[OT] Thunderbird Help Needed

Anyone here know anything about Thunderbird? (2.0.0.6)

My mom's been having trouble with her email program recently (Outlook
- she's run it for years) in that it, alternatively, won't download or
won't send. Although her ISP recently screwed up their servers so
badly she, and most of their other clients, didn't have email for
nearly 3 weeks, they're telling her it's related to Outlook and sent
her Thunderbird. This is a Win98 machine, T-bird 2.0.0.6 is supposed
to run ok on Win98. T-bird is configured to be her default email
program.

Ever since she's gone to T-bird, her computer's been totally and
completely screwed up for nearly everything but email and games. For
example, someone sent her a short Word document (Word 2000). It locked
up when she tried to open it from T-bird. Hard boot. Open T-bird, save
the file to her desktop, close T-bird. The file locked up when she
tried to open it. Hard boot. The file *still* locked up when she tried
to open it, even though she hadn't run any other programs. I didn't
think Thunderbird was that big of a memory hog, where it won't even
let you do stuff when it's not been run.

I blame T-bird, because it's the only thing that's changed (that, and
her lazy ISP that's blaming everything but themselves for what's
apparently their issue). More memory is not an option - this is a
*win98* machine. I added memory to it 2 years ago, and had a hard
time finding the right kind of memory to begin with.

Any ideas anyone? (short of buying a new computer - I hate to do that,
all she uses it for really is word processing, email and the games
that come with Windows)


Jeanne Hedge

============
http://www.jhedge.com

Any ideas anyone? (short of buying a new computer - I hate to do that,
all she uses it for really is word processing, email and the games
that come with Windows)

It doesn't sound like a TBird issue. I haven't run a Windows box in a
long time, but the last I did I used Thunderbird as the mail client, and
I run it now on OS X and Linux.

It sounds more like a virus is running. I'd suggest a really thorough
scan with at least 2 anti-virus packages. It's entirely possible that
the copy of Thunderbird you were given was infected with a virus. An ISP
that can screw up mail service for 3 weeks would be quite capable of
screwing up by sending an infected mail client.

An alternative would be to:
1) delete Thunderbird;
2) set her up with a Gmail account; and
3) set up Outlook to fetch her gmail via IMAP or POP.

I would recommend that she not rely upon her ISP's e-mail service in the
future if they can't keep the service running. I know all too well
what's involved in keeping ISP mail servers running - I am working for
Iowa's largest in-state ISP, and one of my duties is keeping the 40 mail
servers up and running properly.


Dan

Jeanne Hedge wrote:
Anyone here know anything about Thunderbird? (2.0.0.6)

My mom's been having trouble with her email program recently (Outlook
- she's run it for years) in that it, alternatively, won't download or
won't send. Although her ISP recently screwed up their servers so
badly she, and most of their other clients, didn't have email for
nearly 3 weeks, they're telling her it's related to Outlook and sent
her Thunderbird. This is a Win98 machine, T-bird 2.0.0.6 is supposed
to run ok on Win98. T-bird is configured to be her default email
program.

Ever since she's gone to T-bird, her computer's been totally and
completely screwed up for nearly everything but email and games. For
example, someone sent her a short Word document (Word 2000). It locked
up when she tried to open it from T-bird. Hard boot. Open T-bird, save
the file to her desktop, close T-bird. The file locked up when she
tried to open it. Hard boot. The file *still* locked up when she tried
to open it, even though she hadn't run any other programs. I didn't
think Thunderbird was that big of a memory hog, where it won't even
let you do stuff when it's not been run.

I blame T-bird, because it's the only thing that's changed (that, and
her lazy ISP that's blaming everything but themselves for what's
apparently their issue). More memory is not an option - this is a
*win98* machine. I added memory to it 2 years ago, and had a hard
time finding the right kind of memory to begin with.

Any ideas anyone? (short of buying a new computer - I hate to do that,
all she uses it for really is word processing, email and the games
that come with Windows)


Jeanne Hedge

============
http://www.jhedge.com

Jeanne, I'm sorry to her she's having problems with T-Bird, and
hopefully one of our resident Smart Computer People can help.

I use Thunderbird and usually have no problems, other than an occasional
lock-up, which happens with just about every program on my 'puter when
it gets a bit overheated.

Anyway, hope it's fixed by now!

Ginger-lyn

Well, we ran virus scans and bot scans and every other kind of scan we
(my brother and I) could think of. She's still running out of memory,
can't run Word, can't Forward email, weird stuff like that. The virus
scan did turn one up (I don't know which one, my bro took care of it),
the virus was eliminated, but the problems still exist. Either he
didn't fully eradicate things, or something didn't get picked up.

It's *got* to be a virus, the problems with running out of memory
trying to open email attachments received using Outlook and
Thunderbird being where they first manifested. I mean, *nothing*
changed (except adding T-bird) - in the morning she could do stuff, in
the afternoon she couldn't.

But it's all moot now. Mom and Dad decided to buy a new computer. The
price isn't too awful, as they bought a flatscreen monitor 2-3 years
ago. And we're not going to deal with Vista either - Dell's got a
thing on some of their models where you can buy a "downgrade package"
(I think that's what it's called) where XP Professional comes
pre-installed and they send along a Vista installation disk "for
upgrading when you are ready".

So that's the update - thanks for the help everyone!


Jeanne Hedge


On Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:16:58 -0400, Ginger-lyn
wrote:

Jeanne Hedge wrote:
Anyone here know anything about Thunderbird? (2.0.0.6)

My mom's been having trouble with her email program recently (Outlook
- she's run it for years) in that it, alternatively, won't download or
won't send. Although her ISP recently screwed up their servers so
badly she, and most of their other clients, didn't have email for
nearly 3 weeks, they're telling her it's related to Outlook and sent
her Thunderbird. This is a Win98 machine, T-bird 2.0.0.6 is supposed
to run ok on Win98. T-bird is configured to be her default email
program.

Ever since she's gone to T-bird, her computer's been totally and
completely screwed up for nearly everything but email and games. For
example, someone sent her a short Word document (Word 2000). It locked
up when she tried to open it from T-bird. Hard boot. Open T-bird, save
the file to her desktop, close T-bird. The file locked up when she
tried to open it. Hard boot. The file *still* locked up when she tried
to open it, even though she hadn't run any other programs. I didn't
think Thunderbird was that big of a memory hog, where it won't even
let you do stuff when it's not been run.

I blame T-bird, because it's the only thing that's changed (that, and
her lazy ISP that's blaming everything but themselves for what's
apparently their issue). More memory is not an option - this is a
*win98* machine. I added memory to it 2 years ago, and had a hard
time finding the right kind of memory to begin with.

Any ideas anyone? (short of buying a new computer - I hate to do that,
all she uses it for really is word processing, email and the games
that come with Windows)


Jeanne Hedge

============
http://www.jhedge.com

Jeanne, I'm sorry to her she's having problems with T-Bird, and
hopefully one of our resident Smart Computer People can help.

I use Thunderbird and usually have no problems, other than an occasional
lock-up, which happens with just about every program on my 'puter when
it gets a bit overheated.

Anyway, hope it's fixed by now!

Ginger-lyn