Question

Problem with Outlook 2007 using 50% cpu

Asked by: IndiGenus

Hi guys,

First time asking for help...been on the helping end quite a bit though and I've exhausted all my resources on this one.

Machine is HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop.
T2130 @ 1.87 Ghz
2 Gigs RAM
Vista Home Premium

I'm having an issue with Outlook 2007. The CPU ramps up to 50% usage on OUTLOOK.EXE process as soon as a message is received or sent. It will sit dormant until there is an actual message received. If I click the Send/Receive button and no messages come in it does not ramp up.

This is a brand new install of MS Office (trial version but within the 60 days as I'm doing eval. before buying). This seems to be somewhat of a common issue with Outlook 2007 as I do more research. The CPU usage shoots right up to 50% but the memory usage does not appear to increase, so I don't believe there is a memory "leak".

Email is a simple POP gmail address. I also tested with a couple of other POP addresses that I have.

Things I've tried so far...

Disabled all Add-Ins.
Made sure I have no RSS feeds.
Disabled ALL security applications - AV, Firewall, AS, everything.
Started it in Safe Mode - Start -> Run -> outlook /safe
Created a fresh new profile with nothing imported.
Made sure I have any and all updates.
Turned off Search Indexer service.
All of the above at the same time! (I know some of the changes are redundant when using Safe Mode but...)
Also, I do not have the Google desktop as I've seen that has caused issues.
And, I know Dell had "something" running on their laptops that was interfering but that's obviously not my issue as mine is HP.

I was also playing around with Process Explorer to try and identify what's going on...but I'm not completely sure what I'm looking at or what to do with the data. The one thing of note is the particular line in the screenshot that appears to take up the resources. This line is not there before the issue begins.

Other than a re-install (which I'm close to) I'm not sure what to do at this point. I know the system is Malware free as that is my specialty.

Any other suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

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Asked On
2008-03-10 at 13:25:01ID23229828
Topics

Outlook Groupware Software

,

Email Clients

,

Windows Vista

Participating Experts
4
Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: IndiGenusPosted on 2008-03-10 at 16:09:14ID: 21091418

I have an update to this. The CPU doesn't actually spike until the message is VIEWED. If I turn off the Reading Pane (View -> Reading Pane -> Off), the CPU does not spike when messages are received. Now when I go to double click the message to view it and it opens in a new window, back up again. Or if I turn on the view again it will do the same also.

I don't get it???

 

by: MeretePosted on 2008-03-11 at 18:13:15ID: 21102188

Could be Norton System works checking the client.
A conflict with Vista inbuilt email client.
Have you tried turning off the UAC?

Vista is a lot slower than xp and uses considerable more services.
http://www.nevillehobson.com/2007/04/17/windows-vista-rocks-mostly-but-outlook-2007-sucks/

Which AV are you running.
 Vista  includes Windows Mail, a totally overhauled mail client that might just be good enough to prevent you from having to buy or download something else.
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/archives/2007/05/microsoft_to_launch_another_em_1.html

Hope this helps you, I saw your comment in CSA  and have decided to try to help.
Jason will probably call in some more experts to assist you

 

by: IndiGenusPosted on 2008-03-11 at 19:14:59ID: 21102455

Hi Merete and thanks for the reply.

>""Could be Norton System works checking the client.""<
Not running it.

>""A conflict with Vista inbuilt email client.""<
Possible but not much we can do there...

>""Have you tried turning off the UAC?""<
Yes, just tried that with no difference.

>""Vista is a lot slower than xp and uses considerable more services.
http://www.nevillehobson.com/2007/04/17/windows-vista-rocks-mostly-but-outlook-2007-sucks/""<
I'm certainly aware of the Vista complaints and issues. But personally I've been very happy with it.

>""Which AV are you running.""<
PC Tools Internet Security...but I turned it off, didn't help...and even uninstalled it with no help.

>""Vista  includes Windows Mail, a totally overhauled mail client that might just be good enough to prevent you from having to buy or download something else.
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/archives/2007/05/microsoft_to_launch_another_em_1.html""<

I have used the Windows Mail client included with Vista. It's OK but I do like Outlook for the ability to have so much info. in one screen. I need to write everything down to remember it so the integrated calendar and tasks is nice. I have not tried the new Live Mail, so I don't know the features too well.

I think next I might just try a re-install, but I don't hold much hope that will solve it. We'll see...

Thanks again,
Dave

Hope this helps you, I saw your comment in CSA  and have decided to try to help.
Jason will probably call in some more experts to assist you

    * Accept as Solution

 

by: MeretePosted on 2008-03-12 at 02:26:53ID: 21104130

Yes maybe the only solution, it is also a trial version.
Sorry I couldn't assist you
If you find a solution would really appreciate knowing.
All the Best
Merete

 

by: IndiGenusPosted on 2008-03-12 at 08:30:42ID: 21107069

Hi Merete,

I completely removed it and did a re-install with the same results. ???

This is a strange one. As long as I turn the reading pane off or don't open the message the CPU will not spike up. I can receive messages fine but it won't spike up until I open them.

I'll keep this open for a few days in case anyone else has any ideas and I'm going to try some things myself.

Thanks again,
Dave

 

by: moorhouselondonPosted on 2008-03-12 at 11:00:43ID: 21108889

Have you tried reading emails in plain text format:-

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831607

This might give an indication as to whether it is the rendering of the email which is causing the problem.  Mind you, the option above has to do some work in converting the email into a plain-text form.

 

by: IndiGenusPosted on 2008-03-12 at 12:04:00ID: 21109537

OK Bingo....we have a winner! Never even thought of trying that. Now...next question, why? I've started in researching this also but if you have any ideas that would be great.

Thanks,
Dave

 

by: IndiGenusPosted on 2008-03-12 at 12:25:48ID: 21109758

Well something ELSE I was not aware of (glad I'm trying this out as I've learned much here...). The emails are rendered using MS WORD! Not HTML as in the past.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/01/10/microsoft-breaks-html-email-rendering-in-outlook/

So while that helps to understand things yet a LITTLE better I still don't know how the issue can be solved.

Once again thanks for all the help,
Dave

 

by: moorhouselondonPosted on 2008-03-12 at 13:28:03ID: 21110394

There's a lot of moans and groans about this "improvement" in Outlook '07.  One of the reasons why I try to steer my clients away from the Microsoft "treadmill".  It seems that the answer might be found in a search for Office03-Office07 workarounds.

For example:  Suppose someone were to do a custom install of Office 07, and select Outlook to be installed, but not Word.  What would happen?  Presumably there are library files which we think of as belonging to Word, but must still be installed to cope with such a weird combination in our Custom Installation.  The ideal answer would be that Outlook would switch to another "rendering engine", but I doubt it.  If it did, what would then happen if Word were subsequently installed?

Trouble is trying to replicate this, unless it is done on a virgin pc that has only the OS on it - uninstalling and then installing is not a fair test, as it may not remove everything originally loaded.

 

by: IndiGenusPosted on 2008-03-12 at 14:08:32ID: 31438415

Thanks to both of you for the help, I appreciate it. I think we did the best we could with the situation that was given.

 

by: MeretePosted on 2008-03-13 at 02:28:11ID: 21114413

I do agree moorhouselondon, nice informative piece you wrote there too. Won't be long and office will be part of windows. More control.
Glad to see you found a solution Dave.
Cheers

 

by: IndiGenusPosted on 2008-03-27 at 18:13:30ID: 21227212

I know this has been resolved but wanted to update here. I have been using the "view email as plain text" to resolve the issue. But thought after installing SP1 today I would try viewing back as HTML. What do you know? Issue resolved, no more CPU spiking. So looks like MS knew about it and had a fix...

Thanks again,
Dave

 

by: ronenrPosted on 2009-06-25 at 10:16:15ID: 24713711

I had a situation where my Outlook 2007 used 80% of the CPU every few seconds, after investigating and disabling everything I found that Skype was causing the problem, whenever Skype was running the outlook CPU started to jump, in Addition, Skype started to consume all the memory (memory leak)

The solution to both problems was to remove a checkbox in Skype, under Contacts->Show Outlook Contacts

The hint was found here: http://i.nconspicuo.us/2007/12/21/outlook-2007-does-not-shutdown-on-exit-outlookexe-remains-in-task-manager/

 

by: torres9Posted on 2009-08-07 at 03:01:38ID: 25041219

Once I read the 'rendering' idea I checked it out and noticed a significant (20%) dip in cpu usage if the reading pane was turned off. This ramped up in a second, so I looked further. Tried plain text reading of messages, disabling add-ins - no change.
Then, I noticed a second 'personal folders'  - which was a re-opened backup. This had not been a problem when opened and read it, in the same session.
When PC was shut down and rebooted, however, that was obviously when it all went haywire.
So, always close a backup directly after getting what you want from it and shutting down either the system and / or Outlook.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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