Application Hang OUTLOOK.EXE While Opening an Excel Attachment

[stevenriz]

Hello, we have a user that occassionally experiences Outlook hanging while opening an Excel attachment from within an email message. After a reboot, everything works again.

It is a new model Dell laptop, Windows XP Pro SP3 with Office 2003 SP3 as well. There are no other messages in the Event Log. Could this be an isolated case where we might just have to reimage the computer and all will be ok? The computer is fully patched to date.

Thanks!

 

[cmeagan656]

Does it only happen with one user of that computer or with all users of that computer?

How large are the attachments? How long does Outlook hang? It could be that your virus scanner is scanning the attachment before opening it and if the attachment is very large then it could appear as if Outlook has hung.

Hope this helps.

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[stevenriz]

Hi, the attachments are very small, under 50k. It seems to hang indefinately. We let it go for minutes and the Outlook screen turns white and nothing happens. The rest of the computer works, just not Outlook or Excel. Once the computer has been restarted, everything works again properly. I may look at the Virus software which is a server client version of Trend Micro OfficeScan. Maybe a reinstall is in order there??

 

[Dillinger99]

Is Excel already open when Outlook hangs? Do the spreadsheets that cause it to hang have anything in common? From the same sender, maybe?

 

[stevenriz]

I don't think the sender has any bearing on this as the same attachments open fine after a reboot. I do not know if Excel is open, my guess is no but I am not 100% positive. We will just have to wait for it to happen agaon to test some more things out. I will check if Excel is in the process list.

 

[stevenriz]

I don't see anything unusual when this happens. I am going to reinstall Office and see what happens. Next we'll have to reimage the laptop. I'll also reseat the ram for the heck of it. It only seems to happen while in the docking station. Could that have anything to do with it? Docking station firmware perhaps? I am also going to call Dell...

 

[fisheromacse]

i have a user who experiences similar issues w/Outlook and Excel, and in every case Excel is hanging on in the task manager processes although it is not listed in the Applications.
If i end the process, then try to open the file, it will usually succeed. This is probably what is occurring after the restart.
I have not found a satisfactory solution yet, but am hopeful.

 

[stevenriz]

Well this is still happening. A 20k Excel attachment will take about 4 minutes to open. Really weird. Nothing in Task Manager. No process taking all the CPU. Then finally it will open. I may post in the MS Office forum to see if anyone has an idea. I am eventually going to create a new image for the laptop when he can do without it for a few hours...