[Angel_on_ice]

Hi everyone,

I read through and found someone who was having the same problem as me. Outlook was not opening, the intro screen would open, but not the program itself. I also have reinstalled and uninstalled...no luck. Someone has suggested opening it by typing 'outlook /safe' in RUN. Tried that and it works. Now what do I do?

I am using office 2000 professional running it on a win 98 set up. I have been using this program for some time, this just happened.

It is set up in workgroup mode.

Any help would be wonderful!

Thanks ahead of time,

Angel

P.S....this is a personal computer and I suppose shouldn't be set up as workgroup...do I change that in 'mail'options in control panel?

[Edited by Angel_on_ice on 05-04-2001 at 09:51 AM]

[Anne Troy]

No, change it in Outlook. Tools--Options--Mail Format--Reconfigure mail support

[Angel_on_ice]

Okay, did that...but the problem still remains. Outlook is still freezing and will only open in safe mode. Anyone got a clue?

[Anne Troy]

First, try cleaning up your hard drive. It won't hurt. The defrag part can wait until you have time, but do the rest and try Outlook again:

email cleanharddrive@home.com for complete instructions
They're free and no spamming...

[Angel_on_ice]

Hi,

Followed the regime, it didn't seem to help the problem at all. There were no errors, defragmenting went well and didn't take so long (do it twice a month). As soon as I finished following the regime, I restarted and tried again to open Outlook, froze again. Again I have no problem opening it in safe mode...strange!

When I have uninstalled MS Office is there anything extra manually I can do to fix this problem?, is there a file or two somewhere that could be causing the problem that is not being uninstalled when I uninstall?

This is really driving me bonkers. The computer was completely reformatted about two months ago due to a installation of Windows ME problem, I decided to go back to 98. The MS Office has been working fine until today.

I went to Mcafee online and did a virus scan, nothing. I would really hate to have to reformat the whole computer again because Outlook of the Office package is giving me problems.

Again if there are any more suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks

[Anne Troy]

Omigosh, don't reformat yet.

Yes, there is. Go to http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q219/4/23.ASP and uninstall 2000, then use Eraser 2000, then reinstall.

This wipes all registry entries, WHICH UNINSTALLING DOES NOT DO.

[Angel_on_ice]

Howdy again,

Well I did everything I was suppose to, it took me ages to maunally remove the list of files in the systems folder...phew...uninstalled, ran the eraser...installed office again...NO luck. MS outlook will only open in 'outlook /safe'. When I ran it that way and it opened, i got the 'welcome message'.

I thought for sure this would have taken care of the problem.

I think I might actually go through the whole process again as I didn't remove some of the 'optional' files.

Any other suggestions?

[Anne Troy]

Move your *.PST files to another location first (with outlook closed). Try running outlook again. If it doesnt' work, reinstall again. Run it. If it works, your PST file may be corrupt. You can also try running repair on the PST file, have you done that yet?

[Angel_on_ice]

Hi dreamboat,

Well I moved the *.pst file and it wouldn't run, so installed it again and it started but froze. This is enough to drive me wacko.

I was on the microsoft bulleting board and there was another person with the same problem as me, strangly enough it happened on the same day as mine did. No one is answering his request for help so I can imagine it is not too common or simple to fix.

How does one repair the *.pst file? Do you mean through the 'repair option' on the office 2000 disc?

Wanted to thank you for taking the time to help me out with this problem. I can imagine it would be a lot easier for you to fix something like this if the puter was in front of you, it is greatly appreciated. In our house your called 'our puter expert', when refering to the person on the net who is helping us out with this problem..LOL

If there are any other suggestions please keep em rolling. Thanks again!

[Angel_on_ice]

Hi dreamboat, me again.

I got a reply from a person named NEO on the outlook newgroup. Here is what he suggested to me
---------------------------
Hi,

When Outlook hangs right at the beginning and works with safe, the following
three seem to come to the top of the list as being the culprit.

1) Rename/Delete outcmd.dat (responsible for menu/toolbar changes)

2) The first message the preview pane hits when Outlook starts is corrupt.
Run SCANPST.EXE against your *.PST file to rule out corruption. If it still
happens, move/delete the first message Outlook would try to display in the
preview pane.

3) An addin is giving you headaches. Go to Tools | Options | Other |
Advanced Options and review/disable the items listed under AddIn Manager and
COM Addins.
--
/Neo
---------------------------

Well as I told you in the previous post I moved the *.pst file, and reinstalled outlook. When I followed Neo's first step....

1) Rename/Delete outcmd.dat (responsible for menu/toolbar changes)

It worked!-BUT- now I seem to have another problem with Outlook...LOL

Now I have two personal folders...the original one will not open and says

'C.\windows\localsetting\applicationdata\outlook\mailbox.pst could not be found.

Well this is not such a problem for me, as I have a new personal folder now since following his suggestion.(It is obviously looking for the *.pst that I moved)

I wanted to try and organise all the email that I imported from outlook express and the email that came into the mailbox. When I try to use the 'organise'-'using folders' option i get an error..

'the messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem persists restart outlook'.

I put the office disc back in and tried the 'detect and repair' option in outlook. That did not take care of the problem. Any suggestions?

Do you think I should try to replace the *.pst file I moved? and try again?

Thanks

Angel

[Anne Troy]

If you've got neo_mvps (who is probably neo), then you've got the best. mvps stands for that he is a Microsoft MVP for Outlook. I know him on other sites. Keep posting, he's terrific and will keep helping you, I'm sure. He's given you the info on cleaning the PST, which I always forget: scanpst.

Tell him dreamboat says hi! LOL!

[Angel_on_ice]

Hey Dreamboat,

I must be pretty lucky because I have both of you helping me out!

Well Neo told me how to get rid of that extra personal folder...DUH, not too easy..now I feel really stupid..LOL

Then there was the problem of the 'organise' option not working. Well he told me that after I got rid of the extra personal folder I should ....'try starting outlook one time with the /resetfolders command switch'....Now I had no Idea what he meant by that, so after looking for the 'resetfolders command line'...anywhere, everywhere...and no where..LOL...I decided to move all my emails from the various folders into the inbox...i deleted all my 'folders', deleted all the rules...and started over again...created new folders, created new rules...then it started to work...

Anyway, this problem seems resolved, you maybe you can close this one....

Thanks again for all your help

Angel

[EAFiedler]

Hi Angel_on_ice

Glad to hear you solved the problem.

The /resetfolders command switch is run the same as the /safe command switch,
use the Start>Run key in: Outlook /resetfolders.

Here are more command switches to open Outlook:
OL2000: Additional Command-Line Switches
Q197180