newsgroup and find the cause of the
normal.dot corruptions.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-FREE tool; QuickMail. Create new Outlook items anywhere from within
Windows
-Properly back-up and restore your Outlook data

-----

i'd realy like to know if this is going to last ?
I have a similar pb, and i delete the normal.dot file its fine ...
for a while. But then all the same as before!
Al

:

I followed previous advise and found the normal.dot file. Renamed it
to
normal.dot.old and restarted. Word starts normally and reset Word as
the
Outlook email editor. Apparently original .dot file corrupted as new
.dot is
slightly samller size.

Life is sweet


:

I am encountering the same problem with Outlook 2002 with XP Pro
SP2.
When
trying to reply or create new mail my system just hangs up. I use
ctrl-alt-del to restart and and get message program not responding.
I
unchecked using word as the email editor and outlook works OK.

Think the problem is in Word. When I open Word it's a little slow
but
does
open. I close word and shut down the machine but a message comes up
to
close
all Word documents first before shutting down Windows.

Help



:

Yes i found out today it does lock up when using Outlook as the
editor.
I also found another post that suggested the renameing of the
normal.dot to
the normal.old and also to just delete the normal.dot file and let
Outlook
recreate it upon opening it again.
The program is still locking up and when doing the Ctrl+Alt+Del
and
ending
the task it is still closing Word also (and it's not the editor
anymore)
causing me to have many recovered files when opening word back up.
It's
really starting to get on my nerves and I'm thinking of just going
back to
Office 2000

:

Does it lock up when you use Outlook as the e-mail editor?
Does Word function without issues?
Rename normal.dot to normal.old and see if it works now.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----
I have a windows 2K machine with 1.2Ghz Cpu and 512Mb RAM. When
I
try to
reply to a email and word opens up as the editor my system
locks
up and I
have to ctrl+Alt+Del to end the "Not Responding" Outlook 2003
instance.
I have completly uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003. i
have
renamed
the outcmd.dat to outcmd.bat and nothing seems to help.
I can send a email with no problem it is only when I try to
reply to an
email.

Any Ideas would be apreciated!!!!
TIA

 

[Alain-3.14159]

Thanks!
I did not mean Norton was superior to AVG, I only tried to get AVG out of
the loop.

About toolbars : none such! right now Office setup is standard installation
with one option only: support for .NET framework in all Office applications.

About safe mode
1) Running outlook in safe mode doesn't make any difference.
2) Expanding on your suggestion I run Winword.exe in safe mode and the pb
disappeard !!!
(I must say the first time (Word/safe), outlook got stuck when I tried to
restore the application window from the Quicklaunch area in the taskbar, but
I could not reproduce the error).

Where do we go from here ?
Do you mean I should always run Word in safe mode ?

-

Well I wouldn't want to call Norton an improvement ;-)

Do you have any Outlook add-ins installed? Especially ones that create a
toolbar in a new message form? If so it could be this add-in causing you the
corruption and you should check for updates. You can also try starting
Outlook in safe mode and see if it still occurs.

To start Outlook in safe mode;
Start-> Run; "path to Outlook.exe" /safe

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-FREE tool; QuickMail. Create new Outlook items anywhere from within Windows
-Properly back-up and restore your Outlook data

-----

Thanks. But I am not sure its not Outlook because:
Word doesn't crash when Outlook is not running.
Also: if I delete the normal.dot I can use Word as manytimes as I please
without any pb, as long as I do not launch Outlook.
Now you are right : it could be a virus scanner.
I was using AVG. Got in touch with the guys there,
told me could be AVG causing a lag when loading .doc file,
but that the pb had been fixed with the last version.
Unfortunately this didn't bring any change.
Then I also uninstalled AVG and installed Norton AVG,
pb was the same.
So now, don't know what to do!

Normal.dot is a file where Word stores the default template settings and
some Word customizations. When it's getting corrupted it has to be caused
by
something. This can be something simply like your PC crashed while the
file
was open or something less obvious like a virusscanner, add-ins or VBA
applications/macro's you created. Since this about Word not functioning
correctly (with as a result Outlook not functioning correctly) it's best
that you continue this in a Word newsgroup and find the cause of the
normal.dot corruptions.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-FREE tool; QuickMail. Create new Outlook items anywhere from within
Windows
-Properly back-up and restore your Outlook data

-----
i'd realy like to know if this is going to last ?
I have a similar pb, and i delete the normal.dot file its fine ...
for a while. But then all the same as before!
Al

:

I followed previous advise and found the normal.dot file. Renamed it
to
normal.dot.old and restarted. Word starts normally and reset Word as
the
Outlook email editor. Apparently original .dot file corrupted as new
.dot is
slightly samller size.

Life is sweet


:

I am encountering the same problem with Outlook 2002 with XP Pro
SP2.
When
trying to reply or create new mail my system just hangs up. I use
ctrl-alt-del to restart and and get message program not responding.
I
unchecked using word as the email editor and outlook works OK.

Think the problem is in Word. When I open Word it's a little slow
but
does
open. I close word and shut down the machine but a message comes up
to
close
all Word documents first before shutting down Windows.

Help



:

Yes i found out today it does lock up when using Outlook as the
editor.
I also found another post that suggested the renameing of the
normal.dot to
the normal.old and also to just delete the normal.dot file and let
Outlook
recreate it upon opening it again.
The program is still locking up and when doing the Ctrl+Alt+Del
and
ending
the task it is still closing Word also (and it's not the editor
anymore)
causing me to have many recovered files when opening word back up.
It's
really starting to get on my nerves and I'm thinking of just going
back to
Office 2000

:

Does it lock up when you use Outlook as the e-mail editor?
Does Word function without issues?
Rename normal.dot to normal.old and see if it works now.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----
I have a windows 2K machine with 1.2Ghz Cpu and 512Mb RAM. When
I
try to
reply to a email and word opens up as the editor my system
locks
up and I
have to ctrl+Alt+Del to end the "Not Responding" Outlook 2003
instance.
I have completly uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003. i
have
renamed
the outcmd.dat to outcmd.bat and nothing seems to help.
I can send a email with no problem it is only when I try to
reply to an
email.

Any Ideas would be apreciated!!!!
TIA