Dell Computer "shuts Down" When Opening Email

[WeaponX 0]

I have a Dell Optiplex GX 270 computer here and the problem is that it shuts down randomly when viewing email in Outlook. It doesn't seem to do this when doing anything else online. Could a network cause issue this kind of problem? I'm going to see if the other machines are doing this as well.The funny thing is that the machine itself still seems to be running. The light on the monitor is orange, but the computer's light is green and the fan is still spinning in the back. These Optiplex machines have the 4 LED lights in the back to show any error alerts (if any). But when it randomly shuts off (meaning, screen is blank), those 4 LED lights are blacked out. Fan still spinning though and keyboard light is even on. But I can't toggle the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys.I'm narrowing it down to a motherboard issue now, but have a question. How is it possible that it's only happening when viewing emails from Outlook?Thanks.

[Markymark2 0]

Probably a dodgy installation of Outlook..Prolly one of its many dlls has gone *BLEEP* up..My suggestion...dump Outlook!! use a different mail reader..Outlook does nothing that other mail programs cant do and they will run better and lighter on your system than the memory hog that is Outlook.

[dhanesh1405241511 0]

True .. 1 reason might be your Mail Reader. Or probably you battery lol, Its like a default answer for any DELL related problems now. But in all seriousness, try getting your battery checked tho.

 

For a standalone Mail reader program, may i suggest ThunderBird .. Fast Smile and easy to use

 

>> LINK <<

 

Regards

Dhanesh.

[WeaponX 0]

Using a third party program is out of my hands. Their computer may only use Outlook (policy).I will check out the battery and see if that caused it. If not, maybe a reinstall.Would these cause this kind of problem though? Like the battery...shouldn't it not power up at all if it's the battery? If it's a dodgy install, why would it just power down the system, leaving the fan spinning and the power light on the computer still green?

[yordan 10]

Their computer may only use Outlook (policy).

Seems that they have a drastic computer policy. By the way, do they have a procedure to re-install outlook in case of failure ? If not, here is a step-by-step for removing and re-installing manually outlook :

How to manually remove and reinstall Outlook Express - Introduction This step-by step article describes how to manually remove and install the following versions of Microsoft Outlook Express: Microsoft Outlook ...support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263837

Edited September 4, 2006 by yordan (see edit history)

[WeaponX 0]

I will see what happens tomorrow when I go there. Reinstalling will probably be a last step...got the motherboard already (just in case). I never reinstalled Outlook before. Do I have to backup their emails if they saved it locally? Or will uninstalling Outlook not affect them? It doesn't seem to mention anything about the emails in the Microsoft Article.

[yordan 10]

Do I have to backup their emails if they saved it locally? Or will uninstalling Outlook not affect them?

First of all, doing a backup is a daily mandatory operation, you always need to own a full usable backup of all your important files, and your mail files are important things.Secondly, I never did a mistake, but it's time for a first error, so, everytime I touch a system I do a data backup, "just in case".
So, my advice is : do the test once, and before the test simply put the important files (mails, reports, spreadsheets) on a fileserver somewhere. If everything works fine, you may safely erase the backup, if you experience a problem you re-install and you can download the backups.
Now, you must know where the mails are. I put my own mails on the F: disk, which is not the standard place. However, when I re-install, I simply have to change the mail destination to my F: disk and everything is fine. This is not an outlook feature, it's the same if you use thunderbird or netscape.
So, if the mails are in the default place, re-installing will probably change nothing, but it's safer to have a backup of the mail directory, just in case.
If the mails are not in the default location, after re-installing, you will have to change the local mail storage settings.
Regards
Yordan

[WeaponX 0]

I didn't get a chance to work on that computer today. I will probably work on it tomorrow...I have to scratch the uninstall and reinstall of Outlook in that case. We're definitely not allowed to touch their data. They have to back it up...most of these users are clueless when it comes to backups also, which makes it even worse. We'll have to send someone to help them backup if anything.I will try the motherboard first and see how that works out. Will post the results

[WeaponX 0]

Forgot to post a followup to this :)I replaced the motherboard for the machine last week and it seems to have done the trick. She used the machine for about 10 minutes casually browsing emails as she did previously with the "power outage" from the monitor. This time, no problems

[kgd2006 0]

Whenever i Have odd things happen to my laptop I always back up my important files and do a reformat. That usually fix all my problems every single time. These days when browsing anything online there seems to be viruses everywhere. My norton seems to detect it every now and then, but at times my norton wouldnt even be able to stop it from attaching itself to my computer. So this is when I would go ahead and reformat my computer.The cases when I reformat are when my programs would not start at all, or I see pop up automatcially at start of computer startup. So basically the odd and unusal times when you computer have problems is the time it calls for the reformatting cd. =)

[WeaponX 0]

I wish it was always that "easy" to just pop in the CD and do a reinstall everything I get problems with the computer. Too many times here we have hardware related issues, like in this case with the motherboard. A format will only waste our time in my case. The board was defective...took a look at it when I went back (it was locked down, so I didn't open it the first time) and found that the motherboard had like 5 swollen capacitors.

[Mafamba Team 0]

From personal experience, I would say that it is a virus on the computer or internet, from eprsonal experience.Dell are usually a ver reliable computer make, and the chances are, 99.99999999996% that it is a fault with your internet service, or e-mail client rather than with the Dell computer itself.I know this because this kind of thing always happened to my computer, and despite having one of the best anti-virus programs around, my internet web browser, ("Freeserve", now called "Wanadoo", but once again have changed their name to, "Orange"), was letting viruses onto my computer when I used it.I now have Mozilla Firefox whcih ahs sorted the problem, so I reccommend you check the number of viruses on your computer, I am unsure how to but you can, and go on from there.Mafamba

[Xolith 0]

You should try uninstalling it and then reinstalling it. Go to Control Panel > Add Remove Programs > Add Remove Windows Components. Then untick Outlook Express. Restart your compter and do the same to install it again.

[unimatrix 0]

Resintall, then check for viruses, then call the company tech support. That would be my steps to solving this problem.

[yordan 10]

I wish it was always that "easy" to just pop in the CD and do a reinstall everything I get problems with the computer.

Booting off the recovery CD and saying "re-install everything from factory settings" is really easy, and rather fast (on current computers it's just time to have a coffee) and you have your computer back exactly as it was when you bought it. If you were satisfied with it the first day, you will be satisfied again.After that re-install, if you add things, just do a ghost image after that and save that ghost image on a CD, re-installing the image in case of crash will be a matter of tens of minutes again.
Of course, if you have hardware issues, re-installing will solve nothing.