[pamelaviolet]

I've been getting some interesting behaviors in outlook.

When I first start it up in the morning, a window pops up saying that the "personal folders" were not closed properly and it has to search for errors. Sometimes this takes several minutes, but then everything loads.

Sometimes when I'm shutting down at night, I close all programs and then attempt to power down, and get a dialog that says "please close all office programs" (which I've already done). This is a repeater, so the only way out is to just PUSH the BUTTON until things go dark.

Other times when I'm shutting down a "card reader" file window shows up, showing something working (I forget the dialog on this one). Eventually it usually says the program is not responding and I just close it.

I did install office disks today and run a "repair," then shut down and restarted several times. I wasn't getting the problems then, but they usually only show up after the computer's been on all day.

Any ideas on these things?

Thanks!

[inkhead]

What version of Office do you have? This is often a symptom of a hard disk problem, and long term Windows installs. One of the usual suspects are large files in Office. Is your mailbox approaching 4GB? If you have a huge amount of mail, this is one symptom. I used to have these problems all the time. I have a Microsoft Premium developer account, and when I called support about it (which is usually very good), they just tell me to apply updates, run disk degfragmentation, add more RAM, make sure I have more than 8GB of hard disk free, and then to just reinstall the entire windows. Even with Office 2007 it's worse, it went away, and now I've reinstalled Vista 3 times now, office 2007 is the worst, hard freezes the whole window all the time, It does these stunts on all machines in the office. There is a reason people learn to hate/love outlook. By the time they get to really hate it, they are addicted and NEED OUTLOOK. If you can ask around (ask the office Linux geeks) about what else you can use, switch away from outlook.

[Cold Warrior]

I have always found Outlook 2003 to be reliable, assuming the computer I'm running it on is free of hardware and OS problems.

[pamelaviolet]

Yes, you've found me out, I DO have Outlook, and I DO have a huge mailbox. I also have lots and lots of mail with attachments stored in folders in the inbox.

I KNOW I need to get them out of there, but this is a bit complicated. These are student emails with assignments attached. I don't want to store them in such a way that I can't find them and assignments individually. I'd like to get them all OUT of there and stored safely, but I don't want them all turning into a long text file (this happened with one recommendation).

I do wish that Outlook wasn't so complicated with this. I COULD possibly be talked into something else IF it offered me an easier way to archive old stuff while maintaining the ability to easily get it back.

BTW, I used to let Outlook archive, and it was always a nightmare finding what I needed. Getting the stuff back "easily" is the absolute necessary key.

Any ideas?

[Mr_E]

Which version of Outlook?
Prior to 2003, there is a problem with pst files that approach 2Gb.
If you are near that size, you can get the error you describe,

There is also a fix for O2K that resolves a hang on exit, which it sounds like you may be experiencing. You need to get it from support, but I kept the file if you need it.

[peeb]

What are you running this on? Virtually any OSX mail program will do better than OutHouse at dealing with large folders.

[pamelaviolet]

Yes, right again, this is OL2K. One dialogue I received after sending one of those automatic error reports was that I needed to update the OL. I agree, and got my new licensed version from the college, then after install discovered they had sent me the OLD one again. Still same problem (will have a little chat with tech people today).

But I think you're right about the .pst file. That's what I keep seeing showing up in the defrag, and I've KNOWN I have to do something about it. I definitely need to have the time and correct information though, so I can move the files intact as I've described below.

So if I can get the newer version will THAT solve the hang up on shut down? If not, which "support" do you mean? I do regular updates and system scans for updates etc. etc. and haven't seen anything from Microsoft on this.

[pamelaviolet]

Peeb, are you asking what OS? It's XP. On a Dell Dimension with 512 RAM (adding another gig in about 10 days) and a 30 gig drive with 42% free (adding 250 gig external in 2 weeks).

I'm certainly willing to run on another mailer, but it's imperative that the program handle Word attachments, lets me open them, comment, save changes easily, and return them. The college keeps insisting that I use their class platform (WebCT/Blackboard) but the attachments/grading process is cumbersome and time-consuming and I refuse to do comply. (And you all thought that windows users were such lock-step followers!)

That said, I've been experimenting in gmail this semester, and so far do like that system and their storage. If i can determine how I can safely archive that mail and those papers, then my current problem may be resolved.

I'm really open to suggestions for replacement mailers though, provided they meet the needs I've mentioned above, so thanks for any suggestions.

[Cold Warrior]

You can get a decent price with Office 2003 as a student.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by pamelaviolet 

Peeb, are you asking what OS? It's XP. On a Dell Dimension with 512 RAM (adding another gig in about 10 days) and a 30 gig drive with 42% free (adding 250 gig external in 2 weeks).

I'm certainly willing to run on another mailer, but it's imperative that the program handle Word attachments, lets me open them, comment, save changes easily, and return them. The college keeps insisting that I use their class platform (WebCT/Blackboard) but the attachments/grading process is cumbersome and time-consuming and I refuse to do comply. (And you all thought that windows users were such lock-step followers!)

That said, I've been experimenting in gmail this semester, and so far do like that system and their storage. If i can determine how I can safely archive that mail and those papers, then my current problem may be resolved.

I'm really open to suggestions for replacement mailers though, provided they meet the needs I've mentioned above, so thanks for any suggestions.

I'm sorry! I assumed you were running it on a Mac! I used to use Outlook, but everytime my folders got t o4-5gb the thing would implode - I moved to mail on an Apple, and can't beleive the difference. It handles Word documents just fine.

[pamelaviolet]

I'm sorry -- I came over here initially because my Ipod music was taking up so much space!

Yes, you can get some great student discounts on MS programs.

[miir]

I believe from memory the problem is with single PST files exceeding 2gb or similar, I think the solution was to create a new PST file (with a name like archive and some sensible folders inside it) and then move the largest emails into the new PST so that each one is less than 2gb. I am fairly sure this made the problem go away.

[pamelaviolet]

I finally broke down yesterday, after reading lots of knowledge-base articles on Outlook, and allowed it to archive. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I won't need to get to some of those older emails in a hurry, and that the file structure I had set up within the inbox is intact.

It took a LONG TIME to archive, and then as I was shutting down, I was asked to backup the .pst files (which is probably pretty big). I did back up (even though I really wanted to put those files on the external HD when it got here). The shut down process went smoothly after that, and today when I powered up there were no annoying personal folders errors that needed to be sorted out.

BTW, I posted this outlook question on a forum which was linked from the MS knowledge base, and got NO RESPONSE at all. I appreciate those here who have taken the time to help, and also hope that results here may help some Mac users who use outlook. Wouldn't you know, that after that huge backup, my HD arrived at my doorstep THIS MORNING!

[peeb]

Be REALLY careful with archive. It does not do what you think it does!