Question mark '?' in outgoing emails

H

hexaae

Member
Don't know how and when, but all of a sudden I've seen all my outgoing emails in text format have a '?' at the beginning of the msg. E.g. "?Hello,...".
Obviously when I compose the msg there is no question mark. :sarc:
This happens only if I use text format and with all codepages except UTF-8.

I've never installed external email clients and I've always been using Windows Mail and now Windows Live Mail 2011. IE7 then IE8 and now IE9beta. I don't use 3rd party firewalls/antivirus/anti-malware etc.

On the web it's impossible to find a solution and that's the best I've seen: Unwanted Question Mark In Message Body | TheDailyReviewer

Please, can someone help me? :confused:
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv5-1110el
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    Intel T5800 Core 2 Duo 2GHz
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    Quanta 3603
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics card(s)
    GeForce 9600M GT (Forceware 189.06)
    Screen Resolution
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    Hard Drives
    Hitachi 2,5" 5400RPM
If you are running an ANSI program, if it doesn't understand a character, it sticks a '?' in place of it. If UTF-8 works I'd stick with that. I've only used English versions of Windows but from programming I know it's a can of worms when you start getting into code pages, unicode and all that jazz. Not everything understands non-ANSI char set. I'd try another mail program.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G 2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
It's the same with Windows Mail... it looks like a generic problem. Every time I write a mail with virtually any email program it will start with a '?'. Maybe I have to re-regsvr32 some dll?
I really don't know and there is no answare in the net even if other people experienced this problem...
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv5-1110el
    CPU
    Intel T5800 Core 2 Duo 2GHz
    Motherboard
    Quanta 3603
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics card(s)
    GeForce 9600M GT (Forceware 189.06)
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi 2,5" 5400RPM
You mentioned code pages, that's what makes me think you've somehow gotten things set to ANSI. If it doesn't recognize a character it uses a '?' as placeholder. I would try MSDN site and look at everything to do with code pages and settings for character sets.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G 2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
The other thing you could try, do you have a Restore Point from before the time the problem started?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G 2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
After 1 entire day looking for all system changes since the problem started (hopefully the first email sent with "?" was saved in the Draft folder and had date/hour) using Windows Update (Installed updates section), Event Viewer (Windows libraries/Application), the usual control panel to uninstall programs.... I'VE FOUND THE ORIGIN OF THE PROBLEM!

It was the IE9 Beta (IE9-WindowsVista-x86-ita.exe, 9.0.7930.16406) the cause! Right after I installed the Feedback Tool!
Once uninstalled all IE9 updates (in this order: ITA language add-on, IE9 installation) and rolled back to IE8 the problem disappeared! :D
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv5-1110el
    CPU
    Intel T5800 Core 2 Duo 2GHz
    Motherboard
    Quanta 3603
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics card(s)
    GeForce 9600M GT (Forceware 189.06)
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi 2,5" 5400RPM
Glad you found it. About the only thing I let update in the background is Chrome. All of a sudden something will stop working. Then after a few days, it will work again. I look at the About Chrome and it will show a newer version number. Most of the time the problems are just annoyances, like favicons stop working for awhile. That type of thing. I try not to let stuff just update willy nilly. Tough to keep a working system that way. And if you image your system how would you ever know which update is on which image? It's a nightmare!
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G 2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
Yes it's a nightmare sometimes to understand what fu***d up the system.
The recipe is always the same: use Windows Update (Installed updates section), Event Viewer (Windows libraries/Application), the usual control panel to uninstall programs to have a clue for what happened in the system and try to uninstall/verify backward, step by step...
Obviously the first thing to do is to write down the date/time you experienced the problem the first time.

Most people when Windows apparently "goes crazy" do a whole format and reinstall the OS! I hate that because sometimes the solution you discover is much simpler... but it takes time to discover, I know!
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv5-1110el
    CPU
    Intel T5800 Core 2 Duo 2GHz
    Motherboard
    Quanta 3603
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics card(s)
    GeForce 9600M GT (Forceware 189.06)
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi 2,5" 5400RPM
hexaae said:
Yes it's a nightmare sometimes to understand what fu***d up the system.
The recipe is always the same: use Windows Update (Installed updates section), Event Viewer (Windows libraries/Application), the usual control panel to uninstall programs to have a clue for what happened in the system and try to uninstall/verify backward, step by step...
Obviously the first thing to do is to write down the date/time you experienced the problem the first time.

Most people when Windows apparently "goes crazy" do a whole format and reinstall the OS! I hate that because sometimes the solution you discover is much simpler... but it takes time to discover, I know!
Click to expand...

Perhaps the " ------- " system does not deserve the condemnation.
Perhaps the person who took a chance on a BETA version should shoulder ALL the blames.
Beta version of any prohram is expected to have " bugs ". That's why they stick the word " beta " on it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Other Info
    WLM 2011 IE9 beta
djch129 said:
Perhaps the " ------- " system does not deserve the condemnation.
Perhaps the person who took a chance on a BETA version should shoulder ALL the blames.
Beta version of any prohram is expected to have " bugs ". That's why they stick the word " beta " on it.
Click to expand...

I agree and infact, as I said, I don't like those who blame the system and quickly format&reinstall everything...

However the fact I've installed IE9 beta was not enough to realize it was the cause for two main reasons:
1. I installed it 7 days before I could face the problem. In the meanwhile there were WUS updates, installed other software etc. etc. so it wasn't that simple...
2. the bug affected a totally different program (and only that!) in a sub-area (codepages)

Sometimes it's not so straight to connect bugs<>source-of-the-bug...
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv5-1110el
    CPU
    Intel T5800 Core 2 Duo 2GHz
    Motherboard
    Quanta 3603
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics card(s)
    GeForce 9600M GT (Forceware 189.06)
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi 2,5" 5400RPM
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