Outlook 2003 fails to respond

[M Hawley]

I recently loaded Office 2003 on my laptop with the
Windows 2000 operating System. Periodically when I open
outlook, it appears to hang or not respond. When it
initally opens it goes to check email, but again with
hang at 16%. I have tried to do a repair, but that has
not helped. Any suggestions where to start looking for
the cause of the problem or questions that might help to
find the answer.