Outlook consuming CPU on open item

[jackvinson]

Over the last month or so, I've noticed that Outlook uses nearly 100% CPU
when opening items (email, contacts, etc).? When I startup outlook, it does
its thing for a few seconds and CPU usage returns to baseline. But, when I
open any new window from Outlook, the CPU spikes for a few moments (long
enough to register on the usage monitor; long enough to think, what's taking
so long?).

This happens when I open a contact, appointment, contact... into a separate
window. I even notice a high CPU load when switching from email view to
contacts view.

If I run in safe mode (/safe), the CPU spike doesn't happen. If I turn off
all COM Add-Ins, the spikes still happen. If I run with /noextensions, the
spikes still happen. When I run with /nocustomize, the problem goes away...
Now, how do I determine what piece of my outcmd.dat or *.fav file is causing
the trouble? I've got the Google and Lookout toolbars. Are either of these
known to cause trouble when opening items in Outlook?

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Locate outcmd.dat and rename it to .old.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Over the last month or so, I've noticed that Outlook uses nearly 100% CPU
when opening items (email, contacts, etc).? When I startup outlook, it does
its thing for a few seconds and CPU usage returns to baseline. But, when I
open any new window from Outlook, the CPU spikes for a few moments (long
enough to register on the usage monitor; long enough to think, what's taking
so long?).

This happens when I open a contact, appointment, contact... into a separate
window. I even notice a high CPU load when switching from email view to
contacts view.

If I run in safe mode (/safe), the CPU spike doesn't happen. If I turn off
all COM Add-Ins, the spikes still happen. If I run with /noextensions, the
spikes still happen. When I run with /nocustomize, the problem goes away...
Now, how do I determine what piece of my outcmd.dat or *.fav file is causing
the trouble? I've got the Google and Lookout toolbars. Are either of these
known to cause trouble when opening items in Outlook?

Thanks,

Jack

 

[jackvinson]

Great. That seems to have worked. But why in the world was that file 1.5
MB? The new one is a few KB...

Thanks, Roady.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

It holds Toolbar customizations. How much Toolbar customization did you do?
Got a lot of add-ins?

 

[JeanB]

Wow, what an easy fix to a big problem. I had been experiencing this for 2
weeks now and this solution fixed it. I have searched many places for a
solution, as have others, but finally here is the easy solution. Thanks!

I noticed that my old outcmd.dat file was over 14 meg in size while the one
Outlook re-created was only 1k !!!

Why can't Outlook notice that something is going wrong and let the user
know, instead of just letting users suffer? It wouldn't be that hard for
Outlook to check for things like abnormal file growth, and/or other
indications that something is wrong.

JeanB

It holds Toolbar customizations. How much Toolbar customization did you do?
Got a lot of add-ins?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Great. That seems to have worked. But why in the world was that file 1.5
MB? The new one is a few KB...

Thanks, Roady.

Locate outcmd.dat and rename it to .old.