OL98 16-bit form problem - Question that NO ONE can answer!!!

[RobPurse]

We have around 120 machines at the company I work for in London. These machine are all Windows 95 clients connecting to an NT network with the server also running Exchange 5.5.

Until recently the clients were all running Exchange, but we have now upgraded to Outlook 98, which is where the problem starts.

We are using some 16-bit custom forms created with the Exchange Forms Designer. Intermittently, when closing or sending these forms, the machine will hang. There is sometimes a delay before the machine hangs. When I do a ctrl-alt-delete the task which is not responding is a randomly generated name relating to the custom form (I found this by searching for this task name) in the WINDOWS\FORMS directory. If I end task this item the machine starts responding again and does not even require a reboot. Even the custom forms will respond ok without a reboot. Then days or weeks later the machine will do exactly the same thing.

I have searched TechNet and have found an article that seems to be the EXACT fault that we are getting (Q193605), with the exception that this article states that the problem only occurs with WINDOWS NT, not 95. The fix specified does not cure the problem.

Our Windows 95 clients have all current patches installed (that I know of) and OL98 is patched up to the SR virus patch which we cannot use on our network as we sometimes email files that are on the blocked list.

Any advice on this would be appreciated.

Rob Purse
Network Engineer
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[youngjedi]

I have heard of a problem similar to this, with older, Exchange created forms locking up in Outlook, and I believe he just had to recreate the forms. I noticed your post was on Oct 19; on the Jan 2001 TechNet, I see that there was an update to that Q193605 doc, recommending a non-regression tested patch on Microsoft's site. I guess it's one of those "try at your own risk" fixes... Exchange to Outlook upgrades (as with any upgrade vs. fresh install) always cause more problems than you'd wish for; I was fortunate enough to be at a company that only had a handful of Exchange clients, and if I remember correctly, we just did a complete uninstall of Exchange instead of upgrading. Good luck!

youngjedi (MCSE)
bday@plastecheng.com

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