Hang when attaching a file in Outlook 2002 (SP2)

[DavidProkopetz]

I have a problem with a particular computer running Outlook 2002 (SP2) on Windows XP that's got me stumped. When composing a new message, if I select File > Insert on the menu to insert an attachment, Outlook displays an hourglass, and stops responding. This occurs the moment I click on the "Insert" menu item; the file selection dialogue does not appear. No other applications are affected - it's just Outlook that no longer responds. In addition, if I attempt to close Outlook via the task manager, an error message is generated indicating that the process cannot terminated because it is in a debugging mode.

Unfortunately, this error is not consistently repeatable; it occurs about once a week, on average. I would like provide more detailed information, but I have been unable to reproduce the problem today.

 

[mattjurado]

Yeah that's going to be tough. May be one of those things you live with, only occuring once a week. If it happens every day, then you can do things such as disabling your antivirus, testing communications, etc... But a week, I personally would just ignore it. If it becomes more frequent, then I can fix it.

Matt J.

Please always take the time to backup any and all data before performing any actions suggested for ANY problem, regardless of how minor a change it might seem. Also test the backup to make sure it is intact.

 

[DavidProkopetz]

True, it doesn't come up all that often. However, when it does, it creates quite a mess. Outlook cannot be shut down by _any_ means; trying to terminate its process rather than ending task on the application itself produces either no response, or an "Access is denied" message - even when using an administrator account. The system can't even be restarted or shut down properly, because it will wait forever for Outlook to close; every time it happens, I have to do a hard reset, which invariably causes disk errors and necessitates a lengthy scandisk.