Outlook Express Problem

[emma]

I have had avast for several months.  I like reading the forum information and have learned much. I believe I have no problems with the program.  Since I have never posted on any forums before, my problem has been getting the courage to do so. I want to feel comfortable using it before I really do need the help with avast.

I chose the General Topics forum because I do have a problem with Outlook Express.  Sometimes when I send a larger file 300-400 KB, my friends receive it twice.  While it doesn't happen always, it happens often enough to be irritating.  Recently I have watched emails go out.  I can tell one is going out again and I will halt it.  The email remains in my Outbox, yet the recipient still gets it twice.  I sometimes see avast scanning it twice.  Friends who have the same computer and ISP do not have this problem. I have tried sending at different times of the day, but there doesn't seem to be a correlation. This problem also happened before installing avast

I hope one of the friendly avast forum experts can shed some light on my problem. Most of all I hope I have posted to the forum correctly.

Windows 98SE, dialup, Ad-Aware, Zone Alarm

Old retired gal who loves her computer

[techie101]

Since I have never posted on any forums before, my problem has been getting the courage to do so. I want to feel comfortable using it before I really do need the help with avast.

Welcome to the Forum!  You will not have to feel uncomfortable here with us.  We are all glad to help anyone from beginner to advanced.   I like your sensible approach to "getting your feet wet"  

I chose the General Topics forum because I do have a problem with Outlook Express.

Yes, this would be the best place for help on OE.

Sometimes when I send a larger file 300-400 KB, my friends receive it twice.  .......... I can tell one is going out again and I will halt it.  The email remains in my Outbox, yet the recipient still gets it twice.  I sometimes see avast scanning it twice.

This is indicative of a worm infection.  Have you noticed that while checking email, an email is trying to be sent from the Outbox? (I am not sure if that is what you are seeing).  What may be happening is a worm such as Netsky is redistributing itself via your email list.  This would account for the fact that "you" are sending one, and "the worm" is sending another containing a virus.

Friends who have the same computer and ISP do not have this problem. I have tried sending at different times of the day,  but there doesn't seem to be a correlation. This problem also happened before installing Avast.

Have you run a full Avast scan yet?  If not, then do so but make sure you have Avast set to "Thorough" and check the box "Scan Archives" so that Avast will scan your zip files.

Then update your Adaware and run it.  Have it set for an "in depth scan".

I hope one of the friendly avast forum experts can shed some light on my problem. Most of all I hope I have posted to the forum correctly.

I will do my best to help you, and you are doing just fine.

Windows 98SE, dialup, Ad-Aware, Zone Alarm

What version of OE do you have?
Have you run a Windows update lately?  Some of the older patches apply to OE.

Old retired gal who loves her computer

You will find a lot of us...Old, Retired and "sometimes" love our computers.  

Techie

[Lisandro]

Emma, wellcome!
We're glad to receive you in this family!  
Specially an avast full user!
Well, sometimes in the past I have the same problem.

Let me guess a little:

1. How are your timeout configurations? (both in OE and avast)
    If you set large values could solve the problem (specially on dial-up connections).

2. Do you use any Spam killer (like Spamihilator, for instance)?

Well, Techie was faster than I (as usual) and he tries other possibilities.

[wawadave]

hello
 here a few links on outlook help if its not directly caused by avast.
http://email.about.com/cs/oetipstricks/index.htm
http://www.okinfoweb.com/moe/mail/mail_006.htm
http://www.3dspotlight.com/tweaks/ie6/index.shtml
http://www.tomsterdam.com/insideOE/

 

[emma]

Thanks for your suggestions.  Although I have done them in the past, I redid and am ready to start from scratch.


1. Avast complete scan including archives - clean
2. Updated Ad Aware scan - clear
3. OE 6 and Windows Updates are current
4. OE time out set at 5 minutes
    I did not know what an avast time out was.
5. My ISP provides something called Postini.  It
    blocks spam and also catches viruses. I have never
    had an email virus caught by avast.  The Postini
    stopped them before they came into my mailbox.
    Avast has alerted me to several coming from the
    internet

6. No, do not notice any email trying to be sent from Out
    box.
7. This is difficult to explain. I watch the email I send go
    out--the blue line that moves across the email box.
     (fun to do). The short ones go OK. When I think it is
    taking too long I click stop or abort. And the email  
    remains in the outbox but the recipient still gets it
    several times. Occasionally I notice avast scanning
    the same long email twice.  No one has alerted me
    that they have received any viruses from me.
    I usually don't stop the email.  I only tried it to see if
    I could prevent it from going out more than once.
    I also tried sending to one person at a time instead of
    to several friends.  No results.
   
    8. I will try some of the links suggested by wawadave as
    I am sure it is not caused by avast. It has been doing
    this for many many months.  I am finally in pursuit and
    appreciate any other suggestions you can make.



 

[techie101]

emma,

Ok, you appear to have tried all the normal remedies.  I have reviewed the links wawaDave provided but did not see any solution.  Since you are using a version of Windows earlier than XP, you can try a repair of IE/OE through the Add/Remove utility.
Go to Control panel...Add/Remove and double click on MS Internet Explorer and Tools.  You should see an option to repair.  Try the repair, then reboot.  Since you stated in your last post that you had these problems before Avast, then I suspect strongly that one of your OE files has been corrupted or damaged.

Right now, we will continue to try and isolate the exact cause to minimize computer "messing".  (At least I'll try.   )

Technical is always teasing me about how fast I reply, but the truth is, that we are on opposite sides of the world and hours apart.

He is just as fast and knowlegeable as I.

Anyway, I will continue researching your OE problem.  I seldom give up.

Get back to you when I have something positive.

Techie

[Lisandro]

I seldom give up.

That's fully the truth  

Get back to you when I have something positive.

Me too... I promise I'll think about it. You're not alone.  

[techie101]

emma,

While we are scratching our heads over this, I have a thought.
Let's create an SMTP log file that we can examine when the problem exists.

Follow these instructions.  It's really simple.

To create an Smtp.log file, use the following steps:

Start Outlook Express.
On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the Advanced tab, under Logging Options, click the Mail Transport check box to select it.
Click Apply, and then click OK.
For Windows 98, the Smtp.log file is created and stored in the Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express\Mail folder

Once the problem has manifested itself again, post the logfile here so it can be examined.

Techie

[emma]

    I remarked before that I had never joined a forum.  I did once try a chat group.  When I signed in a reply popped up thanking me for joining and welcoming me in a very polite way.  I immediately replied in like manner. Well, up popped a new message telling me how &%$# stupid I was and that the welcome was from a BOT.  I had no idea what a bot was but backed out of that room real quickly.  So Technical and Techie 101 I thank you for your polite welcomes and warm responses.  If you all do happen to be bots, I don't care.  If you are not, well just continue making all of us feel like our problem is the most important of all.
Now to my progress.

Suggestion 1: Repair MS Internet Explorer/Tools
     When I went to repair, a message said "Explorer cannot be repaired due to the following error: File SCRRUN.DLL is missing.  Please run set up again to reinstall all components".
     I then went to the install, browsed and found program files/IE6 setup.exe and chose the typical set of components installation.  This message then appeared:  "The most recent version of all items are already installed.  It is recommended you exit set up without reinstalling"  But I chose reinstall anyway.
     Then I got this message: "The download location information is damaged. Please clear your Internet Browser Caches and retry Setup"
     I didn't know what an internet browser cache was but tried a Disk Clean up. I went back through the whole procedure but got the same messages.

Suggestion 2: create an Smtp.log file
    I went to OE/Tools/Options  BUT I could find no "Logging Options" and therefore could not proceed.  Plus I looked for  "Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express\Mail folder" and could not find that.  Also I did not understand what "post the log file here" meant but that can be solved later.

Suggestion 3: Outlook Express links
      I will enjoy reading and learning from them.

    So I am making progress although it took me all day to do the above.(between games of Yahoo bridge)
    Please do not hesitate to make your suggestions as simple as can be and go on the assumption that I know very little.  I am a retired teacher and know it saves time to go slowly and step by step.  
Thanks for you patience.

[Lisandro]

So Technical and Techie 101 I thank you for your polite welcomes and warm responses.  If you all do happen to be bots, I don't care.  If you are not, well just continue making all of us feel like our problem is the most important of all.

Sorry, I'm not an American, I'm from Brazil... Teacher, what is a 'bot'?  

"The download location information is damaged. Please clear your Internet Browser Caches and retry Setup"
I didn't know what an internet browser cache was but tried a Disk Clean up. I went back through the whole procedure but got the same messages.

You're trying to reinstall Internet Explorer and not Outlook Express. Anyway, some things are related with the others.
The Internet Browser Caches is in Windows 98, generally, C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files or C:\Windows\... user name...\Temporary Internet Files
I don't remember as I have only XP now.

[techie101]

emma,

Firstly, Technical and I are not "bots" which is simply a remote answering process which answers requests and sends "welcome messages".  It is not a real person.  It is similar to the auto answer feature of some email clients or even the "when away from computer" message that some IMs send such as AOL IM and MSN Messenger.
The person who commented harsly was out of line and not worthy of your input.

Let's move on to try and sort out your post>

Some misc. info.  Keep in mind that OE is "bundled" with IE which means that it is directly affected by how IE runs and its' settings.  OE and IE are a "package" deal with most OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) installations.  That is why I recommended trying to repair IE.

Suggestion 1: Repair MS Internet Explorer/Tools
     When I went to repair, a message said "Explorer cannot be repaired due to the following error: File SCRRUN.DLL is missing.

You can download a copy of the dll file from this link.  It should also provide installation instructions:
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/dlllibrary
Also,  one of the links wawaDave provided discusses Repair of IE.

This message then appeared:  "The most recent version of all items are already installed.  

What this means is that when you selected Typical, the install program looked to see what files needed to be installed, but they were already there.
I think you needed to click on Custom install.....however, we can get to that later if we need to do so.

"The download location information is damaged. Please clear your Internet Browser Caches and retry Setup"

The Installer program is trying to tell you that where it needs to put "new files" is damaged.  The "cache" stores information and apparently, one or more files there are corrupted and thus the Installer will  not allow the file transfer.

I didn't know what an internet browser cache was but tried a Disk Clean up. I went back through the whole procedure but got the same messages.

Once you receive an error message, doing the same thing over will not help.  Disk Clean applies to the hard disk in the computer and usaull (depending on how you set it) will remove old temporarly files, cookies and unneeded files, and some invalid registry entries.  It will not however....clean the cache.
The cache area optimizes the speed at internet by recovering for example a previous visited site by the disk instead of downloading all files again. In clearing the cache, all temporary files, cookies and history must be cleaned.  You need to check how you have Disk Clean setup to see actually what it is removing.

Suggestion 2: create an Smtp.log file    I went to OE/Tools/Options  BUT I could find no "Logging Options"

You may need to check the Maintenance tab.  You should see something about it on the bottom.

So I am making progress although it took me all day to do the above.(between games of Yahoo bridge)

Yes, you mostly certainly are doing well.  It takes time for you to understand our instructions, as well as we....who need to discover your level of understanding.

PS:  When I add **** to a post, it means that I need to do some more research but did not want to hold up the entire post.  It also protects me from accidentally deleting the answer before I get to actual post it.


Techie

[emma]

Additional Information
      I forgot to list that I have the latest Netscape browser and email.  I don't often use it.
Today I sent an email with a large attachment by OE and 3 friends received twice.  Then I immediately sent the same attachment through Netscape and they responded that it only came in once. It appears it does have to do with OE.

      I think or guess a "bot" is like a robot that is just programmed to do a certain thing.  A long time ago I had a student visiting from Brazil and he was one of the best!!!!!

       I didn't do anything with the Internet Temporary files you referred to, Technical. I will wait for further advise.

       I did go to Tools/Options/Maintenance and checked the box labeled Mail.

      I went to the LIutilities site to find the scrrundll file.  I found the library, found the file and clicked on many things but never could find how to download the file.  I know it must be right in front of my face.  I did find another site http://www.5starsupport.com/info/dll.htm which did have a download available, but I didn't download without your recommendation.

       Yes, each questioner must be responded to in a different manner.  I know from teaching that one size does not fit all.  My two kids graduated with Computer Science degrees.  This automatically means mother knows less than nothing. lol

[techie101]

emma,

Ok.  You can download the scrrun.dll from any available source.  The file will usually come with instructions on how to install it.

As for checking "the mail box" in Internet Options".  Now a report will be prepared and you can look at it by following the path I gave you  before.

It does look like OE is the problem but remember what I said about IE and OE being bundled and working together.  Netscape is what is referred to as a "front end" similar to AOL.  It functions as a browswer "window". (and since Netscape is now owned by AOL, will annoy you with the same popups and ad banners.  

If you like Netscape, then why not use it for your email client?

Otherwise, we may be heading at a reinstall of OE. (Which by the way is not as easy as it sounds. )

Later
Techie

[emma]

Update:
1.  I downloaded the scrrun.dll file and extracted it to windows/system.

2.  I redid start/control/add/IE and OE tools/repair.  But it still showed that the scrrun.dll file was missing.

3.  After emptying the cache I could reinstall IE6.

4.  I had clicked the box beside Mail in Outlook Express/Maintenance but when I looked for Windows/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook Express------There is still no Outlook Express

5.  I suppose I could use my Netscape for sending large files and continue OE for regular email.  My Netscape still goes through my regular ISP and has the spam and popup blocker. I really never have much trouble with popups.

6.  I have not sent any large files through IE lately to test it.  What I usually send that go more than once are Power Point shows. Since I have been so busy doing all of the above, I have not had time or energy to create anything.

[DavidR]

Update:
1.  I downloaded the scrrun.dll file and extracted it to windows/system.

2.  I redid start/control/add/IE and OE tools/repair.  But it still showed that the scrrun.dll file was missing.

3.  After emptying the cache I could reinstall IE6.

It should be in windows\system32, copy it to there and hopefully that will also resolve 2 and possibly avoid 3 above.

See what happens after copy to system32 before 4,5 and 6.

David