This story may end with a local or remote administrator, but let me not go there yet.
I built my computer to have as much control over its semi-autonomous communications and operations as possible as well as to keep it streamlined for editorial (research and writing) and photography (Adobe Suite and related apps) services. However cleanly I began (XP/SP2 OEM and Office Professional 2007), systems updates and the add-on of the Norton-managed Seagate external backup drive) some things have gone awry. Off the top, Outlook 2007, which involves also the installation of Business Contact Manager and its SQL operations, now hangs in between 45 minutes and a little more than an hour off a cold boot.
Systems diagnostics tell me that Outlook hangs, which is like a doctor telling you that you have a cold while your practically sneezing in his face.
I've done some basics. Chkdsk did not point up repairs while running, but I haven't been able to find a log entry of its report. I need a file or applications path for that (MS Administator Tools are installed--I'm reading them only, so far).
Security software--AVG, Spyware Doctor, and Spybot have been run, and generally turn up cookies I know, and many of which I approve. There is something resetting AVG to profile "Allow All" (not good), and on notification, I've been setting that back to "Stand Alone Computer" and some configuration that I've saved. Configuring the Firewall is a job I consider separate, so far, from sorting out what has been going on with Outlook. Strangely enough, from time to time, the programs opens (always) and closes (unusual now) without an error message. When it does that, I create a restore point--whatever it did, I can at least try to create the conditions for it doing the same again.
If you check out the start date on this thread, you'll see I've been wrestling with this over some time, and I think that has been a good thing because I've come to the conclusion that I'm missing two essential elements in approaching the problem: 1) a method focusing on the Outlook hang issues (there are other problems) that makes me knowledgeable about it and 2) knowledge corresponding with these arcane error message (and I seem unable to use keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste them here--I will, however, transcribe them) and an appropriate response to them.
I think my machine is clean as regards malware (also: I don't operate Outlook from my administrator account); I believe (how do I check) that Net Framework is up to date; the SQL update noted has been for SP3, but some months ago, SP3 and one of the HP printers here refused to gel, so my tech and I rolled back to SP2, and I've been updating that with at least nominal success.
Other relevant software: UniBlue's registry cleaner and driver updater (separate programs). I've found that when I've invoked changes in the system (updates), the cleaner comes up with a lot of registry problems after the reboot, and I let it fix them. So far, so good, but I'm not really certain about what a clean registry means in light of OS updates downloaded and installed.
In some ways, I regard the OS and the programs it supports as children who try to clean up after themselves but leave bits and pieces of their presence behind. Maybe.
This is a warning message typical of an Outlook hang:
"ID: 6, Application Nmae: Microsoft Office Outlook, Application Version: 12.0.6316.5000, Microsoft Office Version 12.0.6215.1000. This session lasted 416 seconds with 180 seconds of active time. This session ended with a hang."
This is the first serious "X" (error, not warning) in this evening's application log:
"The Message Queing service stopped monitoring the mapping folder C:\\WINDOWS\system32\msmq\mapping[Error: 0x5]
There was also a COM+ error earlier, but I'm going to bypass that here for a moment.
This is the most recent computer-generated error remark for Outlook:
"Failed to determine if the store is in the crawl scope (error=0x8001010d)."
Crawl scope?
I don't want to rebuild my box yet, especially if with a little discipline as regards the software one it, its security, and its configuration can be standardized incrementally by dealing with one issue and benchmark at a time.
The most visible problem is Outlook hanging (its process consumes 50 percent or more of CPU capacity throughout the period it's unable to communicate or shut down without control from the Task Manager). What is it doing those resources? Where is the problem really starting either in it or back in the system?
First operational question: would I be better off tackling errors, like the "Message Queing" one, in the order in which I encounter them in the Administrative Tools reports? Or does one concentrate on the critical component--in this instance, the Outlook hang?
Edited by commart, 15 April 2009 - 10:26 PM.