Help, please... Outlook 2000 freezes.

[Mark]

Help, please...

On a pretty good XP system,

I "upgraded" from Outlook Express 6 to Outlook 2000. I'm sorry that I
did that, but... what the hey. OE6 was slow (probably because I have
several thousand messages in a few of the folders) but it worked. O
2000 freezes.

My associate tells me that I should keep O 2000 because the "Contacts"
feature is terrific. OK, maybe so. I think that I'd like that
feature. So,... How can we fix O 2000?

It worked for a few weeks, and then it didn't. It froze... the
perpetual hourglass... it would start up, I'd see the messages in the
Inbox, and the one active message in the lower section. If I tried to
view any other message, it would freeze. The "not responding" forever
hourglass.

So, I posted here... I was advised to Delete it, then Re-install it.
I did that. It then worked for a while.

Now, it starts up, I see the small "This product is registered to..."
window, and the remainder of the screen is white. It's frozen.

I tried the Delete, Re-install process... No improvement. Same...
"registered to..." and it's frozen.

Help, please. How to Re-start O 2000 ?

Thanks very much.

Mark S.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Close Outlook. Find and rename outcmd.dat to .old. (If using Windows 2000
or XP, you will need to enable searching hidden and system folders.)

Once you have done so, reopen Outlook and it should open fine. You will
need to rebuild any custom toolbars or customizations as the file outcmd.dat
controls how the toolbars display. When it becomes corrupted, it will cause
Outlook to hang because it cannot create the toolbars that you expect.


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After searching google.groups.com and finding no answer, Mark asked:

| Help, please...
|
| On a pretty good XP system,
|
| I "upgraded" from Outlook Express 6 to Outlook 2000. I'm sorry that I
| did that, but... what the hey. OE6 was slow (probably because I have
| several thousand messages in a few of the folders) but it worked. O
| 2000 freezes.
|
| My associate tells me that I should keep O 2000 because the "Contacts"
| feature is terrific. OK, maybe so. I think that I'd like that
| feature. So,... How can we fix O 2000?
|
| It worked for a few weeks, and then it didn't. It froze... the
| perpetual hourglass... it would start up, I'd see the messages in the
| Inbox, and the one active message in the lower section. If I tried to
| view any other message, it would freeze. The "not responding" forever
| hourglass.
|
| So, I posted here... I was advised to Delete it, then Re-install it.
| I did that. It then worked for a while.
|
| Now, it starts up, I see the small "This product is registered to..."
| window, and the remainder of the screen is white. It's frozen.
|
| I tried the Delete, Re-install process... No improvement. Same...
| "registered to..." and it's frozen.
|
| Help, please. How to Re-start O 2000 ?
|
| Thanks very much.
|
| Mark S.

 

[Mark]

Thanks, Milly for your reply.
Here's what happened...
For some unknown reason, Outlook 2000 woke up. It came back. Still,
I stopped it, and renamed the Outcmd.dat as you suggested. It worked
fine for a few days. Now, I just left my PC for an hour, then came
back to the PC Frozen with the "Pick a User" screen, even though
there's only 1 user profile on this PC. Alt-Ctrl-Del did nothing. I
restarted the PC. Outlook freezes. I see the small "This product is
registered to..." window, and the remainder of the screen is white.
It's frozen. Now, There is no Outcmd.dat file found. Outcmd.old is
still there.
Help, please...
Thanks very much.
Mark S.