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I don't know why, but Courier [I've been using it since the beginning of.. ups, can't remember the name originally] is crashing more and more. I've tried shutting down various processes, but I cannot find a conflicting program.
Also, I eliminate older emails, but the .box file just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It is up to over 500megs, and when it crashes, it takes many minutes for the program to rebuild the data base. Plus, once it crashes, I usually have to reboot or the next time I use it, it just crashes again. Seems something that is TSR in memory conflicts with Courier, but I can't figure out what.
I would love to stay with courier, but if the crash issue can't be resolved, I will have to move on. will the next version help this issue? If so, when is it going to be available? I am currently using ver 3.50, build 1098.
I would very happily pay for a new bersion, to get a stable program that is free from crashes. real pain!
George
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Can you back up the data and reinstall Courier? Programs and OSs develop bugs the longer they remain on the disk, and I'm always surprised at how much better things work after a reinstallation.
I don't know why, but Courier [I've been using it since the beginning of.. ups, can't remember the name originally] is crashing more and more. I've tried shutting down various processes, but I cannot find a conflicting program.
Also, I eliminate older emails, but the .box file just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It is up to over 500megs, and when it crashes, it takes many minutes for the program to rebuild the data base. Plus, once it crashes, I usually have to reboot or the next time I use it, it just crashes again. Seems something that is TSR in memory conflicts with Courier, but I can't figure out what.
I would love to stay with courier, but if the crash issue can't be resolved, I will have to move on. will the next version help this issue? If so, when is it going to be available? I am currently using ver 3.50, build 1098.
I would very happily pay for a new bersion, to get a stable program that is free from crashes. real pain!
George
I presume you're using XP? Courier 3.5 is prone to crash, depending on your work processes. For example, attempting to send mail while still receiving mail may cause a crash. likewise, emptying the wastebasket while sending or receiving may also cause the problem. there is a known memory leak if you have preview turned off and open/close each mail separately. And... while it's still a beta,and subject to all the quirks that a beta may have, I've been using the beta for months and rarely encounter a crash. of course, YMMV. the beta is accessible from another thread on the BBS. in summary, some use 3.5 with no problems, especially when they're sensitive to avoiding multiple processes. that internal redesign is one of the key aspects of the new beta. thanks for writing.
david
p.s. Sparrow's comments are also valid. A reinstall may help a lot.
DAvid, now I am in real trouble!
I downloaded build 1194. for some reason, it stomped on my old build 1098, even though I put it in a different folder???
It worked well for about 3 days - NO crashes!!! all seemed well.
Then yesterday, the menu window on the left suddenly became a "window" into my desktop, and no menu functions are accessable.
I've tried doing a system restore - to before the problem began. I've tried reinstalling build 1194, and even reinstalling 1098, but nothing changes. I can get email [thank goodness], but the ONLY other thing I can do is empty the wastebasket. I can move the window around, and the part of the desk top that shows through the menu area follows - its frozen.
I will happily buy the "new" courier in advance if that gets me some help. This is really frustrating. I can't find anything that changed - no new software - to cause this. I tried runnning a registry fix program, found a few problems and fixed them, but that wasn't it. I don't know what else to do to get to the bottom of this.
Regards,
George
I just uninstalled all Courier versions, and reinstalled build 1195. I get the same thing. everything seems to work OK, except the menu window [ below the buttons from "compose" to "forward message" is a snapshot of my desktop. The buttons work as normal, but everything in the window is a frozen part of the desktop.
I've never seen anything like this - somehow the prgoram has "lost" one window, and its the same for any version of Courier.
Thoughts?
George
I just uninstalled all Courier versions, and reinstalled build 1195. I get the same thing. everything seems to work OK, except the menu window [ below the buttons from "compose" to "forward message" is a snapshot of my desktop. The buttons work as normal, but everything in the window is a frozen part of the desktop.
I've never seen anything like this - somehow the prgoram has "lost" one window, and its the same for any version of Courier.
Thoughts?
George
Well, whatever is happening is definitely something new. We've never had such a problem reported - ever. You may well be right.... something else seems to be interfering. So, I'll see what I can do, but I'm not sure of the road.
First, do a screen print of what you're describing and email to me.
Second, backup your registry - just to be safe.
Next, move your mailbox to a safe subdirectory, just to be sure it doesn't get deleted.
Then, uninstall Courier. After that, delete everything in the Courier Email subdirectory except the mailbox
Next, make sure that 'rosecitysoftware' is not in your registry. You want to make sure that there are no remaining keys in the registry that relate to Courier email client. Do this carefully...
Then, reinstall 1195. Will that help? I'm not sure. The fact that Courier works for a few days and then stops working properly causes me to infer that there is an external element that is causing this, as you indicated. I'll review the screen print you send with our developers, but I'm not confident of a good answer. I'll get back to you after I get the screen print. Thank you,
david
Dave, apparently I can't have an attachment. how do I send you the screen shot? If you want to send me your email, off line, please contact me at george@ecoology.com.
I'm not sure I'm comfortable messing with the registry. I'll look into that.
George
Dave, is there any chance that the 1194 build has a virus in it?
This all began when I loaded that version, until then the only problem I ever had was crashes, which are acknowledged as "normal" for the earlier versions.
A short while ago, my computer was just sitting here, idling, and the desktop slowly started morphing into a weird configuration - with the bottom menu ending up on the top of the screen. then the screen went all green, and I had to do a cold boot to get back again. Courier was active, minimized, and nothing else was open at the time.
Thinking back, the problem with courier didn't just "happen", first the lower part of the menu structure became corrupted - there were several wastebacket operations at the bottom. then the corruption grew upwards, "eating" up the menu until it was all gone.
I realized that I cannot get to any of my emails that were put into sub folders, all of that is gone. All I can do is see emails in my incoming folder, which was active when this happened.
I'm running several virus programs, but so far nothing comes up. I haven't had a virus problem in several years- since I began using a hardware router.
Since loading the 1094 build, I haven't added or modified any other programs, or made any other changes other than working on data files - CAD files, and Word files, nothing that affects executable files.
This is definately in the "weird" category!
George
Dave, apparently I can't have an attachment. how do I send you the screen shot? If you want to send me your email, off line, please contact me at george@ecoology.com.
I'm not sure I'm comfortable messing with the registry. I'll look into that.
George
TIP: to send email to someone on the forum, click their profile. there will normally be a link to send email.
david
I have been having very frequent crashes with 3.5 on XP lately (my mailbox is much too big, 1.7 GB, I never find time to clean it up.) I am running 3.6 on Vista in parallel with a copy of the same mailbox for a couple of months now and it has been perfectly stable, much more so than 3.5. I have never had to run the DB repair tool on 3.6 Vista yet. Keep up the good work, thanks -- Dan
I have been having very frequent crashes with 3.5 on XP lately (my mailbox is much too big, 1.7 GB, I never find time to clean it up.) I am running 3.6 on Vista in parallel with a copy of the same mailbox for a couple of months now and it has been perfectly stable, much more so than 3.5. I have never had to run the DB repair tool on 3.6 Vista yet. Keep up the good work, thanks -- Dan
Thank you, Dan. We're very pleased with the beta and I'm glad it's working well for you. However, I do encourage you to get the mailbox smaller.... your world turns to dirt if it hits 2 gig.... - and do back it up. And thanks for ending my year on an up note... Much appreciated. Happy 2008 to you.
david
I do encourage you to get the mailbox smaller.... your world turns to dirt if it hits 2 gig.... - and do back it up.
I'd like to take the opportunity to detail what is probably the laziest method to backup and clean out a grown box file. If interested, you could pause all of your mail accounts and close Courier. Then just make a copy of your .box file and rename the copy to whatever you want the backup named. That's it, you can now open up your original .box file, un-pause the account(s), and delete everything while having all of your earlier mails already stored in the other fully functional .box file, as well as a freshly cleaned one The only reason I suggested pausing the accounts is so that the backup doesn't check mail automatically should you open it for whatever reason.
I know this tangent strays a little off-topic from the original point, but I think the box file concept is a great feature (and one I never encountered before) and backing up is one way to take full advantage of what it affords.
I'm not sure I'm comfortable messing with the registry.
I don't normally push unrelated programs on people, but there is a free tool that I find indispensable when hacking the registry. ERUNT is a tiny program which simply backs up the registry (on XP and Vista, the "export" function is inadequate to do this). This way if anything goes wrong you could just run the backup's exe and it will prompt you to restart and any registry changes made by you, any program or virus, is simply undone on reboot.
I don't know how to comment on your original problem ... I have heard of viruses injecting malicious code into exe files, especially messengers and mailing programs. If you're familiar with making checksums/sfv files, you could always make one of the original Courier after a fresh install and then check the sum against courier.exe when it starts acting up again. All a/v programs are only as good as their updated definitions, and it always takes time to make a definition after a malware has been released into the wild.
Another piece of general information, when a program starts acting strange, sometimes that is a by-product of anti-virus programs or software firewalls ... temporarily disabling them (while unplugging ethernet/phone as an optional precaution) to see the program behaves (after restarting it since disconnecting from the net) could at least rule out the possibility that the main suspect programs aren't causing the malfunction.
I'd like to take the opportunity to detail what is probably the laziest method to backup and clean out a grown box file. If interested, you could pause all of your mail accounts and close Courier. Then just make a copy of your .box file and rename the copy to whatever you want the backup named. That's it, you can now open up your original .box file, un-pause the account(s), and delete everything while having all of your earlier mails already stored in the other fully functional .box file, as well as a freshly cleaned one The only reason I suggested pausing the accounts is so that the backup doesn't check mail automatically should you open it for whatever reason.
I know this tangent strays a little off-topic from the original point, but I think the box file concept is a great feature (and one I never encountered before) and backing up is one way to take full advantage of what it affords.
Thanks, Xeno. I like your approach... backs up mail while letting one clean it out. I've never used Courex ( http://www.laurencejackson.com/Courex/ ), but this donateware, as I understand it, is designed to export email from Courier such that it could be reimported. This might be an alternative option, too... but I haven't tried it. Thoughts? thanks,
david
I downloaded Courex, and tried it, EXCELLENT idea!
Easy to use, small program. However, it created a folder structure that was identical to my Courier folders, instead of one - possibly zipped - file.
Now that I have these backup folders, there seems to be no way to use them. No information is given to import back into Courier.
It would be nice to be able to browse these files outside of Courier.
I am hoping I will be able to use the newer, crash-free version of Courier after I solve some nasty Windows problems [aren't they all nasty].
We're very pleased with the beta and I'm glad it's working well for you. However, I do encourage you to get the mailbox smaller.... your world turns to dirt if it hits 2 gig.... 
- and do back it up. And thanks for ending my year on an up note... Much appreciated. Happy 2008 to you. 
