OE5 will not open any messages - reinstall not worked, help!

[Mata]

Hi folks,

I've been having hell trying to get Outlook Express 5 working after a system crash a month ago.

The problem is that it won't open messages, it just states 'There was an error opening this message

An error has occured' which I thought was very informative of it. Hmm.

It occasionally states that there is a problem with the file msimn.exe and that it would help to reinstall the program. So off I go to Microsoft 'support':

I think that this deserves a comedy award

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;257761

So I went through the process here instead,

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;263837

which told me how to manually uninstall and reinstall OE.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled and I've still got the problem! Balls!

I've now spent several days plugging away at this and I'm at my wit's end. Any suggestions?

My OS is Win2k, I've heard that it wouldn't be a good idea to upgrade to IE6/OE6 if I'm not running WinXP. Is this good advice? How can I get at least some version of OE working again? Aaaargh!



I'm a bit frustrated.

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer,

Mata

Animations with a twisted sense of humour

http://www.matazone.co.uk/theotherside.html

 

[joegz]

I think you have a damaged.dbx file rather than a problem with the program files. Have you tried recreating your account (not using the same DBX files) to see if the program behaves?

Also you don't have to have Office XP to use IE6/OE6. joegz
"Sometimes you just need to find out what it's not first to figure out what it is."

 

[Mata]

Thanks!

How would I go about recreating an account?

I love your signoff tag I've done quite well at working out what it isn't so far but unfortunately don't know enough about the systems to know what that leaves to check!

Mata

Animations with a twisted sense of humour

http://www.matazone.co.uk/theotherside.html

 

[jmatt]

To isolate the problem , try another email client .
You can keep your current program.

http://geminisoft.com/geminisoft.eng/

Pimmy - Your personal postman.

Geminisoft Pimmy lets you manage your electronic mail easily and everywhere you are. The full
program may be put on a floppy!
What you can do using Pimmy:

* manage an unlimited number of mailboxes;
* read and write messages on newsgroups;
* check for new messages and be warned about them;
* file messages in folders;
* automatically download mail and newsgroup messages from the mailboxes you desire to one or
more folders;
* read on-line only the message in which you are interested in, not downloading all and
leaving mail on the server until you decide to delete them;
* read a preview of a message on-line not reading it completely or dowloading it;
* delete a message on-line not reading it completely or dowloading it;
* write your messages off-line and send them when connected to Internet, moving all sent
messages in a special folder;
* send messages using different providers easily;
* manage an address book;
* manage different signatures (even with only one mailbox);
* attach files and documents;
* chat with other Pimmy users, even with more than one at the same time.

---------------------------------------------------

http://www.lemley.net/~jon/phoenix/us_index.html

Phoenix Mail is a totally free e-mail program. It has an easy to use interface and supports
multiple mail accounts, Drag'nDrop, Context Menus, Offline Reading, printing, schedules,
replys, forwarding, MIME, POP3 and SMTP. You can manage your mail in different folders and
have powerful filters for sorting them and for spam protection. You get a preview list before
downloading mails and can include a Virus Scanner for an automatic virus protection. You can
fetch and send mails from ALL your accounts with ONE simple mouseclick! Address Book, Online
Help and Setup program are included. Try it!
Phoenix Mail comes with support for the English and German languages. Additional language
support is available as an add-on. Other add-ons are also available, such as a spell checker.
Please take a look at the Add-Ons page for more information.

A modern variant of Phoenix Mail

http://sourceforge.net/projects/roundabout/

-----------------------------------------

http://www.ultrafunk.com/products/popcorn/

Popcorn is a freeware ultra-lightweight POP3/SMTP e-mail client for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
It works as a client/server application, reading mail "directly" from POP3 servers.
It is ideally suited for "on the road" mail access, for scanning, reading and sending mail over
slow connections.
It supports multiple user profiles, enabling you to read and send mail from any number of
accounts.
It requires no installation, no data is saved locally other than a portable .INI file
containing account information.
It is ideal for cleaning up POP3 accounts, removing spam, unwanted mail, large attachments
etc...
It has a mail editor allowing you to compose and send new mail, reply to, forward and re-direct
received mail.
It fits easily on a floppy or other portable (even read only) media, making it easy carry
around at all times.

 

[jmatt]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q247706

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q225254

More possibilities here .

http://www.generation.net/~hleboeuf/ermsimn.htm

 

[sa1boy]

have you access to another pc just so you can check that the mailbox is in tact i work for ntl and you would be suprised at how many peoples emqail username and passwords jusdt create fail and without any warning and you find that you cant get access to the mail if you tried for a year
try logging into your mail on your web server if thats ok completely remove the outlook express account and readd it if you are still having probs you could try modifying your pasword for your mail so it goes to a diff server as it will get recognised as a new account

 

[Mata]

*laughs* jmatt, thanks for all your suggestions, I love your first idea which boiled down to 'your problem is that you are using Mircosoft software therefore it will by it's nature be crap'

I followed the instructions on those support links but to no avail. I was hoping that despite my error not sounding entirely like those ones that those solutions might fix it. They didn't I'm afraid.

sa1boy, thanks for the idea but I know that I can download from the server and that there's no error there, it's just once the mail gets onto my machine that I have the problem.

The problem comes when I try to open a message, and the complete text in the dialog box is 'There was an error opening this message

An error has occured' with no mention of any module or useful sounding code numbers.

The preview pane remains blank with no details filled in in the 'From, To, Subject' sections either. All I get is the title and author name in the inbox section but I can't do anything with it once I'm there.

I would like to get this fixed, if anyone has any more ideas I would be very grateful. In the meantime I'm going to see if I can get PhoenixMail working...

Cheers,

Mata
Animations with a twisted sense of humour

http://www.matazone.co.uk/theotherside.html

 

[jmatt]

Hi Mata , you can have as many email clients installed as you like , they don't conflict .

I use Pimmy , which allows me to read , reply , open hyperlinks , delete , all before I download .

I can email you screen shots of how to configure it , if you want . Let me know .

 

[Mata]

Thanks, I've got Phoenix Mail set up and working fine now.

Cheers for all the help. I do still wonder what happened to OE but really I couldn't give a rat's arse too much anymore since their help pages don't seem to have a clue, the program couldn't tell me and I'm not using something that's programmed by M$ so will probably be ten times more reliable. Hurrah!

 

[haryston]

I've just fixed the same error.

You're gonna get your outlook back.

It's a problem on the address book. For instance, you have already lost all your personal contacts stored before.

Incredibly, the solution is that easy. Open OE5, select File > Import > Address Book (you'll need a valid adress book, so I uploaded one to my website - the link is below).
Select the address book you've downloaded and as magic it will work like a charm.

http://www.temax.com.br/help.wab

(right-click on it to download it - don't mind there's no real address on it)


Good Luck!
Hary

 

[Mata]

Thanks...

I've been using Phoenix mail for a while now, it's not quite as versatile as OE but I do trust it to not die on me constantly.

I just opened up OE to have a go at your solution and the damn thing seems to have fixed itself!!! F***ing M$ weird sh**! I don't know, I really don't... You spend weeks trying to sort the thing out, you try everything under the sun and then you leave it alone for a few months after giving it up for dead and then it fixes itself.

Go figure.

Thanks for the file though, I've got that stored on the PC now so that if this raises its head again I should be able to fix it.

Mata

Matazone's The Other Side -
Animations with a twisted sense of humour

http://www.matazone.co.uk/theotherside.html

 

[OESucks]

Hi all,

I too am facing the same issue with Outlook Express 6 on Win 2000. I can not open ANY mail (not even the initial welcome mail in the Local Inbox!), in fact the same symptoms as outlined by Apr 9 2003.

I think Hary has removed the wab file from his server, whose URL he provided in his last post, as I cannot find it now. Btw, uninstalling and reinstalling may not be possible on this comp, being on a corporate network and everything requires a long process which may not result in anything.

Can someone throw some light on this? Thanks in advance.

 

[jmatt]

Repair IE6

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q318378

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177

http://www.theeldergeek.com/repair_reinstall_ie_and_oe_6.htm

http://www.3dspotlight.com/tweaks/ie6/index.shtml

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/442/

http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/howto-03.html

 

[haryston]

Sorry! The file is online again.

http://www.temax.com.br/help.wab

Good Luck.
Hary

 

[Mata]

As a follow up:

After many months of happily using Phoenix mail software my Outlook Express installation seems to have fixed itself through the automatic updates of Win2k. I'm guessing from this that whatever was causing the problem was a known issue that they just hadn't dealt with at the time of my first enquiry.

To be honest, I think I'll stick with Phoenix mail, I trust it a lot more than I trust Outlook!

So... I don't know what update it was but somewhere in the last six months of Win2k patches was something that cured the problem, but I don't know where! 'Hope this helps someone!

Matazone's The Other Side -
Animations with a twisted sense of humour

http://www.matazone.co.uk/theotherside.html

 

[OESucks]

Thanks to jmatt and Mata for the updates and also to Hary for the file. But, sadly, that didn't help either. I guess I need to take recourse to another mail client, hoping all the while that OE magically heals itself as it did in Mata's case!