Re: Odd crash--any ideas?

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (robert)]

 > From: Kadansky Consulting <http://www.box.com/~kconsult>
 > Date: Thu  Dec 23,  6:04pm
 >
 > A client called me the other day with a strange computer problem which he 
 > can't figure out, and neither has anyone he's called so far:
 > 
 > When he sends an email message with an attachment, some of the time the 
 > system freezes while uploading the attached file. By "freeze," he means 
 > that he can't even move the mouse, and has to cycle the power to get 
 > control back.
 > 
 > The most frequent attachment he's sending is his resume, a 2-page Word 97 
 > file, so it's not very large. The freeze occurs once out of every 15-20 
 > times, at varying points in the "percent done" progress indicator. The 
 > problem started about 2 months ago, but he doesn't remember anything else 
 > significant that was going on at the time.
 > 
 > He's using Windows 95 on a Pentium with 32mb RAM, Explorer 5, and AOL; he 
 > originally had this problem with AOL 4, and it continued even after 
 > upgrading to AOL 5. (I forgot to ask how full his disk is.)
 > 
 > He's checked his machine with ScanDisk (no errors) and McAfee (no 
 > viruses, although I forgot to ask him how recent his virus definitions 
 > are).
 > 
 > His family (wife & kids) also use the computer.
 > 
 > One thing he mentioned was that he always has "compression" ON when 
 > sending attachments. I suggested he tried turning it off, on the off 
 > chance that that might make a difference.
 > 
 > Any ideas? 

If the SMTP server is QMAIL, it may have to do with newlines.  I forgot the
exact circumstances, but when one fellow put in a single newline in the
message but no other text with an attachment, it would always fail.

Just a guess.

 > Any interest in this as a referral?

No.

 > Thanks.
 > 
 > Martin Kadansky
 > Kadansky Consulting
 > (617) 484-6657