Outlook gives me a "not responding" message and is very slow

[Bruce]

I'm having a problem with Outlook 2003 where it hangs up temporarily and in
general is real slow. I have McAfee Spamkiller 2005 installed, as well as
Acrobat 7.0. OS is XP, I have 1.5mb ram and lots of hard disk on a 2.5ghz
machine. I archived my databases and now have less than 2000 messages in all
the folders. I recently defragged my hard disk. All other applications seem
normal, just Outlook is really slow.

Anyone have any ideas of where to look?

Thanks.

 

[Vanguard]

I'm having a problem with Outlook 2003 where it hangs up temporarily and
in
general is real slow. I have McAfee Spamkiller 2005 installed, as well as
Acrobat 7.0. OS is XP, I have 1.5mb ram and lots of hard disk on a 2.5ghz
machine. I archived my databases and now have less than 2000 messages in
all
the folders. I recently defragged my hard disk. All other applications
seem
normal, just Outlook is really slow.

So what happens when you disable McAfee's SpamKiller, and the e-mail
scanning in your anti-virus program?

 

[Bruce]

No difference. Sorry - should have said that in my first post. Same with
Adobe.

 

[Vanguard]

No difference. Sorry - should have said that in my first post. Same with
Adobe.

Have you tried running Outlook in its safe mode ("outlook.exe /safe")? That
will eliminate Outlook from loading any add-ons that were installed for it.

Have you tried rebooting Windows into its safe mode and checking behavior
then?

 

[Vanguard]

No difference. Sorry - should have said that in my first post. Same with
Adobe.

How about temporarily disabling the firewall? What happens then?

 

[don]

From the Start, run menu?
--
Don

Have you tried running Outlook in its safe mode ("outlook.exe /safe")? That
will eliminate Outlook from loading any add-ons that were installed for it.

Have you tried rebooting Windows into its safe mode and checking behavior
then?

 

[Vanguard]

From the Start, run menu?

Your choice. From the Run->Start menu. At a command prompt in a DOS shell.
Using a shortcut.

 

[Bruce]

Doesn'[t seem to be a firewall problem. Didn't know about the Outlook/safe
option so will give that a try. Also the Win Safe mode.

I created a new .pst file and activity is much more normal, although still a
little slow I think. Am now trying to import critical folder info into the
new pst file.

Thx.

 

[Bruce]

BTW, I found out you can press "control" when you click the icon and all
Office products will load in safe mode. Good peice of info to have......

 

[Bruce]

Outlook in safe mode works great! So I guess that means its some add-in I
have installed. Now to figure out what all is installed and how to un-install
it? The Spamkiller is disabled, but maybe it needs to be uninstalled totally
in order to fix the problem. Will do that next.

Thx.

Doesn'[t seem to be a firewall problem. Didn't know about the Outlook/safe
option so will give that a try. Also the Win Safe mode.

I created a new .pst file and activity is much more normal, although still a
little slow I think. Am now trying to import critical folder info into the
new pst file.

Thx.

How about temporarily disabling the firewall? What happens then?

 

[Bruce]

OK, I learned something on this ordeal. I disabled several add-ins and the
application seems to work now. So nextime I'll know how to diagnose problems.

Thanks, Vanguard!!

Bruce

Outlook in safe mode works great! So I guess that means its some add-in I
have installed. Now to figure out what all is installed and how to un-install
it? The Spamkiller is disabled, but maybe it needs to be uninstalled totally
in order to fix the problem. Will do that next.

Thx.

Doesn'[t seem to be a firewall problem. Didn't know about the Outlook/safe
option so will give that a try. Also the Win Safe mode.

I created a new .pst file and activity is much more normal, although still a
little slow I think. Am now trying to import critical folder info into the
new pst file.

Thx.

No difference. Sorry - should have said that in my first post. Same with
Adobe.


How about temporarily disabling the firewall? What happens then?

 

[Vanguard]

OK, I learned something on this ordeal. I disabled several add-ins and the
application seems to work now. So nextime I'll know how to diagnose
problems.

Most add-ons you can disable. If you are on a domain and using Exchange as
your mail server, you'll need those enabled (probably). After disabling
them all, you could enable them one at a time to see when the problem is
exhibited again. Then contact that add-on author to see if they have a
newer version (some won't work after an Office service pack) or tell them it
is screwing up.