Attaching First File Takes a Long Time (Outlook 2003)

[dglarson]

Edited by HansV to provide link to post

In the past 4 months or so I notice that whenever I attach something to an outlook email it takes a huge amount of time to attach, like 20 to 30 seconds on average, no matter what size the attachment. This is only for the first attachment however. All subsequent attachments into either the same email or any other new emails in the same Outlook session all attach quite quickly (1 to 3 seconds on average depending on the size). Even if the subsequent attachment attempt is the exact same file as the first attachment it goes quickly. Attaching didn’t use to behave this way.

What I have done
1- So I first started with Outlook since besides the slow attaching, all of Outlook was somewhat sluggish. So I cleaned out my personal folder reducing the size from over 700 Mb down to 400 Mb. That cleared up the Outlook sluggishness right off but it did nothing for the slow attaching.

2- Suspecting a virus I ran a full-system virus scan twice using Trend Micro’s PC-Cillin Internet Security 2007, which is current and up to date. It found a number of spyware infections the first time but no viruses. The second time it found only 1 or 2 spywares and again no viruses.

3- I read through the Outlook forum and found <post:=653,502>post 653,502</post:> which describes a problem quite similar to mine. But none of the responders successfully solved the problem for that poster (rlweiner) and none of the suggested causes apply to me. With my experience of the problem I can actually hear the hard drive churning away for the duration of the long attaching. So for me its more of its very busy doing something that is taking way too long than rlweiner's experience of it hanging.

My Questions

1. What is causing the extremely slow attaching for the first attachments?
2. Could this be some sort of virus (even though scans detect none) that gets run only on the first attach and does who knows what (maybe copying my contacts for some illicit purpose)?

My Stats
HP Pavillion – Celeron 1.8 Ghz – 768 Mb RAM
Windows XP Home SP2
Outlook 2003 (11.5608.5606)

[HansV]

Is your computer connected to a local area network (LAN)? If so, are all network drives available?

[dglarson]

Yes, I am on a small LAN and all network drives are attached. I don't use the LAN drives for anything. There is no email on them. My email client is Outlook and the email server is handled by Earthlink.

[JoeP517]

Is PC-Cillin setup to scan attatchments? It could be something in its initialization.

Joe

[dglarson]

Well, I wasn't sure, so I checked. Yes, PC-Cillin does scan email attachments. So are you suggesting that the PC-Cillin initialization on the first attachment is the problem?
That makes some sense and I will devise a test plan to see if its true.
But, I have had PC-Cillin for 2 years and this long time for first attachment has only been happening for maybe 8 months.

[JoeP517]

Did you install a major update to either PC-Cillian or Office around that time? What OS are you running?

Joe

[dglarson]

No major updates to either. PC-Cillin was updated 1 year ago in Feb. The OS is Windows XP/Home, can't remember when I last upgraded it.

[JoeP517]

See How to turn off the speech recognition and the handwriting recognition features in Office 2003 that will help with one potential issue. Also, see Error opening attachments / Cleaning out the Temporary Outlook Files folder | HowTo-Outlook and the <img src=/S/free.gif border=0 alt=free width=30 height=15> OutlookTools | HowTo-Outlook. IN Computing.Net - Outlook 2003 hangs when attaching a I found:

"The delay may be caused by windows Explorer looking for a server that no longer exists.
First, check to see if you have any manual drive mappings, if you do, check to see if they are still valid. You may be getting a message when you boot regarding a drive mapping that cannot connect.

Second, check My Network Places for any bad links.

Third, if all of this still does not fix the issue, check your path setting. Right-Click My Computer, go to properties, Advanced, Environment Variables, Path. Look for any entries with UNC paths, i.e. cgntechutilites, etc., or even look for bad links that point to P:. Maybe a folder got renamed on P for some reason."

[dglarson]

Well, I can't say I know what caused it but I did find a solution. I flattened and reloaded my PC. Before doing it I consulted with a PC professional and he wasn't sure but thought it might be a well hidden virus that was escaping my PC-cillin scans. So the flatten and reload solved it. No more long loads of first attachment in Outlook. I got a few other bonuses as well. My windows update now updates successfully and my overall PC speed is slightly better. Didn't reinstall all the Software I had but did most of it. The few I didn't reinstall were acquired after this attachment problem started so the it wasn't due to them. I think it was a virus of some sort.

[HansV]

Thanks for posting the solution.