Miki Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 Today, everytime I try to access Outlook Express whilst online, I getthe ominous message of the system requiring to close down (This is withWindows XP) and then it says this is due to an error and mentionsDrWatson PostMortem Debugger.On googling it appears it is something to do with the Windows system butbeing pretty bad with this type of thing and the whizz kid who normallywould help me back in London, I am stumped...well and truly !! I cannotseem to bypass it all to get to O/Ex, which is of course a bit(actually a rather big) of a pain.For the moment,(fingers crossed) I am able to get to my Worldonline & Tiscali mail through Mozilla Firefox.Any help in this, gratefully accepted...........Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salty Sam Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 Miki,Follow this link: support.microsoft.com/kb/308538/ Alternatively, use your 'System Restore' facility to go back 24 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted October 2, 2006 Author Share Posted October 2, 2006 Hi Sam,Tried the system restore foir 24 hours and it never worked, stillhappening which isa nuisance as we ahve m,eany sigatures that weconstantly need and there are messages on there that I need to see !!Sorry couldn't follow the microsoft help. I tried but it never worked for me, or more likely, I never understood it all !!Any other tips please.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystery tramp Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 Does your error message read - Microsoft Outlook Express has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience?It may be due to 'heavy mail usage'. If so there is an update from Microsoft Support which may help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted October 3, 2006 Author Share Posted October 3, 2006 Thanks MTIt never said that, well it did once a while ago but on this occasion, it was the Dr thingy that came up.This morning I did another System Restore back to October 1st and loand behold it appears to have done the trick, so cheers Sam. I have now sent all my signatures and other often needed "stuff" to myserver and will leave it all on there in case I need it again ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salty Sam Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 Miki,Glad you've cracked it. System Restore is a very handy utility and it's saved my bacon on more than one occassion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted October 3, 2006 Author Share Posted October 3, 2006 Sam, After following your advice before, can you tell me where I can find that bacon now please [:)][;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassis Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 Unsmoked, unsalted, please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted October 3, 2006 Author Share Posted October 3, 2006 Get back in line, I asked first....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salty Sam Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 Give me chance to catch the pig.................Would you settle for a tin of Spam instead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassis Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 JUST GIVE US SOME BLEEDIN' BACON? WILL YOU?Apologies. I get a bit carried away where bacon is concerned. [:$] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meg Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 I bought some lovely bacon back from UK. It is now in the freezer next to the SAUSAGES. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm [:P]Cannibal Cassis, naughty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted October 3, 2006 Author Share Posted October 3, 2006 Sam,See how nasty that Cassis is, give me his bacon as well, that'll learn him [;-)]And thanks but you can keep the Spam, reminds me of summer holidays at Warners !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted October 3, 2006 Author Share Posted October 3, 2006 Don't laugh, the message has happened again !!Too late now, I shall see what I can do in the morning........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deimos Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 Have you installed any other software recently (knowingly or un-knowingly). Have you done a Windows Update recently (or has one been done for you by your PC automatically). Many things can cause the problems you are experiencing, new software updating DLLs, etc. is just one of them.I assume it had been running without these problems for some time before the problem started and no configuration changes made recently (e.g. no accounts added/deleted/modified, etc.)You imply that it works fine when "offline". If this is the case, if you set it to "Work Offline", though with an internet connection available, does it still crash ? If you then do a manual "Send and Receive", does this cause it to crash. If you have more than one mail account, try disabling one, then the other to see if it's specific to one account. If you only have one account, maybe add a 2nd (to a different mail server/host) and see if that one works or if it is any activity checking for mail.Sounds intermittent so I guess you will need to try anything for a couple of days before knowing e.g. that account works OK.Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted October 4, 2006 Author Share Posted October 4, 2006 Thanks Ian,Yes, never had a problem with DrWatson before. Not done any updates to Windows XP lately either.I can't get any further than clicking on the O/Ex icon and as soon asO/EX starts to appear (not any further than the opening O/Ex screen,that's the small pre-entry to the actual lists etc) up pops said DrWatson andliterally freezes on screen in so much one has to start it all up againto get rtid of it ! I now understand well that Dr Watson is part ofWindows anyway and is meant to send error reports to their "engineers"Well after going online and Googling DrWatson and having readmany others with completely differing problems with said chap !!, Icame up with the simplest idea (one other person had similar problems)and that was to close down Zone Alarm (Pro) and try Outlook Expresswithout Z.A running. Well it worked straight away and to assure itmight be Z.A, I tried it running and it several times without and O/Exworks OK when Z.A turned off but up jumps Dr Watson when I try O/Exwhen Z.A is running.......Obviously I need protection when onlineand Z.A has been better than any other protection we have ever had,so....................So what I can do now, any ideas ? Of course I have to look through Z.Ato see if anything is obvious but to a non techie like me, I am noteven sure what to look for ! I notice that Dr Watson is an acceptedpart of Zone Alarm, I wonder if it is safe to turn it off and see whatoccurs ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deimos Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 Try checking in the Zone Alarm logs for events at the time you start Outlook Express (when it crashes) and see if anything is being blocked. I guess it is possible something nasty has got into your Outlook Express and Zone Alarm is blocking that (i.e. something trying to send out on a blocked port). Some firewalls only protect incoming connections and thus offer a lower level of protection - Zone Alarm protects both incoming and outgoing connections. In case you are not sure, in Zone Alarm (depending on your version), check in Alerts and Logs and look for anything around the time Outlook Express crashes that has "Blocked" or "Disallowed" (anything other than "Allowed ()" in the "Action Taken" columnZone Alarm have a forum which is pretty good for support so you could try asking there. There other firewalls and everybody has their favourite - but Zone Alarm is a pretty good one. The only one that might get round the problem is Windows own one - different people have different opinions about it (at least I'm sure there must be somebody out there that likes it - I've just never come across them).If Zone Alarm is blocking Outlook Express it should not be causing it to crash/Dr. Watson. Also, if nothing has changed then Zone Alarm should be doing the same now as it was when all was working OK. Thus it is possible that Zone Alarm is not the cause, but disabling it causes some other change that impacts Outlook Express. However, try looking/asking on Zone Alarms support forum. Also, with Zone Alarm Pro (depending when you purchased it) you might still get support from Zone Labs.The Dr Watson as "accepted" part of Zone Alarm means that Zone Alarm will allow the Dr. Watson to report errors through the network/internet. If you change the Dr. Watson setting in Zone Alarm it will make no difference to Outlook Express. Dr. Watson will still intercept the Outlook Express crash, collect information about the crash but not be able to send it to whoever.Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deimos Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 Just noticed something - What is probably happening is that Outlook Express is crashing. On older Windows systems this your to cause the "xxx.exe has performed an illegal operation" message. Now (and depending of your system configuration), when something crashes, Dr. Watson is started to collect information about what e.g. Outlook Express was doing at the time it crashed. It can also send this information to the developers to help them. Dr. Watson is just collecting the information about the crash - not causing the crash. The problem is in Outlook Express.Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salty Sam Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 Miki,I see you're still experiencing problems.1. Zone Alarm recently issued an update - have you got this installed?2. If everything works fine without Zone Alarm - Get rid of it and use Windows Firewall. It is a component of XP service pack 2 and despite what some may say about it - it works fine. In fact, this may be where the problem lies, are you running both Zone Alarm AND Windows Firewall together?Back to chasing the pig......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted October 4, 2006 Author Share Posted October 4, 2006 Ian,Had a look in Z.A logs but nothing there at the same time. Then lookedlong and hard in O/Ex and nothing untoward there, so hard to know whatto do really ! So for the moment, I am turning ZA off to check mail withO/Ex which means that ZA cannot do its work properly and then switchingZA back on to go on the internet. Or I simply leave ZA on and pick up my mail direct from my server. Such fun !!Sam,Zone alarm is fully up to date and is not clashing with another firewall. Windows even recognises it in its security suite, whilstsaying its own firewall is off. I never got around to SP2 !! butnothing has ever done this before, so...................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tay Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 MikiIf Outlook Express is the main culprit, you could try switching to MozillaThunderbird. It is free to use, more secure than O/Ex and it works inthe same way as O/Ex. You will be able to import all of your emailsfrom O/Ex to Thunderbird, so you won't lose them.Go to http://www.mozilla.org/download.html to download it.p.s. It would be a good idea to get SP2 onto your pc as soon as you can; it's not perfect, but your pc will have more protection if it is in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted October 4, 2006 Author Share Posted October 4, 2006 Cheers Tay,I had Mozilla Thunderbird but after a few problesm, don't think itconcerned Thunderbird but anyway, for ease or whatever, I was back onO/Ex after a spell of using the BAT as my email wotsitI tried twice to put SP2 and finally gaveup............................although being as daft as a brush withthings compooter, it might be on, how do I find out? I leave it all asI said to my whizz kid mate who thoughtlessly went back to London !!Edit: Whoops..Control Panel ....System et voila Service Pack 2 with XP Pro 2002So whizz kid must have done it while I was working ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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