Here's the news from the front: first off, after following your suggestions, I seem to have liftoff again. Too soon, though, to say that this will persist, since the problem has been episodic in the past.
Yes, the S/MIME-Frontend was configured to time.windows.com on Port 123, with system clock synchronization turned on. It's been running this way at least since upgrading to PMail V4.61 back when it first was released, and no, not as administrator. (While trying this 'n that to see if I could clear up this latest outbreak of startup hang plague, I did try running as administrator, but that was of no effect.) So I did turn off system synchronization, rolled back administrator rights, and changed the time server to time.nist.gov.
While reconfiguring S/MIME, PMail crashed, with MiniDump still enabled:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: winpm-32.exe
Application Version: 4.6.1.0
Application Timestamp: 4d532c43
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7601.17514
Fault Module Timestamp: 4ce7b96e
Exception Code: c00000fd
Exception Offset: 00052c26
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0451
Additional Information 2: 0451f15934a53ccd8ba21ed04a100653
Additional Information 3: 21b8
Additional Information 4: 21b81e06a0f83d5a0baa76b230fbdb89
I'm sending you the crash dump report by separate email.
Also, when I try to About / Update S/MIME, it returns "Cannot read Internet data" - ??
With regard to Load Windows Internet Services, I've been running that "on demand" for years, and have continued to do so, out of habit, for a particular reason: until the last year or so, the gray/red TCP/IP hot button at the right end of the bottom PMail status bar would be constantly on red if "always" was checked. Because I come from a dialup background, and even now am in a rural broadband environment, that deprived me of status information of a mail server request, and of the ability to cancel the query, especially for mail servers which were overloaded or just slow responders (attglobal.net frequently was timing out on me last winter, although things did improve with them last spring). But somewhere along the way -- I don't know just when -- the hot button ceased sticking on red with "always" checked, so I'll see the error of my ways and will run as "always". (By itself, though, that configuration change hasn't helped with this problem in the past.)
The time server issue has the ring of truth, and I'll bet that's it. Why this problem has been so much more chronic at some times than at others remains a mystery. PMail has, however, had the jitters lately while open: "Press <F1> for help" in the left corner of the status bar rescanning multiple times/second, TER text entry display lagging behind keyboard input, & sluggish spellcheck dictionary search, as if the machine is jitterbugging around trying to make some call, in frustration. That, too, has now stopped.
Thank you, Michael. You da man.
<p>Here's the news from the front:&nbsp; first off, after following your suggestions, I seem to have liftoff again.&nbsp; Too soon, though, to say that this will persist, since the problem has been episodic in the past.&nbsp; </p><p>Yes, the S/MIME-Frontend was configured to time.windows.com on Port 123, with system clock synchronization turned on.&nbsp; It's been running this way at least since upgrading to PMail V4.61 back when it first was released, and no, not as administrator.&nbsp; (While trying this 'n that to see if I could clear up this latest outbreak of startup hang plague, I did try running as administrator, but that was of no effect.)&nbsp; So I did turn off system synchronization, rolled back administrator rights, and changed the time server to time.nist.gov.&nbsp; </p><p>While reconfiguring S/MIME, PMail crashed, with MiniDump still enabled:&nbsp;</p><p>Problem signature:
&nbsp; Problem Event Name:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;APPCRASH
&nbsp; Application Name:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;winpm-32.exe
&nbsp; Application Version:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;4.6.1.0
&nbsp; Application Timestamp:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;4d532c43
&nbsp; Fault Module Name:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;ntdll.dll
&nbsp; Fault Module Version:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;6.1.7601.17514
&nbsp; Fault Module Timestamp:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;4ce7b96e
&nbsp; Exception Code:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;c00000fd
&nbsp; Exception Offset:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;00052c26
&nbsp; OS Version:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
&nbsp; Locale ID:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;1033
&nbsp; Additional Information 1:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;0451
&nbsp; Additional Information 2:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;0451f15934a53ccd8ba21ed04a100653
&nbsp; Additional Information 3:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;21b8
&nbsp; Additional Information 4:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;21b81e06a0f83d5a0baa76b230fbdb89&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;I'm sending you the crash dump report by separate email. &nbsp;</p><p>Also, when I try to <i>About / Update</i> S/MIME, it returns "Cannot read Internet data" - ??&nbsp; </p><p>With regard to <i>Load Windows Internet Services</i>, I've been running that "on demand" for years, and have continued to do so, out of habit, for a particular reason: until the last year or so, the gray/red TCP/IP hot button at the right end of the bottom PMail status bar would be constantly on red if "always" was checked.&nbsp; Because I come from a dialup background, and even now am in a rural broadband environment, that deprived me of status information of a mail server request, and of the ability to cancel the query, especially for mail servers which were overloaded or just slow responders (attglobal.net frequently was timing out on me last winter, although things did improve with them last spring).&nbsp; But somewhere along the way -- I don't know just when -- the hot button ceased sticking on red with "always" checked, so I'll see the error of my ways and will run as "always".&nbsp; (By itself, though, that configuration change hasn't helped with this problem in the past.)&nbsp; </p><p>The time server issue has the ring of truth, and I'll bet that's it.&nbsp; Why this problem has been so much more chronic at some times than at others remains a mystery.&nbsp; PMail has, however, had the jitters lately while open: "Press &lt;F1&gt; for help" in the left corner of the status bar rescanning multiple times/second, TER text entry display lagging behind keyboard input, &amp; sluggish spellcheck dictionary search, as if the machine is jitterbugging around trying to make some call, in frustration.&nbsp; That, too, has now stopped.&nbsp; </p><p>Thank you, Michael.&nbsp; You da man.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
