Memory Issue

[ep2002]

Hi everyone,

I've been having problems with my machine for a while now even though we upgraded about 4-6 months ago.

OE keeps causing the machine to go nutso & most of the time I can get it under control & then it will do it again several hours later until I have to reboot.

It's so bad now, that I have to reboot once every 2 days instead of the once every week I had to reboot b4.

I'm on Win. 2000 Proffesional & I'm now using 1.0.4 of FF which has a lot of bugs I've noticed :(

I use OE only b/c TB sucks as an e-mail program.

I find it happens mostly when I have a lot of e-mail windows open, but it was never this bad b4.

Oh & I now have 1 GB memory & that's still not helping.

Oops, almost forgot. I scan regularly with Anti Spyware & Anti Virus & update too, so that's not the issue.

Please help :(

Thanks

Michelle

[DMR]

Open the Event Viewer utility in your Administrative Tools control panel and see if there are any helpful error/warning messages in your System and Application logs.

[djrivera1]

Depends if you are use ECC OR NON ECC RAM. Some motherboard do not use ECC RAM which is why you might work for hours then force to restart or get the blue screen of death. Replaced ram with non ECC RAM or different band and see what happen. if this doesn't work supect video card.

[ep2002]

My RAM is neither of those. Isn't that outdated RAM?

I have DDR RAM

Thanks

Michelle

[djrivera1]

Ecc And Non Ecc Is Not A Type Of Ram!
(ecc Means Error Correction Control.)
Some Motherboards Can't Use This Type Of Ram, And Yes They Are Ddr Rams. You Can Tell What Type Of Ddr Ram Because It Usally Stated On The Packaging Of The Ram It Usally In Small Print If It Ecc Or Registered Ram Because All Ram Is One Or The Other They Both Will Fit In The Slot, And Work But Will Cause System To Shut Down Or Blue Screen Of Death Or Restart Programs Don't Work Right. Changed Ram First And See What Happen After All You Can Always Bring The Ram Back If It Doesn't Work. Then Next I Would Look At The Video Card Going Bad.

[JoetjeF]

Please give the information DMR asked for in his post and any other error message you see. It's otherwise very difficult to diagnose the problem.

[ep2002]

Ok, we checked & this is what we have...

DDR 400 non ECC & my MB is supposed to take DDR 266, so is this going to be an issue?

They want like $200 for a 1GB stick :(

The problems I have are w/ OE. If I search & find too many different e-mails, it starts to crash & I have to close down ALL the OE windows including search boxes & then restart OE.

It's very annoying & time consuming, especially when I have to search thru local folders which has to search over 12,000 e-mails.

Thanks

Michelle

[djrivera1]

Outlook express will crash because it a java based program that rely on the ram working correctly.
You can get this ram for $46.50 for 512 mb just get two to make 1gb
here the links.
1.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145024
Here another for $54.00
2. http://www.amamax.com/mmddrc022n184266512.html

Hope this helps.

[ep2002]

Hi there,

Thanks for that.

I'll pass this along to my partner, but remember I'm in Canada, not the US & he told me that one company wouldn't even ship to Canada which is nuts IMO.

Have a great day :)

Michelle

[DMR]

Outlook express will crash because it a java based program that rely on the ram working correctly.

No offence meant here, but all programs use RAM and rely on the physical memory working correctly. This has nothing to do with Java in particular, and additionally, since ep2002 has indicated that the problem is only with OE, that would not point to a problem with RAM in general.

This might shed some light on the real root of the problem though:

The problems I have are w/ OE. If I search & find too many different e-mails, it starts to crash...

If your problems really are only with OE, and you're also asking OE to deal with a very large number of messages, the cause is almost certainly not due to bad or mismatched RAM, but rather the fact that Outlook Express has known limitations in terms of the maximum size of its folders (Inbox, etc.). Iif you have allowed a huge number of emails to pile up in your different OE folders, the program will crash because you've exceeded (or are approaching exceeding) the size limit of those folders. The size limit on OE's files/folders was 2Gig last I checked, and I don't think that has changed recently.

[djrivera1]

No offence meant here, but all programs use RAM and rely on the physical memory working correctly. This has nothing to do with Java in particular, and additionally, since ep2002 has indicated that the problem is only with OE, that would not point to a problem with RAM in general.

This might shed some light on the real root of the problem though:
If your problems really are only with OE, and you're also asking OE to deal with a very large number of messages, the cause is almost certainly not due to bad or mismatched RAM, but rather the fact that Outlook Express has known limitations in terms of the maximum size of its folders (Inbox, etc.). Iif you have allowed a huge number of emails to pile up in your different OE folders, the program will crash because you've exceeded (or are approaching exceeding) the size limit of those folders. The size limit on OE's files/folders was 2Gig last I checked, and I don't think that has changed recently.

Outlook express rely on ram more charging amost all the bank on the ram itseft which is way it will crash the system with this program more. (True all program rely on ram to work, but some program, java based programs rely on ram more using most of the banks) More likely it the Latency timing, and the motherboard proably only can accepted 512mb on each slot 1gb on a slot on these older motherboards can cause problem like programs cause blue screen and so forth. ( even thought board accepted only 512 dimms poeple put 1gb in it and the board read the full 1gb and loaded windows but will crash more offen) and she using ddr 3200 when the motherboard only can use 2100 non ecc.

[/QUOTE=ep2002]Ok, we checked & this is what we have...

DDR 400 non ECC & my MB is supposed to take DDR 266, so is this going to be an issue?

[/QUOTE=djrivera1]Yes if you reach limitations or are closed to it will crash the program but not the system and then it work ok for a fews minute and crash again. ram is more likely a mismatch causing problems.

[djrivera1]

It proably cheaper to replaced the motherboard then the ram, look at the price for some of the stores in canada and ram is to high price and then you have a 1GB stick laying around, buy a new motherboard you can find one that can use your stick of ram and processor you be good to go. If you what links to where or what kind of motherboard you will need, need to know name and model of pc or processor type.

[ep2002]

Yes I had a feeling OE was the real problem, but if the memory is a problem, that needs to be resolved too.

Question... Since OE is too jr. a program for me, any suggestions on which e-mail program to switch to that has all the features OE has & more?

I have been looking for a while, but nothing seems to be there.

Is Outlook better, or is it just OE with a few extra features I don't really need like the reminder etc.?

TB won't work b/c it's still too buggy & when I went to import all my e-mails, it wouldn't import the "sent" folder which is crucial for me.

Thanks :)

Michelle

No offence meant here, but all programs use RAM and rely on the physical memory working correctly. This has nothing to do with Java in particular, and additionally, since ep2002 has indicated that the problem is only with OE, that would not point to a problem with RAM in general.

This might shed some light on the real root of the problem though:
If your problems really are only with OE, and you're also asking OE to deal with a very large number of messages, the cause is almost certainly not due to bad or mismatched RAM, but rather the fact that Outlook Express has known limitations in terms of the maximum size of its folders (Inbox, etc.). Iif you have allowed a huge number of emails to pile up in your different OE folders, the program will crash because you've exceeded (or are approaching exceeding) the size limit of those folders. The size limit on OE's files/folders was 2Gig last I checked, and I don't think that has changed recently.

[djrivera1]

Even though there are limits to OE, system suren't crash, I would say OE was a problem if it crash every time you try loading it or try to get in your inbox, but every few min's or somtime hours indicated a ram problem. (But just incase it is a outlook problem or you exceed the 2gb limit try recovering you mail with this program. http://www.oemailrecovery.com/recovering-email.html
this will also help you get lost emails backand import them.
Hope this help

[ep2002]

Hi there,

I wish I would have had that link ages ago & yes, I have had problems with what you mentioned.

There are times that when it gets bogged down, that if I X out of it, but don't close down all the other e-mails that have windows open or I have "find" windows open & then I reload OE, it doesn't show me all the e-mails.

It will pick a day & give me only up to that day which could be 1-2 days earlier or even a year earlier.

Then I have to close down all the windows & then restart it to get ALL the e-mails.

It's very very frustrating & I can't believe no one has created an e-mail program that works well with an office.

I'm not a large corporation by any means, but with all the stuff I subscribe to & running a biz, I'm well over 11,000 e-mails in my inbox & that's not including all the e-mail in all the folders I have under "Local Folders".

Thanks

Michelle

[DMR]

1) A pretty definitive way to figure out if RAM in general is the root of the problem is to download and run the (free) memtest86 RAM-testing utility.

More info on from an earlier post of mine on the subject:

Download and run the free memtest86 RAM-testing utility. It runs from a bootable CD or floppy, and it will do a pretty thorough battery "stress tests" of your RAM and give you the results of any errors it finds. Let the test cycle run for a few hours or more for the best results.

Also- If you've got more than one RAM module installed, run the computer with only one of the modules installed at a time. If you find that the system only crashes when one particular RAM module is being used, replace that module.

2) Unfortunately, Outlook suffers from the same message/folder size limitations that Outlook Express does IIRC; if your problems lie in that area, a move to Outlook won't help. You said:

I'm well over 11,000 e-mails in my inbox & that's not including all the e-mail in all the folders I have under "Local Folders".

That could very well be what's doing you in; you need to be dilligent about deleting old/unwanted messages, or do periodic backups to some other location to get those old emails out of your "active" folders. I've had a few of my "real life" clients let the contents of their Outlook/OE folders grow too large, and the recovery processes were not fun.

3) In terms of Thunderbird: while it definitely does not have all of the "bells and whistles" of the full version of Outlook, the latest version of TB at least has a 4G mailbox limit, which is twice that of Outlook/OE. I've sucessfully used TB as one component of the recovery process in cases where my clients have "blown up" their Outlook mailboxes by exceeding the size limitations of those programs.