OE won't print, also other problems

Hi all

apologies if I am missing something basic here, but...

I'm just changing from AOL, thus starting to use Outlook Express - and I can't get it to print either from preview pane or opening the message into a separate window - doesn't do anything at all.

also, I'm pretty sure that the "automatically add people who I reply to to the address book" isn't working.

and - the checkbox described as "Tools menu, clicking Options, clicking the Read tab, then selecting the Automatically Show Messages in the Preview Pane check box" - just ain't there! (that's from the readme.txt, not the help itself)

I suspect other issues also (heavy ones, like bad crashes when running Word97 as well as OE)(Ctrl and Alt are ?getting the wrong way round - like Enter gives Properties, mouse actions like you have control down when it isn't - also Shift wrong way like Caps Lock on when it's not - putting Caps Lock "on" (so that the LED's lit) then turns it (the actual function) off - Windows Explorer mouse actions behave as if Shift or Ctrl held down - there's more going wrong than I can put in this box. Some of these seem to reset if I do ShiftEscape??) , but these few have got me busy for starters - particularly as I have no familiarity with OE so don't know what it's meant to do "normally ". ***edit: but whatever it's meant to do I don't think it's meant to do this!

I've tried ripping it (OE) out and putting it back in from the W98 CDROM - no difference.

re: the print problem - the PC has only one printer installed; else I'd try making something else the default and then setting it back - but don't have that option.

OE version: 4.72.3110.1
Windows 98 (not SE)
also have Outlook (as part of Office97) on the machine - can they upset each other? - I haven't played around with Outlook yet, like trying to print from it - too busy trying to suss this - 10 mins then crash (can't CtrlAltDel - all frozen) followed by 30mins obligatory scandisk - all other apps. on the PC will print normally

Help please! - best wishes, Hugh
PS have done AV scan nothing found.
***edit - PC didn't crash much before using OE, been using Word97 on it for some time***

 

1) Did you completely uninstall AOL?
2) What browser/version are you using and where did you get it?
3) Are your virus defs up to date?(several free online scans available, look in the security/virus board for links)
4) Is your Win98 up to date?
5) Keyboard, sounds like someone spill a beverage on it? You could unplug and take to a friends and narrow down if its the keyboard or your computer.
6) Did you uninstall/reinstall the printer with up to date drivers?

My SWAG, leftovers from AOL.

 

Hugh Jarss--That is a pretty old version of OE. Might pay to download and install a newer version which will also have all the security patches MS has come up with in the last two-three years for OE.

 

Hi aleekat, Welshjim and all -

re aleekat's points:
1) Did you completely uninstall AOL?
no it isn't uninstalled at all as yet - we have to use the two ISP's for a change-of-address period. I realised this could give hassles but everything went really well until I tried to copy from Word97 and paste into Outlook Express - the the excrement impacted the air impulsion system - blam. One crash after another. Before this point OE had been fine (apart from not printing, and the address book hassle). Can put people into the address book manually OK...
2) What browser/version are you using and where did you get it
IE 5.00.2314.1003IS - I think that it came with AOL - its been through "mend IE" a few times...
3) Are your virus defs up to date?
bang up to date <24hr, we always are (unless we can't get online for some reason) - using EZ Antivirus 5.4
4) Is your Win98 up to date?
very probably not!
5) Keyboard, sounds like someone spill a beverage on it?
absolutely not, and I have spare keyboards here to swap. We have 4PC's running (although the others are 486s)
6) Did you uninstall/reinstall the printer with up to date drivers?
no and I don't want to - except as a very last resort. The printer works fine with all the rest of Windows (even IE give or take the normal overlap), with Adobe, Generic Cadd, OrCad, PaintShopPro - everything else. I mention the CAD packages as they both have rather funny printer drivers, and even those are chatting to the spooler fine. (yikes that was fun to sort out - not!)It's only Outlook Express that wont play. Also, when I reinstalled "updated" drivers for the modem it stopped it working (until I put the old ones back); since then I've been a bit sceptical that more recent neccessarily implies better, although clearly sometimes it does. But everything else communicates fine, just like it always did...

From reading around, and also trying to fault-bust a bit at this end, it's clear that as Welshjim says it's a really old version of Outlook Express, and as I have the Office97 Outlook on the machine will give that a try. I didn't at frist as I was too busy setting up 8 pop and smtp accounts (complete with my typing errors! - with hindsight, I'm sure that it would have easier without the typing errors.) Now I know the mailboxes are working OK I can play around more at this end. As Outlook Express seems to be the common factor, and heck! it doesn't even have the checkboxes its readme says it should. It's like the help's for a different (more recent) version - I'd like to banish it. But, it did come from the W98 CDROM...

Doing another bit of checking produced: that the file that I was working on (using Word97) for a friend had originated from a far more recent version of Word, and that he hadn't saved it in Word97 format. I'm wondering about this - trying to tweak up a web page authored using Word9 I found that I couldn't even read the thing (used Notepad instead in the end!) have now been in touch and got him to send a copy in Word97 format, will try to repeat conditions and see what happens this time (I did get it to repeat once before, but not every time)

The reason why I went on a bit about the keyboard symptoms was that there's a bit of a pattern here; similar things have happened in the past but only very rarely. I was hoping that someone would answer "Oh I know what that is" - this has been fascinating me for a while but never got round to posting about it and couldn't work out which forum to put it in anyway. I suspect the answer (or at least a good hint about it) lurks at 0000:0418 and have written an exe to look at that (and also get the INT16 version of the same; but INT16 might just be getting it from that byte - I don't know)

re: the apparrent reversal of shift state: I've found so far: gets worse if Windows really overloaded. (happens for us quite a lot as we only have a 100MHz P1) Often will show using Windows Explorer, trying to select one file gives the whole block (back to the last file selected) - annoying as can't persuade it to select only one BUT can get out of this mode by ShiftEscape (90% if the time) - which also works in other apps when the thing behaves as if the CapsLock's the wrong way. But I really don't know what's behind it or why, it's just something that happens every once in a while - and probably more for us than most people, we often have kernel-processor at 100% for a minute or so.

Apologies for length of reply and thanks for your interest, all...

Best Wishes, Hugh.

 

aha getting somewhere at last: Microsoft KB226223
it's a known problem if IE upgraded without upgrading OE as well -
now, why didn't I think of that?

Good Luck All, Hugh.

 

Glad you got it solved.

 

Hugh Jarss--Yes, indeed.
And please do not take the following comment personally.
I hope lots of others read this thread. It helps diagnosis when info on the versions of OS, browser and, in this case, Outlook Express involved are given. You gave two of the three, but the missing one may have been the key.

 

No offense taken. What makes this board work is when people post back what they have tried that worked/didnt work.

 

Hi Welshjim, aleekat and all

Welshjim, you make very good sense - impossible to faultbust a situation without knowing the background - here, if I'd thought to put the IE details into the first post (rather than into my second hopelessly long rambling) and preferably adjacent to the details for OE, it would have made the situation far clearer. I did get blown off-course by thinking that it was to do with Word and OE, 'coz that was what appeared to be causing the crashing...

aleekat also along the right lines thinking about the AOL software, although in this caase the seeds for this particular little problem were sown long, long ago when we first put AOL onto the PC - it upgraded our IE at the time - of course it didn't upgrade OE in sync as AOL has its own email client, thus why provide another?

One thing that I noticed when going through the M$ knowledge base articles - that it's made (more) confusing as some of the time OE is considered a component of Windows and other times it's a component of Internet Explorer - with hindsight perhaps it's better thinking of it as belonging to IE - as I could reinstall it from my W98 CD but that just put back an incompatible version.

Thanks for all your help and interest, all - now I must get back to sorting out my fried COM port (long sad story)(taking so long as the Compaq's lost its BIOS setup partition)(I'll never trust a moulded mains lead again )

Best Wishes, Hugh.

BBS works better when people post the answers as well as the questions...
...but it works best if the size of the postings is kept smaller than my long ramblings...
...don't leave out the details, though!HJ

 

Never mind.

I failed to see the reply that said the probem was solved.

BillyBob

 

LOL, lol!

BillyBob you have a way with words, my sentiments exactly.

Hugh when you do uninstall AOL. In addition to and after add/remove use find to search for and delete everything to do with aol.

D/L RegCleaner use it to finish up. Be sure to clean the startup list of aol turds.

But you should be able to remove it now from your computer even before you cancel your account. If all you need is your email then check it from the browser, emailanywhere or whatever aol calls it.

If you use Instant messenger it works without the aol browser.

Mike

 

Lol, lol,lol.

But I saw your message before you edited it BB!

Mike

 

Hi all

looks like I missed something there... never mind.

Solved? - yes well the bits that were really bugging me are fixed - the primary hassle was that OE wouldn't print and the address book was't working - exacerbated by me being a total novice about OE having been relying on AOL for email ever since we went online.

Recent hassles with AOL forced us to another ISP which will turn out for the best in the end - but the timing was oh so bad and I had to get things (at least the email) happening somehow, PDQ - the trouble was indeed that OE4 doesn't like IE5, overlaid on top of other (perhaps separate) issues which I'm still working on. The crashes stopped when I persuaded my colleague to send me his text saved in Word97 format - rather than Word-something-bang-up-to-date format (don't know what, sorry)(his PC) - I still don't know whether that was the problem as the change in OE version was contemporaneous. Had to get text to his publisher in a rush, you see - panic stations.

Which is why I didn't post back about that bit - it would have been misleading and my posts always get too long anyway. I did have the conditions leading up to crash (nearly) sussed - complex though: select block of text in Word, copy to clipboard, switch to OE compose message window, attempt to paste in, Crash. But only if the block of text is still highlighted in word and if something's occupying the sound channel (like Winamp on pause) I think all these are neccessary. It is also likely that having the original text in a non-ideal format might have been part of it - sorry guys, it's one we'll never know now.

Because of the complexity and my uncertainties about other things - like task scheduler - I thought it better to leave it out as the primary problem went - as soon as OE5 arrived - which was what the M$ KB article said to do. No more crashes.

I think the Winamp involvement isn't Winamp specific but more to do with the PC not being able to make it's error noise - (NB it didn't beep either) which comes through ~ +15dB re: the level that I use for music and makes me jump out of my skin.

From this (no beep either) I suspect that the crash was actually just before that point. If that's the case (very big if) and it's also true that the sound channel has to be "blocked ", that narrows it down considerably - but ?why waste of time on it as problem solved by OE5, and M$ say "Expect trouble with OE4, IE5 "

I did get it to repeat twice (as details above) but not the third time... so couldn't guarantee a repeat situation; plus the deadline for getting the text done was putting a certain push on the situation - have to use the computer sometimes, as well as try to fix it. Which is b. awkward when the two coincide.

I do promise to banish the AOL relics fully somewhen - had already got as far as diving into the registry to lose the spinning AOL logo, also changed "Microsoft Internet Explorer provided by AOL" to "Microsoft Internet Explorer provided it Doesn't Crash" (not hard!) - seriously though have taken on board suggestions for cleaning up the relics more properly. Kicking myself for not sussing the IE - OE relationship better, earlier, as I'd spotted the AOL spinning triangle on the OE title bar (which was baffling but should have made me think)(branding OTT)

Finally the biz about the CapsLock, Shift state etc - this ain't the right forum - it seemed to be involved but so many other things cause it - I will get to the bottom of it one day - probably more to do with me switching tasks before the big hourglass goes - I was hoping someone would pick up on that as it's fascinated me for ages now - but not directly related (although at first I thought it might be) - not even W98 specific, I can get one of the 486's running W95 to do it too, but not as easily as by thrashing W98 on this Compaq. I have the exe handy now (on the Start menu right above the word Programs!) to look at 0x417 (apologies I was out by 1 byte on earlier post) but symptom's not recurred since I put it there. Just longing to see it show 0x40 (Caps Lock Mask) when the Caps Lock LED's off - but even if it doesn't, it's still given information. Why oh why does ShiftEscape reset it? and which forum should I be looking in?

Phew, Hugh.

New Year's resolution - reduce size of posts. HJ

PS if anyone's interested in the inspection exe I'll email it - caveat emptor

 

Phew!

Yes!

Too much!

We need a condensed list of what don't work.

However I did pick this out. If your friend sent a document saved in MSWORD 2000 using advanced features, word97 would have a problem with it. In this case OE uses the word97 engine (that is where OE spell check comes from also). Hence the ability to print only selected text (no word formating).

From now on have him send in rtf.

Maybe you did not understand. But if you do not cancel (stop paying) for AOL. You do not need any of their software on your computer to check email etc.

Use Internet explorer and browse to AOL and check using Emailanywhere etc.

Up to you!

AOL instant messenger will work seperatly also.

I advise that you do a full windows update of all especially IE and OE.

Mike

 

Hugh Jarss

You really did not miss anything.

My fix suggestion was pretty much what you had already done.

Also my ( not so nice ) opinion of AOL

AOL takes over ( or tries to ) the whole Internet working on the machine.

Also the suggestion by mflynn about using IE to check AOL maill does work. MY Niece uses IE to check AOL and Yahoo mail. And all that is installed on that machine is AOL IM. ( from my former IPS Earthlink not AOL )

But I do agree with mflynn about making sure that IE & OE are updated .

My only other wild idea was to dump OE altogeter and go with Eudroa which does not give a hoot what version of IE or OE you are running.

It also handles AOL mail OK. ( or seems to anyway ) I get quite a bit from a couple of Friends.

Oh BTW. If you un-install AOL you * MAY * have to repair IE & OE. I did ( a long time ago though )

BillyBob

 

briefly!!(if I can manage it)

we've already stopped paying AOL but there's nearly 2 months till it runs out, that's when I'll rip it out - and as thoroughly as poss.

AOL gave us an extra month for messing us around but too late I'd already gone for another ISP - meanwhile we have an alternative server if the other one is slow or down (apart from new mailboxes of course)

yes I do use IE to check AOL email but there's tons of saved mail on the PC, address books & the like which I'm transferring / rationalising over the period. AOL isn't interfering as I'm not using it apart from the occasional mail check - I'm **not running IE or OE** through it. Never use AIM

signup CD for new ISP was delayed in post so I got us on new ISP by putting in pop smtp and few other details manually. But OE was old version.

Then CD arrived: IE5.5 and OE both went in afresh from CD - and are working fine (apart from silly IE title bar which is my doing) - but if I get any problems I will update both in sync.

rtf is what we did change to - no problems after. Nice one for letting me know about the spellchecker thing, Mike - makes some sense about the selected block mattering.

hope that clears it up a bit - major problem was solved when I found the M$KB article - I think aleekat sussed it. I was trying to post back about which bits were to do with IE5OE4 amd which about Word97Word2000 and which bits not to do with either. Which is still not sussed but long term thing not concerned with the rest of it and doesn't stop the PC working just puzzles me. Not urgent. Anyways, ShiftEscape resets it!!

sorry again for being longwinded but heck it was 3 things on top of each other - and first time I'd used OE so I didn't know.
1-solved with new CD.
2-neatly explained by Mike, I'd already got friend to change the format, text is delivered
3-long term thing which one day I hope to suss. Confused the other two by happening at the same time. Unrelated. Any ideas or links appreciated. Mentioned coz it happens quite a bit on slow PC - and I thought ShiftEscape as way out (works 99% of the time) might help somebody else.
Thanks again all, HJ

 

Hmmmmm

I get it about AOL!

But I am still lost on all the rest.

Tell me ONLY what don't work now forget the past!

mike

 

These are just possibilities but areas that I feel may need watching.

The one thing I would watch for there ( if you did use the ISP software ) is the Updates from the Windows update site.

Bieng that the IE/OE is from an ISP it may or may not be seen properly by the Updates site.

The Update Site may only see what has or has not been added from the update site.

Coming from and ISP they are quite often a Customized version which the Update may not see properly.

I ran into that problem way back with IE4 from Earthlink. Since then I only get IE/OE from MS or some site that is not connected with an ISP.

But at least things seem to be working a little better anyway.

BillyBob

 

Mike - it's all working! the problems were 1 and 2 and they're fixed

3's just a puzzle not a fault - it happened at the same time and I thought it was something to do with 1 and 2 - happens every now and then, ?maybe only if I don't wait for the hourglass - was pretty annoying until I sussed the ShiftEscape dodge.

Ever tried to select a file in Windows Explorer and instead got all the files back to the last one you had selected? like you're holding shift down only you aren't. And the pesky thing sticks like that - until doing ShiftEscape. That's the only way out of it I've found - short of closing the window. Switching tasks when its like that usually crashes the PC. Closing the window is safe, but often inconvenient.
So ShiftEscape is a good dodge.
Other apps it makes it like CapsLock is on when it isn't.
But that isn't the limit of it... and it made trying to unscramble the bad crash that started this thread very difficult coz this time it went so bad that Ctrl and Alt were affected as well. Do Enter - get properties... same thing with control. What you Type is Not what you Get. that why I'm going to prod 0x417 next time it happens, to see if it agrees with the k'b'd LED's...

W95 as well. Different PC (486) as well. so not OS... but the W95 PC that's shown it is dual boot and I have never once seen this happen under W3.11

Perhaps hardware / ?PC architecture thing so this is wrong forum for it - also there's **no way** I could ever nutshell it! ^^was bad enough!!!

PC's working really well and now OE and IE "belong to each other" I'm going to leave well alone, esp. in light of what BB says about the update site - 5.5's fine for my purposes, and I've copied the setup gubbins from the CD onto spare partition - not a silly "nanny" setup like the AOL customised IE we had before, this one allows you to add/remove components so intend to stick with it unless something really nasty happens - as I'm pretty sure OE and IE are "in sync" ?best bet to stay as we are. And I like the blue scrollbars!

If anyone's got any ideas about 3 above then I'll put up the details somewhere - but there are a lot of them!! and although there's most certainly a pattern which I'd really like to suss, it's hardly the most important thing in the world...

Best Wishes and Good Luck, HJ

One of these days I'll learn how to keep 'em short - honest...

 

Good! Hugh!

As for me, closing this one.

I'm gitin outa Dodge!

Mike