NS7 mail headers

Hi all,
I have had an ongoing problem with my Netscape mail program. It's more nuisance value than anything else.
If I menu select "view>headers>all" netscape gobbles up all system resources and becomes exceedingly slow, to the point of almost freezing.
The cpu usage jumps tp 100% and stays there according to Windows Task Manager.
If I keep it at "view>headers>normal" everything is fine.
My system specs are
Asus A7VL133 m/b
384 mb ram
AMD 1ghz Duron cpu
Netscape 7.0
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0
Any one with any ideas on this one?
Cheers and TIA
Graeme

 

Hi Graeme,

My View Headers setting is always set for "All ", and I have not experienced a noticeable increase in System Resources usage. Today I fluctuated with the View Headers setting, changing to "Normal ", and I cannot recreate your problem. My System Resources remain consistent, using either setting. That is with 14 Tabs open, Mail & Newsgroups open. I have ZoneAlarm at work in the background, and of course Norton AntiVirus. Right now with "All" selected, I am seeing 67% for System and User, on the Resource Meter. If I close Mail & Newsgroups I pick up about 2%.

That makes me draw the conclusion that you must have something else running that is draining your resources. What do you show in your Startup (msconfig)? Are you by chance running Mozilla and Netscape? That will certainly bring your resources down.

Ramona

 

Hi Ramona,
Sorry about the delay in getting back.
Forgot to mention my OS is XP Pro.
Had a look at system resources and no Mozilla. With browser and mail and newsgroups open, AsusProbe system hardware monitoring, ZA and my VET anti virus, MS Office and a few other things (of no consequence) open CPU usage is staying down under 15% and physical memory still shows 180mb or so still available. It is the cpu usage that skyrockets when swithcing to all with headers.
The other things that are open are:-
Ctfmon.exe - MSOffice
Em_exec.exe - Logitech tray icon
QuickDCF.exe - Fuji camera
DirectCD.exe - CD burner.
No apparent conflicts that I can see.
Any further ideas?
Cheers
Graeme

 

Hi Graeme,

The three programs that you listed don't need to be in your startup:
Ctfmon.exe - MSOffice
Em_exec.exe - Logitech tray icon
QuickDCF.exe - Fuji camera
DirectCD.exe - CD burner.

Try disabling them in startup and see if that makes any difference. May not, but it will definitely speed things up for you.

Have you installed SP1 for Windows XP? There have been so many conflicts with SP1 and Netscape. Users have reported that uninstalling the SP cleared up all Netscape problems. I'm not suggesting that you do so, but this is an FYI.

Ramona

 

Hi Ramona,
SP1 not installed as I've not had any problems yet.
I will try each of the disables over the next few days and see what happens.
It will be interesting to see what that does.
Cheers
Graeme.

 

Hi Scruff

Also running XP/N7, came with SP1 installed. I look at SP1 in the same light as NSW.. if it's there from the beginning, it works, if added later, they just seem to work differently. I agree with Ramona on the 3 apps running.. unless you live in all the MS office programs, use your camera as a external drive and burn CD's continually ... BUT these apps are not going to take XP to choke-ville. Although ram memory has some relevance to XP, user resources is not an issue. Your problem has a ring equal to another recent thread. Click on a harmless key in mail, the program locks / CPU meter goes off the wall. My bet is the "localstores.rdf" file is corrupt. Please wait for Romana's wisdom before you proceed. It is a simply delete / Netscape rebuilds.

 

Hi Graeme,

Deleting localstore.rdf will certainly do no harm. Or you can simply rename the file: Xlocalstore.rdf, and revert to the original name if this does nothing for your problem. The file is located in your salted folder.

Are you using a Theme other than Modern? If so revert back to Modern. It may or may not help. With a Windows XP - Netscape conflict, it's hard to say what will or won't work, and I do believe this is a conflict of OS vs Netscape Browser. I have done countless searches, trying to find what works for XP/Netscape users. Here are a few workarounds listed:

Use only the default Modern Theme
Delete MSF Files
Disable: "Empty Trash on Exit "
Upgrade Java, if not using latest Sun Java Plugin
Backup the Profiles Folder daily, and if a problem is encountered, replace the prefs.js file, rather than use the prefs.bak

I have not seen the CPU usage problem you describe with the Mail Headers. I'm still searching for a workaround!

Cheers!

Ramona

 

Hi Ramona, Denniss,
I have found copies of the file in the following locations.
OK to delete/rename all 3?

C:\Netscape 7\defaults\profile
C:\Netscape 7\defaults\profile\US
E:\temp\p5rbh6h1.slt

Cheers
Graeme

 

Hi Graeme,

Things that make you go, Hmmmmmmm! How many Profiles have you? When you open the Profiles Folder, how many folders do you see? Is "US" one of your Profiles?

Have you installed Netscape on the E Drive, or is that a backup of your salted Folder? I need a few more answers, and then perhaps we can sort this out. Don't delete or rename localstores.rdf yet.

C:\Netscape 7\defaults\profile
C:\Netscape 7\defaults\profile\US
There should be no localstores.rdf file in these folders.

E:\temp\p5rbh6h1.slt
Need feedback from you on this location.

Your active localstores.rdf file should be here, if you have Netscape installed on your C:\ Drive:
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\profilename\xxxxxxxx.slt

NOTE: These files are hidden by default.
To see hidden files:
1. On the Tools menu in Windows Explorer, click Folder Options
2. Click the View tab
3. Under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders

Ramona

 

Hi Ramona,

1. In the following directory/folder:-
C:\Netscape 7\defaults\profile
there is only one profile and that is the "US" one.

2. Netscape is installed on c: and the copy on e: is a backup from last year with a modified date of 22/10/02 while the copies in the profiles directory have dates of 30/7/02.

3. It is in "C:\Documents and Settings\Graeme\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.slt ", but why I didn't see it before I do not know. It is dated 21/4/03.
It wasn't hidden but I probably was just not paying attention.

I haven't deleted anything yet.

Hope that helps.

Cheers and thanks
Graeme

 

Hi Graeme,

Rename the localstores.rdf file that is in your :
"C:\Documents and Settings\Graeme\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.slt "

Let us know if it helps.

Ramona

 

Hi Ramona,
No luck.
Cheers
Graeme

 

Hi Graeme,

I didn't really think it would, but no harm done in trying...

Please don't give up, as I am still trying to find at least an instance with another Windows XP user experiencing the same problem.

Ramona

 

Hi Ramona,
Don't bust a valve trying to sort it out.
It doesn't stop me from working or playing.
It is a bug that may or may not have consequences further down the track although I doubt it. Just a quirk that I would like to know the reason for some time in the futuer for reference sake.
Thanks for your effort so far.
Cheers
Graeme

 

Graeme,

No busted valves yet...

Found a few more workarounds for you to try, which may or may not work. the XP/Netscape incompatibility problem is most elusive, and what works for one user doesn't always work for another.

With Netscape closed:
Delete the XUL.msf file located in:
C:\Documents and Settings\Graeme\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.slt

Do you have your User Agent String spoofed? If so disable.

From NG Threads:
One user reported an overheating problem was the cause of 100% CPU usage. Have you checked this out?

secnews.netscape.com!not-for-mail
From: Bill Castle
Newsgroups: netscape.netscape7.windows
Subject: CPU Usage 100%
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 08:08:56 -0500

We use Netscape 7.01 in a corporate environment. Some of our users have a problem where the netscp.exe file utilizes 99% of the CPU. Their email freezes up and when we look at Task Manager it show the 99% usage for netscp.exe. We have Windows XP, 2000, NT, 98 & 95 on various work stations and it has happened on each of them. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

Bill Castle
---

This was a commonly reported roblem with early versions. I may be wrong but I believe this has largely been fixed in the most recent version (7.02). Someone else may have a more definitive answer.
Ed
---

Also, insure that users are specifically using themes that are explicitly declared as 7.02 compatible since incorrect themes have been known to cause similar problems. Of course, a user can always test this by using either Modern or Classic and seeing if the 99% CPU utilization still occurs.
---

There is a known memory issue with XP SP1. If you have a machine running a pentium 4 chip set, the CPU and memory resources are sluggish. Something in the way MS revamped how XP handled memory. There was a
patch that appeared for a few days, but was later withdrawn. They say
that SP2 will address the issue.

I have noticed that sometimes when you exit Netscape using CTL-Q, it on
occasion, leaves an explorer.exe thread in memory, failing to release
it. If you taskmgr and close the offending thread, CPU returns to
normal load. It may be useful to you to consider running a process viewer of some description to help diagnose your problem?
---

I had a possibly related problem (but only on XP) which had CPU usage at
100% for 30 sec during file saves. After deleting (they will be rebuilt)
the downloads.rdf and XUL.mfl files from my profile data the problem
vanished. Cant hurt to try!
---

Ramona

 

Hi Ramona,
I renamed XUL.msf and no difference.
What is spoofing the user agent string?
It sounds almost rude.
I am still running NS 7.0.
I haven't updated to 7.02 yet. Installing 7.01 gave me a lot of grief for some reason and I had to do a system restore. Now this may have left a legacy of within the netscape files.
If necessary I will probably DL the latest entire NS version, back up 7.0 and then uninstall it and a clean install of 7.02. But this will happen when I have the time.
Cheers
Graeme