Office 2004 Database Daemon hanging at login

[Nona_D._Above]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I have a client that I just upgraded 7 PowerMac G5's to 8-core Intel Mac Pro's.

The new machines are all running OS 10.5.5, and Office 2004 with the latest 11.5.1 update. The Office is a fresh install, none of the applications were transferred from the old machines, just the user accounts.

One of the users has a particularly annoying issue with the Microsoft Database Daemon application. When he logs into his account, if you open Activity Monitor, the Database Daemon goes to 100% processor utilization and becomes unresponsive for approximately 13 minutes (I timed it.) During this time, all Office 2004 applications become unresponsive, for example, Word will open, and create a document window, but will not put a white page with a cursor over the blue background. After the Database Daemon frees up, all Office apps run normally, you can open and quit them as you please.

Since the user is on an Exchange account, I moved is old mail database to the desktop and forced Entourage to reload it, to no avail. I've repaired permissions, run the prebinding terminal command, and tried disabling all user fonts and preferences I could find.

The machine has an administrator account on it, and if you log in to that account, the Database Daemon operates normally, but that account doesn't have email set up.

I'm certain it's something in this users account, but I can't figure out what.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can provide!

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

One of the users has a particularly annoying issue with the Microsoft
Database Daemon application. When he logs into his account, if you open
Activity Monitor, the Database Daemon goes to 100% processor utilization
and becomes unresponsive for approximately 13 minutes (I timed it.)

Launch Entourage pressing the Option key down to get the option to
rebuild the identity. I suspect it is corrupted.
With Office 2004, the Excahnge cache will be trashed, forcing Entourage
to redownload everything in the process. It also messes-up rules so
check the rules and the Mailing List Manager to make sure that any
destination folder set there is correct.

Corentin

 

[Diane Ross]

When he logs into his account, if you open Activity Monitor, the Database
Daemon goes to 100% processor utilization and becomes unresponsive for
approximately 13 minutes (I timed it.)

There was a problem with the daemon early on, but was fixed by an update.
It's been so long I don't remember the details, but since you have updated
that would seem to rule that out.

Check the Startup Items and be sure there is only one Microsoft Database
daemon. If there are more than one, delete all and Entourage will create a
new one.

Another fix that often helps is to apply the latest Apple combo updater.
Doing so overwrites potentially problem-causing files. Several users have
reported this fixed some odd problems they were having with Entourage. Combo
updaters will install on the same version as they¹re applying‹no need to
roll back or do a clean install.

Leopard:

Mac OS X 10.5.5 Combo Update
(For both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs )

I'm certain it's something in this users account, but I can't figure out what.

Go to System Preferences --> Create a New User in Accounts. Switch to the
New User by logging out/in or use Fast User Switching. Test Office there.

This will eliminate the User's folder. If it does not work in the new User,
then you know it's something to do with the base system files or your Office
install. See this page for help troubleshooting the User folder.
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/test_user.html>

If you let the current Entourage stall, you can open the Activity Monitor
and take a sample. Copy and paste the log into an email. It might give some
clues as to what is going on.

If you need to re-install:

Quit all Microsoft applications (Easy way: log out/in with Shift key down to
disable any startup items.)
Drag the Microsoft Office 2008 folder to the Trash.
Empty Trash.
Reinstall Office 2008 from your original installation disk. See details

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/install/install_office2008.html>

Let me know what you find.