Outlook express problem (IE 6.0)

[ee1209b]

I am having a problem with outlook express. I can download my messages from my mail box at Earthlink just fine but i cannot open my inbox to read mail i downloaded. This started happening all of a sudden. The hour glass just sits there. When i use Control+alt+ delete it says "outlook express provided by Juno (not responding)" When I click "end task" i get Dd help "an error occurred in your program etc." One time I got a box saying Dd help ( red X) this program has performed an illegal operation. I am using IE 6.0 and outlook express 6. I went to microsoft on the web FAQ s and this was not addressed. Can anyone help me with this? I have used the repair tool a couple of times (for IE) but i still have the same problem! My e-mail address is : emt3920@earthlink.net

[kayofcircles]

Welcome to the forum, ee1209 I am sorry, but I don't quite understand. Earthlink is your ISP? And if so, then why are you using a browser tagged by Juno? So, my guess would be that you used Juno in the past, and didn't get "all of it" off your puter..and I think that's probably the problem now. I read here that Juno "uses" their customer's puters for stuff..and there's probably something trying to run in the background.

You need someone to check on this who has had Juno and knows how to rid you of it. Are you using XP?

[YODA74]

Alright first things first Sorry you decided to use a free ISP such as JUNO I could go 0on and on but you have enough problems nuff said.

First thing is to get "JUNO" off this machine completely which means some registry work...Pls. make a back up of your system Then try and run there uninstall you'll probobly get an error saying"Cannot call or load external DLL. Contact your local vendor for more
> information." well they tell you they have no help regarding this error so next go to run type regedit look around for hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\windows\curr entversion\uninstall\Juno and anything that belongs to JUNO and delete it.Again Please make sure you have a good backup copy of the registery available before deleting anything.


The reason for this first is that Juno and free ISP's are exactly that a bunch of free crap. Let us know how you've done and we can proceed from there.

[ee1209b]

Thanks for responses! I am kinda confused still. I am deathly afraid of registry stuff. I had Juno more than three years ago and have downloaded fresh browsers since! I think i made a back-up of my registry but don't remember where i put it now. I am not really sure i remember how to do it and would not know what to do with it anyway! I am usually able to "figure things out" but am just too unsure of this (coward). If I get rid of everything associated with my browser, how will I be able to download another browser? I mean, will i be able to "browse" to microsoft to get a new one?

I have windows '98 ! I do not like xp i have used on friend's computer. I put a good description of my system on my profile. (i guess that was a profile i did)

Thank you so much for your patience and kindness. I am trying so hard to get "good" at doing this. I honestly have so many questions, I don't know where to start!

[Paul Komski]

This sounds like a corrupted inbox.

First try compacting. Highlight the inbox and from the FileMenu choose Folder and then Compact. If you get an "in use" message. Go to another folder and compact it and then return to the inbox and try again.

You can use DBXtract to retrieve messages from corrupted mail folders.

The alternative is to create a new inbox. First find the old one. It is called inbox.dbx and is kept in that identity's OE store folder. You can try to simply search for it or find which folder it is stored in from OE<>Tools<>Options<>Maintenance and Click on "Store Folder", which should display the correct path to the store folder.

CLOSE Outlook Express. Make sure that file extensions are not being hidden. Then find the relevant inbox.dbx file (there could be more than one if you have (or had) more than one identity. Then simply rename it to inbox.old (or delete it if you don't mind losing any messages inside it). When you next open OE it will have created a new inbox with the default "Welcome to OE" message from M$ inside it.

Hope this does the trick - if not then its back to Juno and the registry. The Title bar showing Juno can easily be edited to whatever you like, but that is another days work.

[kayofcircles]

First, not to worry.. ee1209b ..we are started out as newbies with lots of questions. And, even though I no longer think of myself as a newbie..I very rarely go into the Registry, and if I have to, I go in with all the bravado of a mouse strolling through a wolf pack.

Secondly, 98 includes a browser..so all that would happen if you tried to "uninstall" (through Add/Remove) a newer browser is that 98 would roll back to the IE 4 point something it came with. Which was pretty feeble actually..but at least one could get online and such to download better.

And last, please let us know if what Paul suggested works. I am seeing a bunch of IE 6 posts lately..and starting to wonder if it plays nice with 98 at all.

[david eaton]

Kay. Yup, win98SE +IE6/OE6=

David

[Paul Komski]

..and starting to wonder if it plays nice with 98 at all

Those running Win9x/ME and who upgraded to IE6/(OE6) had innumerable problems when IE6 first came out. More recently such problem-posts have declined dramatically, so presumably M$ have either changed the package itself or the installation methodology.

Most of such problems retalted to (a) the way that various url file associations were changed or (b) by installing updated .dll files, which were incompatible with other existing ones. Both would be much more likely to occur (IMHO) if the existing IE was running when the upgrade install was performed; (it nearly always was if one was upgrading from the M$ Update site of course).

The other big "problem" is that unlike earlier versions of IE, version 6 cannot be removed using Add/Remove and thereby return to a previous version. The only easy way to "go back" is to remove IE using IEradicator and then clean install IE4or5 - usually from a CDROM - though all versions can be downloaded from internet sites.

At first sight, ee1209b's problem doesn't seem to be one of the common IE6/Win98 incompatibilities but a specific problem relating to the inbox (or its underlying inbox.dbx file.

Even if compacted regularly, this file can grow to a huge size even though the messages have been deleted or moved to other folders. It is in any case liable to "corruption" and in such circumstances it can appear to work normally but, for example, not allow some anti-virus-checking to function properly.

In a method akin to deleting the index.dat files for temporary internet files, it is not a bad policy to regularly renew you inbox.dbx file by simply deleting it at a moment when it contains no files that you wish to keep.

Another method would be to just create a new OE identity, which would have a pristine set of folders in it just waiting to be used.

[kayofcircles]

Well, I had seen a couple of recent threads where the desire to go back to IE 5.5 had been expressed..which, as you know, is something I can well identify with. The nostalgic feeling that things were better and easier before one changed something..lol. Secondly, because of the IEradicator thing..I had "filed" IE 6 (possibly unfairly) on my mental "no no programs" list along with things like AOL and Norton that stick "parts" of themselves all over the puter so that if one needs/wants to completely eliminate them, it's almost always necessary to wipe the hard drive and start over.

Glad to hear that it's working for you, David .

[david eaton]

Kay. I should have added that it also needs Zone alarm, Mailwasher and AVG!
David

[ee1209b]

Sorry it took so long to get back and say thanks. I got OE to work at long last! I compacted folders and that seemed to solve that problem. My system did not work quite like instructions given but with a little dill dallying i got it to work . Thanks again!