Netscape Communicator "illegal operation" when I open it

[randypj]

Ver. 4.73
Browser works fine, but, if I try to open Communicator, which of course is my email client, I always get the illegal operation at ~44% loaded.

I have save my complete USERS folder, so I can experiment.

So......

1. Could it be because I have ~4K emails.....~3500 are in my InBox?
1b. My email is ~135MB.
2. Netscape FAQ suggests it might possibly be an incorrectly dated message.
3. It seems that it might be related to the Inbox messages. When I experiment with removing folders, trash, etc, it will still crash, until I delete my Inbox folder. DOH!!
4. It's not a virus problem. I use Norton and keep it updated.
5. I have noticed that sometimes I get the weird junk mail from outside of the U.S. that has very old dates.

Suggestions on what I might do to "keep" the email inbox intact? I don't care if I have to clear all the email, but I want to at least archive the folders (and be able to open them).

Might an upgrade to a slightly newer version fix this? I think I want to stay with a 4.** version.

Any suggestions on how to save my Inbox, so it might be in a readable format?

I just thought someone else might have had the same problem. Thanks.

Oh....for you IE'ers that feel like flaming....
Are you able to get support for a situation like this from M$FT? I sure don't seem to get a reply from scrape. As I recall, they used to have a decent newsgroup. I've always stayed with scrape, because they weren't M$FT....but, now they are AOL, so...... Heck, I'm just used to it, and really don't wanna go to Outlook.
--Randy

 

[stndn]

there are some possibilities for that to happen.... just correct me if my assumptions are incorrect

1. did you ever installed a higher version (4.73+)? They're not so backward compatible (sometimes it will work, but still....)

2. you mentioned about the inbox giving you problems... maybe what you can try is open it (the file "inbox" under your mail directory) with wordpad (if it will even let you... since it's such a huge file), and then try to delete the message that are big and likely to cause the prob

3. you may also try to delete message that's too old or archive it somewhere (this one is doubtful, since it won't be any problem). i know i had some emails dated back in 1800s (!!) but still no prob with my messenger (not communicator, btw )

4. also try to rename the inbox to some other name, and then try to open them and see if they work

5. try to open the mails using a different user profile....

6. try to upgrade your netscape to a higher version (and this one i guess have the lowest chance of succeeding) ... btw, hvae you tried reinstalling the 4.73 you have?

if all else fails, well ,..... the least you can do is copy the important messages to a different folder (or file, in messenger's case), and then delete the inbox....


and btw, if i may add one good thing about netscape -- they allow you to have multiple profiles for the browser only ... unlike msie where you have to have different profiles for the whole OS to have different profile for the browser ---- (actually i've never tried it myself... is that true for win98?)

good luck

-461-

 

[randypj]

stndn--

Thanks for the suggestions. I was able to open the Inbox in Word....like 2500 pages. wow. I haven't noticed anything yet.

I'll try your other suggestions next week, if I have a free day from work.
--Randy