Outlook Express Not Responding

Have Win ME, Outlook Exp. 6. I have the same problem about every 2-3 months. I open OE, do the “dial-up” thing, OE stays grayed out, with no toolbars, etc. Do Ctrl+Alt+Del to find “Outlook Express (not responding). Have run scandisk, defrag, cleaned up hard drive, updated win patches. How can I fix this?