Outlook not responding when starting

[epochap]

Slowness in Starting up outlook.

Windows 2003 ADS,
Exchange 2003 running on Windows 2003.
Outlook 2003 SP3 cached mode running on XP.

Issue:

Outlook takes 15 to 20 minutes to get launched.

Many users said, without network it opens up fast, the issue is happening only when they open the outlook2003 on office network, especially when connected for the first time in the morning, every day. When restarting outlook the second time it opens up fast.

The outlook will be in Grey Background screen for 10 to 15 minutes and then opens up, task manager will say outlook not responding for 15 minutes until it opens up. This is happening for few users in one office consistently, while others don’t face the issue. We tried recreating the ost, and profile etc, it is not helping us to fix the problem permanently. OST file size might not be an issue here since few users are who are facing the issue are having less than 1 GB OST size.

Any help in resolving the issue is appreciated.

/A

 

[robmazco]

All users?
Do any of these machines go out of the building at nite?

Maybe its just an Add-in, I would remove all but the essential ones, especially iTunes add in, Ive seen that throw Outlook off center.

 

[noveyron]

Have a look at inbox size on the problem users - Do they have a gig of mail in the inbox root? If they have, get them to create subfolders and file mail appropriately, see if there is any improvement.

 

[epochap]

Many of the users in the building, (Say about 10 percent of the users) are facing the issue, while other dont have the issue. all the users facing the issue are having laptops and are taking it out of office every day and connects the laptop back in to the office network every day. while connecting the laptop , booting the computer, starting the outlook, the issue happens. when they close and reopen outlook, it is opening up without any issue/ slowness.

We dont have itunes plugin anywhere in our network and i tried disabling McAfee email scan plug-in. i will try disabling all the plug-ins.

The problem happens with different users with different mailbox size. some users have less than 1 Gig mailbox and they did arrange the mails in folders under inbox.

/A

 

[robmazco]

ah, so just the users who take it out of office.
Check to see if Cached mode is on. Strangeness Ive seen, if its checked, then uncheck it, if its not checked, then check it.
Also make sure download full items is checked.

 

[epochap]

Download full items is selected on all the computers (since we had issues with Download headers and then full items when downloading large attachments).

Exchange server is not in local office (it is in central office connected by 2 meg link)., so we have all the client cached mode turned on. I think turning off cache mode will not help in our case since mailbox access will be slow accessing over WAN.

 

[robmazco]

For me 2 tests I would try:

Leave one laptop in office turned off, come in next morning and turn on, see what happens.
Also, try unchecking cache mode, synch, recheck cache mode, synch and see what happens.
I still have sneaky suspicion with cache mode.

 

[58sniper]

Have a look at inbox size on the problem users - Do they have a gig of mail in the inbox root? If they have, get them to create subfolders and file mail appropriately, see if there is any improvement.

It's not the size of the email that matters. It's the number of items. If the users have thousands of items in their key folders, like Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, etc, they will suffer substantial performance degradation as Exchange needs to create the views.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[noveyron]

Er thanks Pat, that was what I had in my head, but it didn't make it to the keyboard accurately