When I open Outlook lately, I get a message saying my "Business Contact
Manager for Outlook could not connect to the shared database. Do you want to
work offline?" If I select "Yes" I get another message saying "Business
Contact Manager database cannot be loaded. This action cannont be completed
because Business Contact Manager cannot access the database. The database is
currently stopped. Do you want to change the database configuration? If I
say yes, there's a message saying "cannot find the selected database...Verify
the network and the computer on which the databases are located are available
and that you have permission to access the database, then retry.
This is my own business computer. I'm not aware of "shared" databases. Can
anyone tell me what happened to my Business Contact Manager?? I still have
my personal address book but the other one is apparently lost.

I am having the identical problem with Outlook and the issue it's complaining about is given away by the error message: "The database is currently stopped." Assuming this is the only problem, to start the database you need to make sure the following services are started:

MSSQL$MICROSOFTBCM
MSSQL$MICROSOFTSMLBIZ

You would of course, for best results, not be running Outlook when you started the services. Also, since Outlook maintains its own datafile (the .PST) for its own data, it's not surprising--and perhaps promising--that you would still be able to access anything stored in Outlook.

Unfortunately in my case, the problem is that regardless of the services' "automatically start" status (which you'll need to verify in yours) they fail to do so, without any indication as to why. Unlike my system, you may have events in your event log that indicate the problem--noting that error 1355 is NOT indicative if you are not on a domain.

One final item you may check is in Outlook itself. Check Help | About Microsoft Outlook | [Disabled Items]. If BCM has been disabled due to some error, it may show up in this list. It may be worth making sure you're fully patched before enabling an ailing component.

EggHeadCafe - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com