Temporarily Freezes while hard disk "races" for 5 - 10 minutes

I have a very strange problem. About once or twice a day, entourage 2004
v.11.2.3 freezes for 5 - 8 minutes during which time the hard disk sounds
like it is searching, finding, updating, "racing", etc. After 5- 10
minutes, the hard disk stops "racing" and entourage un-freezes and works
properly.

Any suggestions? I am using Tiger v. 10.4.6

sophie
Sun May 07 01:18:47 CDT 2006


Hi Larry.
I'm having exactly the same problem with Entourage freezing up.
I don't hear my hd racing, as you describe, but I get the little
swirly-gig icon that tells me it's thinking.I've been forcing the
application to quit, so haven't let it run for 5-10 minutes to see if
it unfreezes. I will go ahead and let it run and see if it unfreezes.
Meanwhile, I've downloaded the most recent service pack updates for
Office 2004, but that hasn't solved the problem. Very frustrating,
since I cannot access any of the information saved in Entourage
folders. Hoping that someone else will have an answer!

-Sophia

sophie
Sun May 07 01:18:53 CDT 2006


Hi Larry.
I'm having exactly the same problem with Entourage freezing up.
I don't hear my hd racing, as you describe, but I get the little
swirly-gig icon that tells me it's thinking.I've been forcing the
application to quit, so haven't let it run for 5-10 minutes to see if
it unfreezes. I will go ahead and let it run and see if it unfreezes.
Meanwhile, I've downloaded the most recent service pack updates for
Office 2004, but that hasn't solved the problem. Very frustrating,
since I cannot access any of the information saved in Entourage
folders. Hoping that someone else will have an answer!

-Sophia

sophie
Sun May 07 01:21:23 CDT 2006

Hi Larry. I'm having exactly the same problem with Entourage on Tiger
10.4.6. I've downloaded the latest service packs and updates from
mactopia for office 2004, but that hasn't solved the problem. I have
been forcing the application to quit, but will try letting it gnaw on
itself for 5-10 minutes and see if it unfreezes. Very inconvenient
since I cannot access any of the information stored in Entourage
folders. Hoping someone else comes up with a solution! - Sophie

Chris
Sun May 07 01:57:33 CDT 2006

On 7/5/06 7:18, in article
1146982727.905162.165240@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, "sophie"
<amezakura@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Hi Larry.
> I'm having exactly the same problem with Entourage freezing up.
> I don't hear my hd racing, as you describe, but I get the little
> swirly-gig icon that tells me it's thinking.I've been forcing the

The spinning rainbow cursor means that the OS has noticed that the app's
user interface isn't responding.

Entourage *may* be thinking, but it is more likely doing something
unexpectedly slow, or waiting for something slow.

> application to quit, so haven't let it run for 5-10 minutes to see if
> it unfreezes. I will go ahead and let it run and see if it unfreezes.
> Meanwhile, I've downloaded the most recent service pack updates for
> Office 2004, but that hasn't solved the problem. Very frustrating,
> since I cannot access any of the information saved in Entourage
> folders. Hoping that someone else will have an answer!

If you get a chance, find out from Activity Monitor.app which program's
using lots of CPU when you're getting this problem. (You may need to choose
"My Processes" in Activity Monitor to see everything relevant.)

Have you tried verifying the Entourage database? Hold down the Option key as
you start Entourage and do a "verify".

See <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/index.html> for some details and
instructions.

Also make sure you're preventing Spotlight from indexing the "Office 2004
Identities" folder. Do this from System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.

Cheers,

Chris

sophie
Sun May 07 05:21:35 CDT 2006

Thanks, Chris, for your quick and detailed response.
I tried everything you described... yes, Entourage is in the red zone
in Activity Monitor, but that's it.
I verified the database, and there were no problems. Compacted it
anyway, but didn't touch the rebuild option. (The mvps website you
referred me to said it's a very bad idea to do that if the verify comes
back clear.) Added Office identities to the banned list in Spotlight --
verified all permissions, and rebooted. So far, no luck. Didn't see
anything else of help on the mvps site either... hmm... any other
suggestions? -sophie

Eric
Sun May 07 08:32:59 CDT 2006

You might have a problem with your disk. Have your run Disk Utility to
verify the partition where your Entourage data resides?

ET


On 5/7/06 6:21 AM, in article
1146997295.271257.25150@e56g2000cwe.googlegroups.com, "sophie"
<amezakura@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Chris, for your quick and detailed response.
> I tried everything you described... yes, Entourage is in the red zone
> in Activity Monitor, but that's it.
> I verified the database, and there were no problems. Compacted it
> anyway, but didn't touch the rebuild option. (The mvps website you
> referred me to said it's a very bad idea to do that if the verify comes
> back clear.) Added Office identities to the banned list in Spotlight --
> verified all permissions, and rebooted. So far, no luck. Didn't see
> anything else of help on the mvps site either... hmm... any other
> suggestions? -sophie
>

MikeTRose
Sun May 07 12:17:58 CDT 2006

Here's a quick question -- are you running any antivirus software? If
you have Symantec/Norton AV or Intego VirusBarrier, it's possible that
they are set to periodically scan changed files. Since your Entourage
database file changes constantly, it would get scanned each time; since
it's quite large, the scan takes a while (and prevents Entourage from
accessing the file while it's in progress).

Any other disk indexing software (aside from Spotlight) might show the
same behavior.

I found that leaving SAV in the default configuration (=C5utoProtect on,
default safe zones) is deathly to Entourage performance. The best
solution is either to turn AutoProtect off completely or to exclude the
Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities folder.

Larry
Sun May 07 14:02:28 CDT 2006

Thanks for the post. I just did a "verify" by holding down the Option key
when I stated Entourage. I also made sure Spotlight does not check the
Microsoft User Data folder. Like Sophie, it doesn't seem like it helps.
Thanks,
larry

On 5/6/06 11:57 PM, in article C08358EC.1A0552%chrisridd@mac.com, "Chris
Ridd" <chrisridd@mac.com> wrote:

> On 7/5/06 7:18, in article
> 1146982727.905162.165240@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, "sophie"
> <amezakura@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi Larry.
>> I'm having exactly the same problem with Entourage freezing up.
>> I don't hear my hd racing, as you describe, but I get the little
>> swirly-gig icon that tells me it's thinking.I've been forcing the
>
> The spinning rainbow cursor means that the OS has noticed that the app's
> user interface isn't responding.
>
> Entourage *may* be thinking, but it is more likely doing something
> unexpectedly slow, or waiting for something slow.
>
>> application to quit, so haven't let it run for 5-10 minutes to see if
>> it unfreezes. I will go ahead and let it run and see if it unfreezes.
>> Meanwhile, I've downloaded the most recent service pack updates for
>> Office 2004, but that hasn't solved the problem. Very frustrating,
>> since I cannot access any of the information saved in Entourage
>> folders. Hoping that someone else will have an answer!
>
> If you get a chance, find out from Activity Monitor.app which program's
> using lots of CPU when you're getting this problem. (You may need to choose
> "My Processes" in Activity Monitor to see everything relevant.)
>
> Have you tried verifying the Entourage database? Hold down the Option key as
> you start Entourage and do a "verify".
>
> See <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/index.html> for some details and
> instructions.
>
> Also make sure you're preventing Spotlight from indexing the "Office 2004
> Identities" folder. Do this from System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Chris
>

Larry
Sun May 07 14:04:52 CDT 2006

Just ran Disk Utility and Verified permissions.... Hmmmmmmm, thanks, larry


On 5/7/06 6:32 AM, in article C0836F4B.14154%no@body.com, "Eric Tiffany"
<no@body.com> wrote:

> You might have a problem with your disk. Have your run Disk Utility to
> verify the partition where your Entourage data resides?
>
> ET
>
>
> On 5/7/06 6:21 AM, in article
> 1146997295.271257.25150@e56g2000cwe.googlegroups.com, "sophie"
> <amezakura@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thanks, Chris, for your quick and detailed response.
>> I tried everything you described... yes, Entourage is in the red zone
>> in Activity Monitor, but that's it.
>> I verified the database, and there were no problems. Compacted it
>> anyway, but didn't touch the rebuild option. (The mvps website you
>> referred me to said it's a very bad idea to do that if the verify comes
>> back clear.) Added Office identities to the banned list in Spotlight --
>> verified all permissions, and rebooted. So far, no luck. Didn't see
>> anything else of help on the mvps site either... hmm... any other
>> suggestions? -sophie
>>
>

Larry
Sun May 07 14:05:58 CDT 2006

Thanks Mike. I did a spotlight search and I don't think I have either
Symantec or Norton Utilities on my computer. Any other ideas? Thanks,
larry


On 5/7/06 10:17 AM, in article
1147022278.051365.192140@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com, "MikeTRose"
<miketrose@gmail.com> wrote:

> Here's a quick question -- are you running any antivirus software? If
> you have Symantec/Norton AV or Intego VirusBarrier, it's possible that
> they are set to periodically scan changed files. Since your Entourage
> database file changes constantly, it would get scanned each time; since
> it's quite large, the scan takes a while (and prevents Entourage from
> accessing the file while it's in progress).
>
> Any other disk indexing software (aside from Spotlight) might show the
> same behavior.
>
> I found that leaving SAV in the default configuration (ÅutoProtect on,
> default safe zones) is deathly to Entourage performance. The best
> solution is either to turn AutoProtect off completely or to exclude the
> Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities folder.
>

Eric
Sun May 07 15:08:29 CDT 2006

did you also actually verify the disk (click the "Verify Disk" button)?

ET


On 5/7/06 3:04 PM, in article C08392E4.121A5%larry@avatarrecords.com, "Larry
Robinson" <larry@avatarrecords.com> wrote:

> Just ran Disk Utility and Verified permissions.... Hmmmmmmm, thanks, larry
>
>
> On 5/7/06 6:32 AM, in article C0836F4B.14154%no@body.com, "Eric Tiffany"
> <no@body.com> wrote:
>
>> You might have a problem with your disk. Have your run Disk Utility to
>> verify the partition where your Entourage data resides?
>>
>> ET
>>
>>
>> On 5/7/06 6:21 AM, in article
>> 1146997295.271257.25150@e56g2000cwe.googlegroups.com, "sophie"
>> <amezakura@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks, Chris, for your quick and detailed response.
>>> I tried everything you described... yes, Entourage is in the red zone
>>> in Activity Monitor, but that's it.
>>> I verified the database, and there were no problems. Compacted it
>>> anyway, but didn't touch the rebuild option. (The mvps website you
>>> referred me to said it's a very bad idea to do that if the verify comes
>>> back clear.) Added Office identities to the banned list in Spotlight --
>>> verified all permissions, and rebooted. So far, no luck. Didn't see
>>> anything else of help on the mvps site either... hmm... any other
>>> suggestions? -sophie
>>>
>>
>

Larry
Sun May 07 16:36:39 CDT 2006

Eric: yes I did verify the disk. I will let you know if that helped.
Thank you very much for your suggestion. larry


On 5/7/06 1:08 PM, in article C083CBFD.14172%no@body.com, "Eric Tiffany"
<no@body.com> wrote:

> did you also actually verify the disk (click the "Verify Disk" button)?
>
> ET
>
>
> On 5/7/06 3:04 PM, in article C08392E4.121A5%larry@avatarrecords.com, "Larry
> Robinson" <larry@avatarrecords.com> wrote:
>
>> Just ran Disk Utility and Verified permissions.... Hmmmmmmm, thanks, larry
>>
>>
>> On 5/7/06 6:32 AM, in article C0836F4B.14154%no@body.com, "Eric Tiffany"
>> <no@body.com> wrote:
>>
>>> You might have a problem with your disk. Have your run Disk Utility to
>>> verify the partition where your Entourage data resides?
>>>
>>> ET
>>>
>>>
>>> On 5/7/06 6:21 AM, in article
>>> 1146997295.271257.25150@e56g2000cwe.googlegroups.com, "sophie"
>>> <amezakura@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thanks, Chris, for your quick and detailed response.
>>>> I tried everything you described... yes, Entourage is in the red zone
>>>> in Activity Monitor, but that's it.
>>>> I verified the database, and there were no problems. Compacted it
>>>> anyway, but didn't touch the rebuild option. (The mvps website you
>>>> referred me to said it's a very bad idea to do that if the verify comes
>>>> back clear.) Added Office identities to the banned list in Spotlight --
>>>> verified all permissions, and rebooted. So far, no luck. Didn't see
>>>> anything else of help on the mvps site either... hmm... any other
>>>> suggestions? -sophie
>>>>
>>>
>>
>

sophie
Sun May 07 19:13:33 CDT 2006

Wow. How do you guys come up with this stuff?! I'm so impressed.
Problem is not yet solved, but as a new MAC user, I am learning so much
about how my little machine works, thanks to your generousity. Thank
you. (Next time I will come to the boards instead of paying an IT-tech
for a house-call to troubleshoot my wireless network... several hours
later, only to realise that it's my printer which is not compatible
with airport.)

Yes, verify and repairing disk permissions was my first step, and I did
it again after walking through all the steps Chris suggested. I do not
have Symantec or Itego on this machine, just MACSCAN spyware sweeper,
which shouldn't interfere. (btw, macscan hasn't found anything yet,
even though I've been to some pretty sketchy sites lately -- have been
doing research on prostitution -- maybe I should get a virus protection
package...or are MACs as impervious to viruses as they say?!)

Another option I considered, Larry, was an external problem. I use
Entourage to pick up mail from several accounts, including hotmail. My
hotmail account went wonky just about the same time Entourage started
acting up... could be purely coincidence, but with msn changing over to
msn live, Entourage could be choking on the glitch. (by "wonky", I mean
-- wouldn't accept password, locked out for false attempts, and the
password reset information showed up in German... ) If I could get
Entourage to respond at all, I would probably start by deleting that
identity entirely and setting it up again. I have already synched all
my mail data into (forgive me, guys!) outlook express on my backup
windows machine. If we can't solve this in the next few days, I'm
probably going to trash Entourage and re-install - or find another mail
app.

My Entourage does not have enough data in it to be choking like this. I
used it primarily for email, and my set-up is only six months old.

Chris
Mon May 08 00:40:41 CDT 2006

On 8/5/06 1:13, in article
1147047213.823879.242000@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, "sophie"
<amezakura@gmail.com> wrote:

> My Entourage does not have enough data in it to be choking like this. I
> used it primarily for email, and my set-up is only six months old.

How big is your Entourage database, by the way? It is in
~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities/Main
Identity/Database.

Cheers,

Chris

sophie
Mon May 08 06:57:24 CDT 2006

287 MB!

sophie
Mon May 08 06:57:30 CDT 2006

287 MB!

sophie
Mon May 08 06:57:45 CDT 2006

287 MB!