Outlook 2003 Hangs On Exit / Outlook Is Not Responding / Icon In System Tray

[Techie Dave]

This is my last newsgroup post before I decide to call
and spend my afternoon on the phone with a technician.

The situation:
Outlook 2003 from an SBS03 install on a 1 month oold
Compaq Presario desktop. XP Pro in a domain using
Exchange in cached mode. Office 2000 installed.

The problem:
When I close Outlook, the Outlook TSR icon stays in the
taskbar by the clock. If I doubleclick (c) I get the
error stating that Outlook is not responding... In order
to open Outlook again I have to kill the process, logoff
or reboot the machine.

The attempted resolutions:
Uninstalled Outlook 2003
Reinstalled Outlook 2003
Uninstalled Office 2000
Reinstalled Outlook 2003
Uninstalled ActiveSync
Disabled all plug-ins.
No COM-Add ins.
Outlook safemode
Windows safemode
In normal mode, killed all but windows PID's
Couldn't find outcmd.dat
Renamed .SRS files

The only thing that I got to work was if I put Outlook in
non-exchange mode with PST's.

Has ANYONE figured this one out? Or called Microsoft to
get it fixed?

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

I think you forgot one... uninstall/reinstall the operating system.

FWIW, ActiveSync would have been my likely candidate. (Leaving a PDA in the
cradle/sync'ing is enough to get Outlook resident.)

Next would be 3rd party applications like WinFax Pro 9/10. Possibly
Antivirus would be next.

Last but not least, what was your install order for Office 2000 vs. Outlook
2003?

 

[Guest]

Well, I really don't plan on reinstalling the operating
system.

ActiveSync is off of the machine, there's no WinFax and
the antivirus software was disabled.

Original installation order was Outlook 2003 and then
Office 2000, of which Office 2k was not installed. I then
attempted a reinstall of Outlook 2k3 over top. After that
failed, I uninstalled Outlook 2k3 and Office2k and then
reinstalled only Outlook 2k3.

As I mentioned previously, it's definitely a
networking/exchange issue of some sort. Outlook closes
fine when it's not configured to use Exchange.

-Dave

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

Could be something weird with the MAPI support libraries, but for the life
of me, i can't figure out to force a reinstall/re-registration of those
files. There are kept under \program files\common files\system\msmapi\<lang
id>\

 

[Techie Dave]

After a few more attempts at determining the problem, I
finally managed to figure this one out. I needed a little
outside help and you probably will too.

First, get this:
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

Before you run the program, make sure your Outlook is in
the hung state. You should be able to double click on the
Outlook icon in the TSR taskbar and get the OUTLOOK IS
NOT RESPONDING message.

Extract and run the executable - if you get an error on
load, click ok and proceed.

When the program loads, click on the [-] next to SYSTEM
to minimize that tree. Scroll down in your list until you
find OUTLOOK.EXE. Doubleclick on it and choose the
THREADS tab. Expand the Prcoess Explorer window so that
you can see the entire list of threads/dlls that Outlook
is using.

Hit CTRL-PRINT SCREEN to get a screenshot of your
threads. Paste this into Word, Outlook or Paint if you
need to and print it out.

Analyze your list, but first cross out the following:
OUTLOOK.EXE
ADVAPI32.DLL
MSMAPI32.DLL
KERNEL32.DLL
OLE32.DLL
RPCRT4.DLL

Based on the DLL's that remain, narrow it down by finding
each DLL on your system and find out which one's not a
Microsoft DLL. Uninstall the program that is responsible
for that DLL and make sure it's been removed or renamed
in your SYSTEM32 directory.

Close and restart your Outlook. If the problem persists,
review the DLL list and make sure you got rid of all the
culprits.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

If you delete all mapi*.* files there and then repair the Office
installation that would force a reinstallation/registration of those
libraries...