After XP sp2 upgrade, Outlook 2003 crashes every time a Contact is saved or links to other contacts

[Michael B. Parker]

The subject line says it all. On my Toshiba Tablet PC, "After XP sp2
upgrade, Outlook 2003 crashes every time a Contact is saved or links
to other contacts added to it" (via the Contact's "Contacts..." link
button). The error signature is always the same:
AppName: outlook.exe AppVer: 11.0.6353.0 AppStamp:408f2937
ModName: mso.dll ModVer: 11.0.6360.0 ModStamp:40d147de
fDebug: 0 Offset: 0001f0e3d
And I always send a report to Microsoft (about 115K each), but there
is no response giving a fix as there sometimes is.

With www.Microsoft.com -> Windows Update, I have insured all updates
to Windows have been as well as all updates to MS Office 2003.

Additional info: Google search for the offset, 0001f0e3d, finds
nothing; but for the ModStamp 40d147de it finds
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...?q=40d147de&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search
which seems to describe this same error (after update of Win XP, get
this error (only thing missing is the last line above ("fDebug: 0
Offset: 0001f0e3d") but I can't quite tell since it's in German; it
seems to then suggest using
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/commandlines.htm "/safe:1" thru
"/safe:4" to possibly fix it, although I don't see how these could do
any good.

What should I do to fix this?

Thanks! -Mike Parker, www.Cytex.com

 

[Roady [MVP]]

What exactly is logged to the Event Viewer regarding this?

Stating Outlook with the /safe switch will help determine whether it's
Outlook causing the crash or one of the installed Outlook add-ins you might
have.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

 

[Michael B. Parker]

Thanks for taking a stab at it, Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]!
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem those things fix it, though maybe we're
a tad closer (something to do with a "Bucket")...

What exactly is logged to the Event Viewer regarding this?

"Faulting application outlook.exe, version 11.0.6353.0, stamp
408f2937, faulting module mso.dll, version 11.0.6360.0, stamp
40d147de, debug? 0, fault address 0x0001f0e3"
(plus the "Data" bytes, which are just the field values (as
"40d147de") here.

-- While it would be great to get more detail, this error message is
content-wise identical to the Error-Signature I reported here, except
that error signature also gives one more digit ("d") for the address:
"Offset: 0001f0e3d".

The error also has a link to the Help and Support Center with details
of the error passed to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp., but
this returns just "We're sorry \ There is no additional information
about this issue in the Error and Event Log Messages or Knowledge Base
databases at this time."

However, in addition to this type "Error" event, there is also
immediately after a type "Information" event, which contains this
exact error message above, BUT IT'S PREFIXED BY "Bucket 120110133,
bucket table 1, ". "Bucket" may be related to a hash-table sorting
algorithm, so perhaps a bucket is overflowing or running out of
buckets? I don't know, but searching for "bucket mso.dll" on google
yields other errors, even with outlook.

Stating Outlook with the /safe switch will help determine whether it's
Outlook causing the crash or one of the installed Outlook add-ins you might
have.

Okay, in the command prompt, in directory "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11" (where Outlook.exe 2003 appears to reside), I tried:
Outlook /safe
as you seemed to recommend, plus also all the "safe:" varients (from
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/commandlines.htm) which seemed
relevant, including:
Outlook /safe:3 ["Starts Outlook with extensions turned off, but
listed in the Add-In Manager."]
Outlook /safe:4 ["Starts Outlook without loading Outcmd.dat
(customized toolbars) and *.fav file."]
In addition, I also didn't log into the Exchange server, for extra
caution.
But the result was pretty much the same. As before, I could (mostly)
create new contact provided I didn't click it's "Contacts..." field.
But, when I went to click on the "Contact..." (link contacts to here)
button, if the contact had not already been saved, Outlook would still
crash immediately after that save went thru; and if the contact had
already been saved, the "Contacts..." button would seem to have done
it's job; but again, when eventually the contact would get saved
immediately after the save, as before, Outlook would crash, always
with this error.

I'VE DISCOVERED A FLAKY WORK AROUND: avoiding the Contact's
"Contacts..." button, and this sometimes avoids the crash: instead
open a Journal entry and use it's "Contacts..." button, then cut out
the contacts link it adds and paste it into the Contact. Again,
though, sometimes I still crash, sometimes later when not doing
anything, as if you're still doomed after this (adding Contact links
to a Contact), but the doom is delayed.

Also possibly worth mention I also tried "Detect and Repair" but no
change, either: searching for 40d147de, I found this almost exact
error also occurred in WinXP but under FrontPage 2003
(http://www.frontpagewebmaster.com/m_217111/tm.htm) and there was a
suggestion to try Detect & Repair, which I tried (in my Outlook 2003)
but that didn't change anything.


I haven't found any good fix or even workaround, which is very bad.
BUG IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM FOR ME because I use Outlook more than any
other application, and it's meaning I can't create new contacts nor
update the contacts I've already got, at least without risking a crash
and loosing all journal edits and most anything else not saved. As
I've seen, even just a small edit to a contact's name or memo field
can crash everything. Doing normal networking, I meet new contacts
every day, and now I think "Oh, boy, meeting this person, is going to
mean my Outlook will crash again... even just adding them to our
email list (done properly with a contact for each person)" Hopefully
Microsoft or someone will find a fix.

I might try removing XP SP2, but that sounds pretty drastic and, since
I probably many people don't do it, probably dangerous. Oh boy...

 

[Brice]

..

Thanks for taking a stab at it, Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]!
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem those things fix it, though maybe we're
a tad closer (something to do with a "Bucket")...

What exactly is logged to the Event Viewer regarding this?

"Faulting application outlook.exe, version 11.0.6353.0, stamp
408f2937, faulting module mso.dll, version 11.0.6360.0, stamp
40d147de, debug? 0, fault address 0x0001f0e3"
(plus the "Data" bytes, which are just the field values (as
"40d147de") here.

-- While it would be great to get more detail, this error message is
content-wise identical to the Error-Signature I reported here, except
that error signature also gives one more digit ("d") for the address:
"Offset: 0001f0e3d".

The error also has a link to the Help and Support Center with details
of the error passed to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp., but
this returns just "We're sorry \ There is no additional information
about this issue in the Error and Event Log Messages or Knowledge Base
databases at this time."

However, in addition to this type "Error" event, there is also
immediately after a type "Information" event, which contains this
exact error message above, BUT IT'S PREFIXED BY "Bucket 120110133,
bucket table 1, ". "Bucket" may be related to a hash-table sorting
algorithm, so perhaps a bucket is overflowing or running out of
buckets? I don't know, but searching for "bucket mso.dll" on google
yields other errors, even with outlook.

Stating Outlook with the /safe switch will help determine whether it's
Outlook causing the crash or one of the installed Outlook add-ins you might
have.

Okay, in the command prompt, in directory "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11" (where Outlook.exe 2003 appears to reside), I tried:
Outlook /safe
as you seemed to recommend, plus also all the "safe:" varients (from
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/commandlines.htm) which seemed
relevant, including:
Outlook /safe:3 ["Starts Outlook with extensions turned off, but
listed in the Add-In Manager."]
Outlook /safe:4 ["Starts Outlook without loading Outcmd.dat
(customized toolbars) and *.fav file."]
In addition, I also didn't log into the Exchange server, for extra
caution.
But the result was pretty much the same. As before, I could (mostly)
create new contact provided I didn't click it's "Contacts..." field.
But, when I went to click on the "Contact..." (link contacts to here)
button, if the contact had not already been saved, Outlook would still
crash immediately after that save went thru; and if the contact had
already been saved, the "Contacts..." button would seem to have done
it's job; but again, when eventually the contact would get saved
immediately after the save, as before, Outlook would crash, always
with this error.

I'VE DISCOVERED A FLAKY WORK AROUND: avoiding the Contact's
"Contacts..." button, and this sometimes avoids the crash: instead
open a Journal entry and use it's "Contacts..." button, then cut out
the contacts link it adds and paste it into the Contact. Again,
though, sometimes I still crash, sometimes later when not doing
anything, as if you're still doomed after this (adding Contact links
to a Contact), but the doom is delayed.

Also possibly worth mention I also tried "Detect and Repair" but no
change, either: searching for 40d147de, I found this almost exact
error also occurred in WinXP but under FrontPage 2003
(http://www.frontpagewebmaster.com/m_217111/tm.htm) and there was a
suggestion to try Detect & Repair, which I tried (in my Outlook 2003)
but that didn't change anything.


I haven't found any good fix or even workaround, which is very bad.
BUG IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM FOR ME because I use Outlook more than any
other application, and it's meaning I can't create new contacts nor
update the contacts I've already got, at least without risking a crash
and loosing all journal edits and most anything else not saved. As
I've seen, even just a small edit to a contact's name or memo field
can crash everything. Doing normal networking, I meet new contacts
every day, and now I think "Oh, boy, meeting this person, is going to
mean my Outlook will crash again... even just adding them to our
email list (done properly with a contact for each person)" Hopefully
Microsoft or someone will find a fix.

I might try removing XP SP2, but that sounds pretty drastic and, since
I probably many people don't do it, probably dangerous. Oh boy...

 

[bewareofthecow]

Cause Determined!

Normally I would not spend so much time in diagnosing an issue such as this, but I simply have found this issue too intriguing. Also there is a growing large amount of people with this same UNSOLVED issue. Using sysinternal's process monitor I was able to stack trace the creation of a contact through to tapi32.dll. this file is apart of the Windows Telephony Service.

I was able to stop outlook from crashing completely by simply pausing the telephony service while creating a new contact!

On Monday I will attempt to create a fix for this issue, perhaps by re-registering all the telephony service dlls. I will post this fix soon as I come up with something that works. (Please check the techrepublic.com forum for my follow up on this)

Either way we now know the culprit for this problem is the telephony service, no doubt about that.