Your post helped ifn providing some good tips for a non technical person and
also caused me to search further. I found that I was partly the cause of the
trouble. The Shortcut for OE had for some reason disappeared from my desktop
so I created another short cut. I did not realize that OE 6 was in my system
in two different places once in Windows Service Pack Files and again in
Program Files Outlook Express. When I ran a search the results only showed
the MSIMN in the service pack files so I used that for the shortcut. That
brought up the headers for all of my saved messages but no text. Now that I
created a new shortcut for the MSIMN in Program Files Outlook Express, every
thing is working fine. That is what happens when a non-technical old man
trys to run a computer!

"PA Bear" wrote:

Windows version? IE version? Is the machine fully patched at Windows
Update?

When I download my messages I only receive the headers.

Mail messages, News messages, or both? Are you referring to a Hotmail
account?

Also, I cannot send a message.

What happens when you try to send a message?

I can type the header but I cannot type the text

Your current Identity may be damaged, especially if its the default Main
Identity. Try one or more of your accounts in a new Named Identity (File
Identities Add new identity). Assuming all is well, (1) compact all
folders in the old identity, (2) import messages from the old identity into
the new one, and then (3) delete the old one (File Identities Manage
Identities).

To avoid such corruption in futu

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Disable Background Compacting [not available in SP2] and frequently
perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working offline". More at
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

- WinXP SP2 only: Do not shut down your machine while Windows is
automatically compacting your message store.

- Your anti-virus application's email scanning feature can also cause such
corruption. Disable it. It provides no additional protection.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin; DTS-L.org


oldman116 wrote:
When I download my messages I only receive the headers. Also, I cannot
send
a message. I can type the header but I cannot type the text Messages
work
fine if I use another email client. How do I fix this?