I am using Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180(xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158on XP HE.When OE is started it begins to download emails, but then hangs. The program freezes, and cannot even be stopped with Task Manager. The whole machine has to be rebooted.On restart, exactly the same thing happens all over again.Input would be much apprieciated.Rgds,Brian Love1 person needs an answerI do too

You may have one very large e-mail that is causing this. Log on to your server's Webmail site and see if you can find the offending message and delete it there. Then do the following.1: Do not archive mail in the Inbox or Sent Items. Create your own user defined folders and move the messages you wish to save to them. Empty Deleted Items folder daily. Although dbx files have a theoretical capacity of 2GB, I recommend about a 300MB max for less chance of corruption. Information about the maximum file size of the .dbx files that are used by Outlook Express:http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=903095 2: After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually while working *offline* and do it often. Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders are open. Then: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until the compacting is completed. 3: Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 For some programs, turning it off is not enough. You may have to uninstall it and reinstall in Custom Mode and opt out of e-mail scanning when offered. Bruce Hagen MS-MVP [Mail]

Thanks for this. I'll give it all a try and see what happens.Rgds,Brian

In passing it may be worth adding that when all this started I assumed that OE6 must be corrupt, and went to find the latest version to install. What I found, of course, was Live Mail. So I downloaded and installed LM - only to find that exactly the same thing happened: it hangs after downloading half a dozen emails and cannot then be stopped without rebooting the whole machine.Rgds,Brian

That pretty much confirms that it is a large or corrupt message and needs to be deleted at the server.Another way, assuming it is the size that's involved is create a message rule.Where the message size is more than sizeDelete it from ServerClick on Size and set it for about 500KB.Click: Apply Now. Go back to the Inbox and click Send/Receive. This should get rid of the message. (And maybe a few others). Remember to go back into Message Rules and either delete the rule, or uncheck it so you can use it in the future. Bruce Hagen MS-MVP [Mail]

Many thanks for your input. I followed the instructions and we seem to be running again. It was necessary to delete almost every email on the server, but that is a small price to pay to be up and running again.Rgds,Brianps. In passing you may be interested to know that although the 'Alert me when someone repsponds to this post' box is checked I do not seem to have recieved any notification of your responses. And finding the way back to this spot proved a real nightmare, as using search on the windows answers with the name of the thread did not produce a result.

You're welcome & glad you got it resolved. Regarding the alerts, they haven't been working at all for two days, but on Wednesday, they were here, however late they may have been.As far as navigating back to this post, all you need to do is click My Threads under your name and avatar. Bruce Hagen MS-MVP [Mail]