Outlook Express blue screens when opened

[SoulAssassin]

Outlook Express 5 blue screens when opened when I got the pc. I then went to safe mode and deleted like 5000 emails. Then it seemed ok and worked for a few minutes and it came back. I upgraded it to 6 and it still happened. No emails were now in the inbox, deleted items, etc...No other apps have this problem at all and he doesn't want to format and reload. Checked the ms knowledge base without success. The error on the blue screen read vmm(12) then a hex number, sorry I don't have it in front of me right now. I was pretty stumped on this one so I hope someone can help. It doesn't lock up or blue screen in safe mode, only normal mode. He was having explorer caused error in shell32.dll which I fixed but he had the outlook problem prior to this fix. No viruses either.

Thanks!

 

[SoulAssassin]

Sorry, pc specs: p3 700, WinME (I almost got him to do a clean install of xp), 384 MB RAM, now outlook express and ie 6. Turtle Beach sound, and I believe an nvidia vid card. Dell standard pc basically.

 

[lgebhart]

I found this on Computing.net:

I worked on my brother's girlfriend computer that had the same problem. This is what I did to fix the problem. Restart the computer w/ the Windows ME Startup Disk. Choose "Start PC w/out CD Rom support". Then from the A: prompt type "scanreg". The OS should restore a previous registry if it can locate a good one. Reboot and problem should be solved. Bro's girl machine running A-OK now!!!

Found this one on techadvice.com and it looks easier to do:

Error Message "Vmm(12) 00004c3c at 0e:0028:c0283c3c" and possibly other VMM(12) errors with win(ME)

This error is most likely caused by a corrupt registry.

Resolution :

Click START, select Run and in the text box type scanregw.exe and click the OK button.

If you the computer asks to save the registry answer Yes.

When it is done reboot the computer.

ggebhart@clover.net
I hope I never get too old or arrogant to learn something new!

 

[SoulAssassin]

I'll have to try the second choice. The first option is out of the question because dell had him do a dirty install of ME and so there are no good known registry backups. Thanks!!!

 

[lgebhart]

In case trying scanreg doesn't work:

If it only locks up in normal mode there is something loading causing this problem. Have you looked at the Win.ini file to see if something is loading in the load= or run= line?

I don't know much about ME but I just had a win98 computer I looked at that would not even load without the blue screen of death so while in safemode I started "sysedit" and in the win.ini file someone had place an .exe file. I know this guy didn't do that on his own so something he clicked on either in email or the net put it there.

You could check out them msconfig or the registry and see what loads during startup and take anything out that may cause problems and the startup folder could also have programs loading.

Registry:
Start
Run
regedit
HKEY_Local_Machine
Software
Microsoft
Windows
Current Version
Run and Run Services
will have programs listed on the right hand side. If you delete one of these entries it will be automatically deleted and not go to the recycle bin so please export your registry to a file so you can recover it before deleting anything.

MSCONFIG: (This is less dangerous because you can take the checkmarks out of what you don't want to load and try rebooting between trys to see what works or you can take out all the checkmarks except explorer and systray and work backwards putting checkmarks back in as you go!)
Start
Run
msconfig
startup

SYSEDIT:
Start
Run
sysedit
Win.ini and look for something after the load= or run= line.
ggebhart@clover.net
I hope I never get too old or arrogant to learn something new!

 

[SoulAssassin]

Thanks for the help, but I had already done that. I disabled all software in msconfig and looked for odd entries in the registry start area. The customer really didn't care because he wanted to use another client anyways, but I've become quite curious. Oh well...

 

[jackha]

VMM is your virtual memory manager "RAM" check in control panel>systems>performance>vertual memory and see if "let windows manage virtual mem. is checked. If it is you will need to try and find out what is soaking up all of the memory, Also you are correct it will do no good to try regrestore if this has been going on for a week or so because all of the restores will be corrpted also when you try ctrl,alt,del. after a fresh boot how many programs were running. all you need for a test is sys. tray and explorer and you can uncheck all the others while you are running your tests..hope some of this will help....jackha

 

[SoulAssassin]

Thanks, but I'm not working on the pc anymore. No apps were loading with ME at start, I disabled all of them. No programs were running in the background when I opened up Outlook Express. I checked virtual mem, ME was handling it, but there was plenty of space. Even if it was virtual mem, I would think it would happen to at least one other app, right? Anyhoo, I appreciate all of the help.