Posted by jba/fl on 11/4/07 5:41pm
Msg #219670

Outlook Express question

Something funny going on w/OE...I have 5 mailboxes and 2 of them are acting strangely. I have been online searching for some fixes, but just not quite getting the right thing evidently. If anyone has some thoughts, I would appreciate it.

Problem: When I press Send on message, I get a pop-up window "Windows Installer" and the text says "preparing to install" - nothing more, no idea what it wants to install. If I try to cancel or just click on my message to 'send' again, OE locks up and I have to ctl-alt-del to end task. If I wait long enough, about 2 mins., the window goes away, but is replaced with "Outlook Express' window which says "The spell check on this document was halted. Do you want to send anyway?" Click yes, and all is well.

So I thought that I would just disable spell check, but that made no difference.
The 2nd thing that OE does is: after viewing a few messages, then no more come up, and I get message from OE that says:
Message could not be displayed
Outlook Express encountered an unexpected problem while displaying this message. Check your computer for low memory or low disk space and try again.

Outlook Express

The I check, and all is ok. sometimes many messages later, sometimes after 1 message. Has anyone encountered any of this before? Sometimes I just want to buy a boat because I have an anchor.
Thanks in advance.

Reply by JK/TX on 11/4/07 6:02pm
Msg #219676

are your messages created in word? if yes, do you have word opened twice?

Reply by jba/fl on 11/4/07 6:10pm
Msg #219677

No, I use reply button, or create directly there.

Have devoted whole days on MSN to try to fix. If I could just uninstall OE and reinstall, but my windows copy is wipe disc, reinstall. SBT!

Reply by MikeC/NY on 11/4/07 8:35pm
Msg #219692

The first question is: what has changed on your computer? Have you installed any new software lately? Software doesn't suddenly go stupid on its own; when it happens, it's generally because something has changed. It could be something as simple as an upgrade, but something has changed.

A friend ran into a similar problem a few weeks ago. Any Microsoft Office app she started brought up that same "Windows Installer" pop-up. It took a couple of hours to figure out what was wrong and fix it - and we finally traced it to a plug-in she forgot she downloaded and installed.

Reply by jba/fl on 11/5/07 6:55am
Msg #219733

Re: Outlook Express question Mike:

Nothing new installed. But, I did do some deleting of programs that I 'tried' and didn't feel were worth it. I don't like clutter on my computer, this is for business is my attitude. Even used 'uninstall' features instead of just drag and drop, thru 'add/remove' programs.

It has only affected 2 of my mailboxes, not all 5. But then again, I don't use 3 of them very often.

Reply by jba/fl on 11/5/07 7:02am
Msg #219735

Mike: I forgot my manners - Thank you. Appreciate it. n/m

Reply by MichiganAl on 11/4/07 11:04pm
Msg #219709

Basic repair steps for O.E.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/oerepair.mspx

Reply by Sharon Taylor on 11/5/07 12:04am
Msg #219720

Thanks, Al! A friend had a nightmare O.E. problem

and she finally had to spend $$$$ at the local computer repair place to fix it. Our preliminary online research led us to believe that she may gotten an email with a very large attachment and her antivirus was trying to prescan it but taking too long and timing out and starting over and over and over. Whatever was going on, she knew she had gotten an email from a friend with an attachment, but OE would not finish downloading, and until it was downloaded, no other emails could come through, she couldn't delete the partly-opened email, couldn't do anything with OE.
Luckily she's retired and didn't have any emails she couldn't afford to lose, so it wasn't a big loss when the computer geeks deleted her OE and reinstalled it. Not sure what else they had to do, but that was part of the process.
Based on my online research while trying to help her find a solution, that is not an uncommon problem with OE.

Reply by jba/fl on 11/5/07 7:07am
Msg #219736

Re: Thanks, Sharon - your comments are helpful in

understanding this inconvience, am going to give it one more day online w/Al's link, then will find a geek. But not spending $$$$, (I immediately thought 1000's! lol)

To all of you: I am keeping my humor, I am keeping my patience, ---just losing my hair! LOL

Thank you - a lot of gems in this world are here on NOT ROT.

Reply by jba/fl on 11/5/07 7:02am
Msg #219734

Re: Basic repair steps for O.E. - MichiganAl:

I spent the day here last week, and I do mean the day. I tried many things, but don't think much helped.

Question: do I have to do these repairs to the program, or the individual mailboxes?

Another: I can transfer most essential emails to something else, then can I just delete OE and reinstall, and how do I do that? Does MSN have an online fix for this method? I didn't find, but we all know that sometimes that can be hard just to find things.

I just want to avoid unnecessary expense (esp. now), but do understand that sometimes my time more important ($-wise) than paying a geek somewhere who will get it done quickly because they may have already seen this prob. thus attack quickly.

I will go to this site again - one more day, and hope for success. Thank you for your advice.

Reply by MichiganAl on 11/5/07 2:29pm
Msg #219790

One other thing to try

Do you have system restore turned on? That's bailed me out more than a few times. I just go back to a day when everything was working fine. Go to Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Restore. Just understand you'll lose any programs you downloaded since then and have back any you deleted after that.

Reply by jba/fl on 11/5/07 5:27pm
Msg #219834

have done system restore too - I am almost of the

opinion now that something I deleted caused it, perhaps a shared file? Yes, I had all other things closed during remove programs, but just can't figure this out. Did another visit to msn site - have done all that stuff except fiddling w/registry - just not ready to crash! LOL.

I will maintain my humor, I will maintain my humor......

I know it wasn't Norton this time - never had on this computer. It did destroy one of mine.