IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I have four messages in my outbox. One of them won’t display because an error message appears saying low memory or low disk drive. Because of this error message, it won’t send any of these four messages.

The first thing to check is you have enough hard drive space. If the drive is full then the computer will choke. We’ve covered freeing up space on your hard drive previously.

If you do have enough hard drive space then one of those outgoing emails is damaged and it’s blocking the others from leaving.

To fix it, turn off the auto-preview screen by clicking View and then Autoview in Outlook. If you are using Outlook Express or Windows Mail click View, Layout and take the tick off the Show Preview Pane box.

Once you’ve done that, go into your Outbox folder and drag all four of the emails into your drafts folder. Delete any you don’t need to send then open the ones you do want to resend and click the resend button.

I have outlook express 6. When I open outlook express I cannot receive messages in the inbox. It comes up saying that an unknown error has occurred. Account:’mail.optusnet.com.au’,
Protocol:POP3,Port:110,Secure

(SSL):No,ErrorNumber:0×800C0131
(I don’t understand any of that!)
It then says i folder could not be displayed
Outlook Express could not open this folder
Possible causes are:
*low disk space
*low memory

I have 260 emails but I can’t open them in outlook express.
Can you please help me?

You have two separate problems. The first error is Outlook Express telling you it can’t connect to Optus and collect your email. You’ll have to check your firewall and Internet connection.

The second problem is more serious. This indicates the folder is damaged or your hard drive is full.

The fix for this is somewhat complex, if you have a basic understanding of computers, we’d recommend contacting a computer tech to assist you.

First you need to clean up your hard drive. We recommend the free Cleanup! tool, but make sure you’ve backed up your important data before using it.

Once you’ve cleaned up your computer, check to see if the problem has gone away. If it hasn’t, then the problem is a corrupted Outlook Express folder.

The simplest way to fix this problem is to download Mozilla Thunderbird and import the mailboxes from Outlook Express. The import process often overcomes smaller corruption problems.

A longer way is to create a new folder in Outook Express by clicking the Local Folders icon on the left then from the menu at the top of the screen select File, Folder and New. Name the new folder BadInbox.

Now we need to find where Outlook Express has saved your data. Click the Tools menu and select Options. In the options box click Maintenance and Store Folder.

The store folder is where Outlook Express keeps the email folders. Copy the location shown, be aware that the address probably scrolls across to the right as it doesn’t fit in the box.

Shut down Outlook Express, then click Start, Run and type or paste the store folder location in the Run box. Click Okay and the store folder will open.

Rename the BadInbox file to OldInbox and rename the Inbox file to BadInbox.

Restart Outlook Express, the Inbox will re-create itself without the old emails and hopefully the BadInbox on the right will now contain all your old emails.

I want to configure Outlook Express what are the steps I have to follow?

First you will need your Internet provider’s mail server settings, your email address, user name and password. If you don’t know these, you will have to call your provider.

To set up your mail accounts, open Outlook Express, click the Tools menu and select Accounts.

In the Accounts, click Add then click Mail. The Internet Connection Wizard will start.

The first box is the Your Name box, type the name you’d like to appear on your emails when they are received. Generally we recommend using your full name and perhaps add your business name as well (eg; Paul Wallbank, PC Rescue).

In the next screen, type your email address. This should be exactly how your ISP described it. A mistake will mean replies and returned emails won’t get to you and it may upset spam filters.

The next screen is the email server settings. Type your outgoing and incoming mail server addresses in the boxes. Normally the POP3 setting should be set as the server type.

In the final box you’ll be asked for your Account Name and password. Enter your user name into the first box and the password into the second. Tick the box “remember password” unless you want to be nagged about it every time you check your mail.

That’s it! Send a few emails to friends or relatives and see if they are returned. If they are, you are up and running.

My previous computer was using Windows XP Pro. I used Outlook for my e-mail program. Many times I saved e-mails in the Outlook format - .msg I bought a new computer that now is Windows Vista and the Windows Mail is .eml format. I am unable to open any of my old saved messages of the .msg format. If I try, it opens a box asking me which file format I want to import contacts from, which makes no sense to me. Is there any way to open these .msg messages in Windows Vista? I am a bit frustrated that this hasn’t been a “uniform” type updated system. Thank you for your help.

You are quite right to be frustrated, Microsoft really dropped the ball with having different file formats for Outlook and Outlook Express/Windows Mail. It’s another example of how pointless the name “Outlook Express” was for Windows Mail was when the two programs have nothing in common.

All of that aside, there are tools that allow you to open .msg messages, but the simplest solution is to download the Office 2007 Trial Edition then use Outlook to open the files and then save them in .txt format where they can be read by almost any program.

Outlook Express will not send email with stationery. However, it does not give an error message and even moves the email to the Sent folder - but the recipient never gets it. I have even tried sending it to myself with the same result. I can see the stationery fine (no missing file), and if I remove it the email gets received. Any idea what’s wrong?

Outlook Express relies on the same computer language as web pages, this is called HTML. It sounds like Outlook Express is set to send in plain text rather than HTML.

To change this, open Outlook Express click Tools, Option and under the Send tab tick the HTML button under the Mail Sending Format section. Click okay and it should work fine.

Note that some people’s email systems are setup to strip out a lot of pictures and HTML features because they can spread viruses. It’s not unknown for virus and spam checkers to assume heavily formatted emails are also up to no good.

We recommend keeping emails simple partly for this reason, so don’t go too overboard on the graphics.

I can receive email through Outlook express but can’t send so I have to go through my server account which receives and sends. What is the problem please and how can get back sending through Outlook ?

Philip

Hi Philip,

This sounds like a firewall problem. The firewall has decided it doesn’t trust Outlook Express to send data so it blocks access to the net.

To resolve this, you’ll have to reset the firewall, tell it to trust your email provider or manually allow Outlook Express to send outbound data.

With the built in Windows firewall, you can allow this by clicking Start, Settings and opening the Control Panel. In there, you can go to Window Firewall.

In the Windows Firewall settings, click on the Exceptions tab, scroll down to Outlook Express and ensure it is ticked. In the advanced scope section ports 21 and 25 should be allowed from all Internet addresses.

If you are using a different firewall, you’ll have to check Outlook Express is listed as a trusted application. You should also add your Internet provider’s mail server as a trusted address.

Usually we find it’s easier to just reset the firewall and then put up with two days of being nagged when your computer tries to get anything off the network or Internet.

Troubleshooting these programs can be difficult as every one is different, if you do find yourself stuck then you should call for a tech to help out.

I was listening to your ABC program the other day, and you were helping someone who could not open Outlook Express. Now. lo and behold, I cannot either. The blue box “Outlook Express 6″ appears on the screen, then disappears to the small icon at the bottom of the page. When clicked, it just gets bigger then goes back into the bar, and Outlook Express will not open at all. Can you help me please?

This is an irritating little problem with a simple solution.

Open Outlook Express, on the taskbar across the bottom of the screen, right click on the Outlook Express box and the click “Maximize”. Outlook Express will then reappear.

There seems to be a bug in OE where some emails force it into minimising. Outlook Express then remembers these settings for subsequent restarts.

In Outlook Express, when I wish to highlight words in colour (HTML enabled) the colour no longer shows on my screen, but it does for the recipient.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

It sounds like the HTML settings in Outlook Express have a problem. To check this, open Outlook Express, click Tools then select Options.

In the Options box, click the Send tab and check the HTML button is selected as the mail format.

Another area that can cause problems is when you have stationery enabled. To check this, while in the Options choose Compose and take the ticks off the stationery options. You can edit any custom stationery later if this is the problem.

The last two questions have asked about problems with email formats. We like to keep things simple and use plain text for emails. The problem with that is most people like some sort of formatting and, like Andrew in this query, may need advanced features.

Microsoft Outlook has a number a quirks in this respect and it’s best to turn them off to avoid problems with sending mail.

Open Outlook and click on Tools, then choose Options. In the email options box, choose Mail Format.

Under the Message Format heading, choose HTML in the box next to “Compose in this message format”.

Below that box, there will be tick boxes for using Word to edit email messages. Take the tick box off each box.

Save the changes and restart Outlook.

When I try to open outlook express a box comes up which reads outlook express could not be started because MOSE.DLL could not be initialized

Are you sure the file is MOSE.DLL or MSOE.DLL?  We’ll work on the assumption it could be either.

The first step is to re-register these dll files.

Click Start, then Run and type regsvr32 msoe.dll.  Then click okay and a confirmation box should appear. Repeat this process for mose.dll.

Reboot your computer.

You might find the Outlook Express files are damaged. If this is the case, refer to our fixing Windows installation files tip.