EUDORA CRASH CHECKLIST
April 1, 2004 -- Here is a preliminary list of questions about persistent Eudora crashes that perhaps will give us some leads on what is happening. Please feel free to add any information you think is relevant, or to add any questions.
April 3, 2004 -- Here's a revised list, much improved by Katrina's input.
Have you had the crashing problem on more than one computer? If so, how many?
Please give a brief summary of your system configuration, especially memory and
video card info.
With what operating systems have you had the problem? 95? 98? NT? ME? 2000? XP?
With what versions of Eudora have you had the problem? 3, 4, 5, 6?
Do you use Eudora's internal viewer or the MS viewer?
If you use the MS viewer, what version of Internet Explorer is installed on your
machine? To find out what version of IE you have, open Internet Explorer,
click on Help, and then on About. You will see a notation of the program
version.
Is the Preview Pane enabled?
Is Quicktime installed? If so, which version do you use? To find out
what version of Quicktime you have, navigate to the program in Windows Explorer
-- it is probably under Program Files -- right-click on it, and click on
Properties. You will find a version tab with the necessary information.
Please give a careful description of your crashes, including the following information:
On average, how many hours of Eudora usage do you get between
crashes? About how often do the crashes occur? daily? twice a day? five times
a day? What does that mean in the context of how you use Eudora? Do you
keep it open steadily for eight or twelve hours a day? How often does it crash
over that period? If you open it only briefly to once or twice daily to send and
collect mail, what happens then? Does it crash once in a while, or every
time you open the program? etc.
Are the crashes consistent in form, or do they vary?
Can you identify when they usually occur?
on launch?
on opening mail?
on shutting down?
on sending mail?
on collecting mail?
after a period of silence or
minimization?
in some other context? please
specify.
randomly?
Do they take down the whole system, or only Eudora?
Is there any error message? Is it consistent? What does it
say?
Does the crash have an aftermath? (corrupted tocs, can't
launch eudora next time, etc.) If so, what is it?
How many mailboxes or messages are open when the crashes occur?
Are the in, out, trash, and junk mailboxes kept to less than 1 MB each?
(Katrina notes that the Junk box will get very big very quickly if you receive
large amounts of spam, so if you are using version 6, keep an eye on it.)
When Windows shuts down, does Eudora close properly?
Do you monitor Eudora's use of resources, memory, etc.? What do you find?
This is especially important if you are running Win 95, 98, or ME.
Have you followed all the steps prescribed on the Eudora support site? I won't list them here, or this document would be endless. But here is the best central link:
Have you checked your disk for corrupt files? Reset your .ini file? Checked for .rcv files
and deleted any that might be lurking?
Have you tried running Eudora without your own customizations, address book, filters,
etc.? If so, does the problem persist or does it not?
There are
some .dll files that have
repeatedly been implicated in Eudora crashes. Here they are:
riched32.dll
mfc 4*.dll
msvcrt.dll
mshtml.dll
paige32.dll
QCSSL.dll(Thank you Katrina!!!)
Which versions of these .dll files are you using? To find out what versions you have, locate the file through Windows Explorer or through FIND, right click on it, and click on PROPERTIES. You will see a VERSION tab. The version of your .dll file will be listed on that.
Have you received error messages referring to any of these files or to other dlls?
If so, what have you done about them? Have you replaced
any? If so, please specify which ones.
Do you run regular virus and spyware checks?
What programs do you run with Eudora?
Programs loaded on startup (antivirus, firewall, etc.). You can find this information at START -- RUN -- MSCONFIG -- STARTUP. Make a list of what you see listed on the Startup tab.
Other programs or processes (your regular applications, etc.) You can find these listed in the Windows Task Manager. Access this by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete, and make a complete list of what you find under the Applications and Processes tabs.
Do you have Eudora's MAPI protocol configured so that you can send attachments
directly (from you word processor to Eudora, for instance)? Is Eudora set to use
Eudora's MAPI servers always, never, or only when Eudora is running (in Tools,
Options, ?
If you have taken any other steps, please describe them.
Thanks very much for your help. Perhaps in cooperation we will be able to resolve our problems, or get Qualcomm to help us figure them out.