OE 6.0 locking up

Re: OE 6.0 locking up


I wouldn't be sure they deleted it. Sounds like it's still there.



Precisely what is going on is something I do not have the information to tell you. And if you were able to give the information needed for that you'd not have this problem so that's really moot. It's easier to focus on what should be done.

And that's to get rid of the email.

Can you tell us more about this, for example can you open the email program without opeining this email? When exactly does the freeze occur?

Is it a hotmail or MSN email address (with a hotmail or MSN OE folder)?

See, there are several ways to do this but I'm hoping it will not require the deletion of your other emails. Maybe if we turn off your preview pane we can load it and then delete the email. There are other similar tricks I want you to try.



I'm not sure, but I'll teach you how to back them up beforehand if that becomes necessary.

As an aside, USE NORTON! ;-)

Re: OE 6.0 locking up


Yes the program opens but that's when the trouble starts.



No, neither; it's her business e-address ([email protected]) and it's coming to my ISP e-address ([email protected]).

(I'm working offline so that's why I'm slow to respond...)

Can you log into your personal account through a WWW interface (instead of OE) and delete the e-mail from there so that OE isn't able to try and open it when it launches?

Ok, so this is my take.
Upon opening Outlook Express I think you are set to go directly to your Inbox folder.

I think the first email there is the virus (because it locks up and more emails are not received).

And I think the virus laden email is loading in the preview pane and locking things up.

Alternately the virus might have damaged OE and it might even have been deleted (but not before said damage occured).

Another possibility is that you still have a virus.

This is what I would do:

1) Run a full virus scan with several AV solutions (e.g. your AV and this online virus scan).

If you determine that there are no infections on your computer we move on to this:

Fisrt try to check your email through webmail, if the offending email is there delete it through webmail.

Next we will remove all your emails from Outlook Express. We will do this so that we can open the program and change the settings without the email loading.

We will put them back afterwards. We will continue to use "we" (as in the doctor's "how are we doing today?").

To do this we will need to find the place where your OE information is stored. Since you can't open OE you will have to search for the folder manually. Mine is located in:

C:\Documents and Settings\MYUSERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{3203D4E4-3933-4654-8ACC-63655A457D5D}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

You might try to use Window's search feature to search for this file: "Inbox.dbx"

Anyway, once you find that folder what we need to do is move "Inbox.dbx" to another folder.

The .dbx files are the files containing all the information about your OE files. You should have one for each OE folder you have as well as others that contain your account data etc.

So by moving the "Inbox.dbx" file to a place like your desktop you are removing all the emails from the OE Inbox folder.

NOTE: I am assuming that the virus is in an email in the Inbox folder. Let me know if that's not the case.

Once that is done, you should try to open Outlook Express.

If it does not crash let's assume that the email is what was causing it. If it crashes anyway we will have to look elsewhere.

So now we need to prepare the program to be able to delete the email without loading it and freezing.

So what we will do is this:

In Tools > Options > General make sure that "When starting, go directly to my 'Inbox'folder" is NOT checked. It's best to leave it this way in the future.

Then we will turn off the preview pane because that is a security risk (it loads portions of the email, and constitutes the act of "opening" the email, a requirement for many viruses).

In Tools > Options > Read make sure that "Automatically download messages when viewing in the Preview Pane" is NOT checked.

Also turn off the preview pane altogether (this is the most important part, the preceeding one was overkill).

Do this by going to View > Layout and then making sure that "Show preview pane" is UNCKECKED.

Now we have some settings changed that might allow us to restore the emails and delete the offender.

Restore the emails by placing the "Inbox.dbx" file back in it's original folder (do this with OE closed). You might have to replace an existing file because OE will create a new one if you view the corresponding folder.

Once this is done restart OE and see if it works.

If it's operable then delete the email (use Shift + Delete so that it does not go to your deleted folder).

And if all my assumptions are right, you are all set. If not we are back to the drawing board.

If this does not work we will try other options, some may require that you reinstall OE or delete all your email messages. Please let us know wha you think about that. For e.g., if keeping your emails is a huge priority we can offer other solutions (but they will be complex, and in some cases risky).

Thanks, fish and Crave. Working on your suggestions...

That's what I did, with the assistance of Roadrunner CS. It fixed it, it appears -- I got a flood of about 200 e-mail after that.

Thanks to both of you for all your help.

Ha! 200 e-mails.. Lemme guess.. 2 were something you cared about.

You might want to turn off the "send and receive at startup" so that it doesn't lock upon opening again.

A few more than that; we did miss some people over the weekend at a location that had changed (and of course, we were only notified at that address). I shoulda come here sooner for help.



Done. Thank you both again.