Outlook displays scrambled text, screen all over the place

Anonymous
2022-01-28T20:48:27+00:00

Hi,

I have a user who has been having an issue with opening Outlook. when opening outlook the entire display shows scrambled text and missing tabs, this occurs randomly and seems to not have a pattern. I can close and re open Outlook and the problem will go away. This is Outlook on Office 365, Version 2112(Build 14729.20260) I have been working with the user for almost a month and have tried applying Dell Command updates, changed screen resolutions, disabled add-ins, ran Office repair, uninstalled and re-installed office, applied latest Office and windows updates and the issue continues to resurface. I am not sure what to try at this point besides maybe wipe the computer or replace it (which are last ditch options. Anyways, below is some info on the version of Office and hardware specs, Please let me know. I attached screenshots and have whited out certain info for PII protection as well. Have a look, thanks.

Outlook, Version 2112 (Build 14729.20260)

Microsoft 365, Apps for Business 16.0.14729.20260

Hardware:

Dell Latitude E5470

8 GB RAMIntel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40GHzWindows 10 Pro version 2009

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-03-24T19:07:44+00:00

    Yes... This renders Outlook practical useless. I sometimes have multiple emails opened to either multitask or cross share information between emails. When the Outlook screen gets scrambled, nothing is viewable, so the only thing is to shutdown and restart Outlook but then I risk lose all the data that's not saved or sent. The scrambling also impact the popup dialog asking if you want to save unsent/unsaved items, but I can't even make out the position of the button to click it, and hotkeys like Y or S don't seems to work in these cases.

    You also nailed another key issue - MS spent so much efforts moving things around between updates that we didn't ask for, so we don't even have enough muscle memory to approximate where a button might be to blind navigate when the screen is scrambled like this.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-03-01T18:15:52+00:00

    I am not using remote desktop to login. The app is NOT enabled.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-02-07T18:54:16+00:00

    I'm having the same issue with outlook, along with a slow response time when saving or accessing files. It has happened with Word also it started several weeks ago.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-02-03T12:42:40+00:00

    Unfortunately no. I have tried everything I can thing aid and the steps mentioned above. They want me to wipe the user’s computer and reinstall everything fresh again, not sure how that will fix a solely Outlook problem but I guess we’ll have to see. It seems this must be a very usual error.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-01-28T21:12:28+00:00

    Hi Shastonc,

    Thanks for the sharing screenshot. Please update to latest Outlook 365 Current Channel version 2201 (Build 14827.20158).

    Does this issue only happen with Outlook application or any other apps such as Word?

    You may try disable the hardware graphics acceleration for Outlook with below steps:

    • Click File > Options to open the Outlook Options dialog box.
    • In the Outlook Options dialog box, click Advanced in the left bar, and then check the Disable hardware graphics acceleration option in the Display section.

    Moreover, if the steps above doesn't help please create a new Windows user account and then performing a clean install the latest Outlook 365 desktop application as well as update the graphic driver to see whether the problem still occurs.

    Let us know the result so that we can further assist you. Your understanding is highly appreciated.

    Best regards,

    Shyamal

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