# Email signature causing one partciular recipient's Outlook to crash



## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

An email user at the company I work for has reported that his Outlook crashes whenever he opens a mail from a particular (external) address. I narrowed the cause down to a part of the senders signature, however the problem doesn't affect any other recipients.

Since the problem was first reported, about a year ago, the user has been set up on a new laptop and had his Outlook upgraded from XP to 2007, but the problem still persists. 

I assume that it must have something to do with his AD account but I can't find anything unusual.

Any suggestions?


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## DaveA (Nov 16, 1999)

What is a "AD account"?

Does this signature have a link to a external site?
If so, is the site being blocked in house?


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

AD is Active Directory.

The signature doesn't have any links.


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## DaveA (Nov 16, 1999)

What tells you that it is something in the signature?


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

When I deleted the signature and forwarded the mail on to him, he was able to open it without any problems.


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## DaveA (Nov 16, 1999)

Any graphics in the signature?

Have you done nothing to the email and forwarded it back to him?


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

There is a company logo in the signature. 
I did actually test sending the mail as it was originally and with various bits removed. The part that causes the problem is the company logo graphic. It's from a fairly well know company so I won't attach it, but it seems to be just a GIF image.


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## DaveA (Nov 16, 1999)

Is it linked to a web site?
Right click and select properties.


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

It's not linked to a website.

This is the source code.

<td width=132 height=10 style='width:99.0pt;padding:5.75pt 5.75pt 5.75pt 5.75pt;
text-fit:100%;height:7.2pt'>








<o></o>

[/TD]


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

That src="cid.... implies that the image for the logo is included as part of the email - probably at the bottom. Is the email being truncated in his case??


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

I can't see the image anywhere else on the mail. What should it look like?

The mail isn't being truncated.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

You will need to right click and view source. It should appear as a block of code at the bottom.


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

I can't see anything that fits the bill. What type of html tags should it have?


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Can you zip and post a non-sensitive example?
It is easier to refer to then.


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

This is all the source code for the mail.

<o:SmartTagType
namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" name="country-region"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags"
name="City"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags"
name="place"/>







<td width=221 height=10 valign=top style='width:165.6pt;border:none;
border-right:solid gray 1.0pt;padding:5.75pt 5.75pt 5.75pt 5.75pt;height:
7.2pt'>

*aaa aaa,*
<o></o>

bbb bbb bbb,<o></o>

*aa
aaa*
1234567
ddddddd
<font"]mailto:nnnnnnnn">ddddddd</a><font[/EMAIL]
size=1 color="#1f497d" face=Calibri><o></o>

xxxxxxxxxxxx<o></o>

<st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Zzzzzz</st1:City>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Zzzzzzz</st1:country-region></st1lace>.<o></o>

[/TD]
<td width=132 height=10 style='width:99.0pt;padding:5.75pt 5.75pt 5.75pt 5.75pt;
text-fit:100%;height:7.2pt'>








<o></o>

[/TD]

<o> </o>


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

It looks to me as though the code for the picture is supposed to be at the end of the source, but isn't.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Is that source sent from the one that fails or a good one? (likely a good one since the other fails)
Can you get the problem one to *forward* the same email - after having crashed and restarted but without opening this time- to you and see if you can read it?

I'm going to see if I can get an Outlook Expert to look at this.


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## DaveA (Nov 16, 1999)

I copied and pasted the source code into a Junk.html file and opened it up.
There is a image link and the properties says "cid:[email protected]"


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Yes I am aware of that.
That _*CID:*_ before the image implies to me that the actual image should have been included with the mail, and from the OP I assumed that it is the LOGO mentioned that is causing the trouble.
I really don't know enough about how emails are put together to be sure, but that is what I gathered from doing a few quick searches.


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## DaveA (Nov 16, 1999)

I am also not a expert in this Email html stuff?


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

AHA ! I did similar. I created an HTML document from it and opened it. It shows the dummy email with an image box of the same size as yours does in properties, but I very definitely get an "Image not cached" message.

Now that makes me wonder if that one user is using something like Exchange and seeing a similar problem to this one:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-of-all-trades/trouble-with-cached-exchange-mode-in-outlook/


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

The code I sent is from a failing email.

I realise it doesn't appear to contain an image, but that's all the code I got from viewing the source.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

> The code I sent is from a failing email.


Ah but is it from the machine that crashes when opening it.
It is not just the email, but also what the receiving machine gets. That is what we are trying to establish:- What is the difference between what *that* machine sees and what the other machines see.
That is I'd like to compare the sources of that email from that machine just before it crashes with the source from one that doesn't. Obviously they SHOULD be identical, but are they?

Did you look and see if that one user is receiving mail via Exchange where the others aren't or something like that.

I wasn't saying you had left anything out. I've asked for someone with Outlook knowledge to look at this. So far no takers.


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

I can't check the source code from the machine that crashes because ... it crashes whenever this mail is opened.

All users receive their mail through Exchange. I assume that there is something different about his user account since he continues to get this error, even though he has upgraded his computer and his version of Office.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Have you tried logging in as admin on that machine and seeing if that also crashes. 
I'm just trying to gather info while waiting for an Email expert to pop in.


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

Okay I have a few corrections to make from what I said earlier.

The Outlook version is XP. He got a new computer but kept the same version of Office.

The error occurs when he tries to reply or forward the email, not when he opens it. The Microsoft support website say that this can be resolved by installing Office XP SP3. However this is already installed.

I was actually able to get the source code from the machine that crashes. I haven't posted it because it looks the same.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Well that makes a difference !

Having opened it, does he see the logo?
Can he right click and save it as a picture?
Can he create an email containing it.
Can he send that mail he just maybe created.
Do the two above work if he includes that picture in his signature?


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

Yes, he can do all of the above, except for including it in his signature, which I didn't get a chance to try out yet.

The problem isn't with his signature though, it's with the signature of a particular sender.


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## 20_2_Many (Jun 30, 2012)

A couple of thoughts, possibly just for consideration.
1) What is the default file association for a .gif on that computer.?. Many times in a corporate world I have seen people d/l 'things' they know they are not allowed to, and then remove them so they don't get caught, but - removing does not clean up file associations all the time - not saying it happened here, but how the gif is handled by the system maybe an issue, and this issue may not be related to the gif or to outlook at all.
2) A Service Pack being installed in no way means it does not need to be re-applied. I do not like re-applying them if I do not know why, (as in what happened that makes me need to), but it does have at least a minor success rate.


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

The default file association for .gif on that computer is Internet Explorer.

I'm not sure if reapplying SP3 will make any difference since it was originally installed on his old computer but didn't fix this problem. It's been installed from the start on his new computer and has never worked.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Do any of the other mails he forwards/replies to have logos.
If you, yourself create a temporary account with that logo in the signature and send him an email, does that cause the error.
Get him to create a temporary alternate account on his Outlook and see if THAT account has the symptoms when one of the problem emails is processed by it.


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

A large percentage of his other mails have logos, and he has no problem replying to these.

I tested out the problem logo by adding it to my own signature and sending it to him. He was able to reply without any issues.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

And the other account I asked for on his machine.??
This is to see if it is account related on his machine or software related.


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

He's finished work for the day so I'll have try that next Monday.


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

Just to clarify, if he tries to reply to a mail that has the full signature, including the gif image, his Outlook crashes.

If he tries to reply to a mail that has everything except the gif, then it works fine.

If he replies to a mail that has just the gif, that also works fine.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

OK. I still want the other account one though. Yes ii is unlikely to be different, but until done we cannot tell..




Edit:
Also can you get him to try that logo in the signature with different text in the signature.


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

I finally managed to fix this by upgrading to Office 2003. It still doesn't explain why it happened though.


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## 20_2_Many (Jun 30, 2012)

Happy to hear you have it working now. Curious. Is Internet Explorer still the default file association for GIF? (All of my systems have Office as the default). As long as it works, the world is a good place again.


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## Mzun (Jun 29, 2011)

Yes, IE is still the default for GIF.


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