Outlook 2003 won't receive mail

Hello, again.

Today's problem is a lack of incoming mail using my email client, Outlook 2003. The OS is Xp Home, SP3, on a Dell Dimension DM051.

1) The mail is on my server at my ISP, and I can still get it on my blackberry.

2) I have run scanpst.exe a couple of times, and all .pst file errors have been repaired.

3) The settings are the same as when it was working, so no changes there.

History:

This happened once before. The problem first appears as a multiple copy downloading of email on a given day, suggesting that the problem originates with Outlook not recognizing headers on the server, so it continues to download new copies.

Last time, I did the following:

1) fixed the .pst file errors by running scanpst.exe

2) ran "detect and repair"

3) finally removed the office pro program, rebooted, and reinstalled.

4) The next day, I checked again, and the program started working normally.

That was perhaps a month ago.



So far this time, I have replicated all of the steps I took before, but of course, I have no idea what undocumented occurrence caused the problem to go away last time, or I would do that again THIS time. This means that I have not gotten to step 4, where the problem goes away.

I'm a little bewildered that a reinstall, a step I had previously regarded as the "gold standard" in software issues, was not in itself an effective fix for this for either occurrence.

What advice can you offer at this point?


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Can you verify if this happens with other email clients on your computer by downloading and installing Mozilla Thunderbird: http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-GB/thunderbird/

This is to see if the problem is with Outlook or somewhere else in the chain.

 

I found the issue.

First, I downloaded Thunderbird, as recommended. It downloaded several emails, and then stopped.

I was concerned that something could be wrong with the mail server. Then, I thought one of the largest mail servers in the nation would not be having this kind of problem for long, so I looked for commonalities between the two failures. While I was thinking on that idea, a prescient thing happened.

A little window popped up saying that a file named PCTAV.svc or something similar had developed an error and needed to close, and it asked if I would like to inform Microsoft about it?

Well, no, I did not, but I realized that this was not the first such notification I had seen in recent weeks. Come to think of it, I only had installed PC Tools Antivirus after the Malware forum recommended I ditch AVG because it used up too many resources.

So, I eliminated PC Tools Antivirus, and reinstalled Outlook.

Bingo. Everything started working just like clockwork.

So, what can I install in place of the PC Tools product that will not interfere with .pst files or the downloading of email using Outlook?

And thanks for the suggestion about Thunderbird. I may consider that in the future.


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I found the Antivir product. Thanks again!