Hello, I am having a problem with Microsoft Outlook - a problem that I had w/ XP and that stayed when I upgraded to 2003. Outlook used to work fine about 80% of the time, but every once in awhile my computer would shut off immediately, without warning when I opened the program. I upgraded to 2003 in attempt to fix this problem, and for awhile, it seemed to be fine - but it started again after a few days. I used to have about a 50% chance of it opening fine, but now my computer shuts down whenever I try to open it.

The only thing I can think of that might cause something is a driver conflict. I use this PC primarily as a dedicated audio machine and I have 2 sound cards - a high end one for Pro Audio apps and a standard SB Audigy 2 card for regular sound playback. I have absolutely no problems with any sound conflicts and there are no device conflict errors in Device Manager! But this is the only major change to my PC that happened a few days before I started having problems with Outlook.

All other Office applications work fine and I don't have any major errors with any other applications. I usually am good about tweaking settings and getting rid of problems, but I cannot seem to find anything that makes this problem go away. I would greatly appreciate any advice or assistance.

Thanks,
Lindurion

Just to clarify: When you're talking about having XP and upgrading to 2003, I assume you mean "I had Office XP and then upgraded to Office 2003" and NOT "I had Windows XP and upgraded to Windows 2003 Server" ?

Which is the sound card that you installed before Outlook started having the problems - the Audigy 2 or the other one? What is the other one? If you haven't already done so, I would look on that manufacturer's web site for known conflicts with Outlook.

It could just be a coincidence but if that's a significant change that happened just before the problem started, that's the route I would investigate in the first instance.

P.S. And see if there's an updated driver, just in case they found a related problem and fixed it.

Thanks for the response and yes, I had Office XP and then upgraded to 2003, have always and still am running Windows XP on this computer. It was the Audigy 2 that I installed before the problem began, but I think if this is indeed a driver conflict problem, then I would have to think it was because I am using 2 sound cards, not just a direct issue with the last one I installed; though I will check the Creative website for driver updates or known conflicts. The other sound card is made by a company called RME, and I keep that driver up to date regularly and have not seen anything on the website about known issues. I just don't understand why Outlook could possibly have issues with sound card drivers, but the Windows error reporting service says that it is a device driver error. Well, I will keep looking into driver updates.

Thanks again,
Lindurion

Yes it would be weird for Outlook to have a conflict with a sound card but that's where the evidence is pointing to so far. Drivers for modern devices such as fancy sound cards are getting more and more sophisticated and more and more likely to be using a shared Windows system file or something that might end up causing problems for something else.

Let us know how you get on with looking down that path.