Outlook does not open (crashes)

[umiwangu]

My apologies if this question has been covered somewhere already. I
searched this and other newsgroups, and searched Google for an answer
without much luck.

I use Outlook 2003 mainly for Tasks, along with a few Calendar items
and Contacts. Last week, Outlook just stopped working. When I try to
open Outlook, it opens, but as soon as everything is done loading, it
disappears. Outlook.exe is not running, which is strange because I
have pocket PC, an old HP/Compaq iPAQ 3900 series and Outlook.exe
always starts up with the computer.

Other symptoms: I have not been able to sync with the iPAQ (Calendar,
Tasks, Notes, Inbox, Favourites, Files, & Contacts), it said that
Outlook was not running.

I recently installed Motorola mobile PhoneTools, but it is not
running. I also recently purchased an iPhone (about 3 weeks ago), but
I am not syncing any Outlook items to it.

All other components of Office seem to run ok. I did recently upgrade
to 4 GBs of RAM, but I don't think that has anything to do with it.

The strange thing is that my sister's laptop has the exact same
problem, but it happened back in June and still doesn't work. I tried
a repair with the installation, then a full uninstall/reinstall and
neither fixed the crashing. I also tried creating a new default data
file, but it still didn't stay open. The really weird thing is that
last week I took a look at the laptop and then either on that day or
the next, mine had the same issues.

My computer:
XP Pro SP2
Office 2003 Pro SP3 (11.8169.8172)
Google Desktop 5.8.0809
Adobe Pro 7
Avast! 4.8.something, about 3 weeks out of date
MS auto updates off
and a whole horde of other programs, not sure if they apply

I really appreciate any and all help you guys may have.

Seth

 

[Alias]

My apologies if this question has been covered somewhere already. I
searched this and other newsgroups, and searched Google for an answer
without much luck.

I use Outlook 2003 mainly for Tasks, along with a few Calendar items
and Contacts. Last week, Outlook just stopped working. When I try to
open Outlook, it opens, but as soon as everything is done loading, it
disappears. Outlook.exe is not running, which is strange because I
have pocket PC, an old HP/Compaq iPAQ 3900 series and Outlook.exe
always starts up with the computer.

Other symptoms: I have not been able to sync with the iPAQ (Calendar,
Tasks, Notes, Inbox, Favourites, Files, & Contacts), it said that
Outlook was not running.

I recently installed Motorola mobile PhoneTools, but it is not
running. I also recently purchased an iPhone (about 3 weeks ago), but
I am not syncing any Outlook items to it.

All other components of Office seem to run ok. I did recently upgrade
to 4 GBs of RAM, but I don't think that has anything to do with it.

The strange thing is that my sister's laptop has the exact same
problem, but it happened back in June and still doesn't work. I tried
a repair with the installation, then a full uninstall/reinstall and
neither fixed the crashing. I also tried creating a new default data
file, but it still didn't stay open. The really weird thing is that
last week I took a look at the laptop and then either on that day or
the next, mine had the same issues.

My computer:
XP Pro SP2
Office 2003 Pro SP3 (11.8169.8172)
Google Desktop 5.8.0809
Adobe Pro 7
Avast! 4.8.something, about 3 weeks out of date
MS auto updates off
and a whole horde of other programs, not sure if they apply

I really appreciate any and all help you guys may have.

Seth

Have you tried running scanpst.exe?

Alias

 

[umiwangu]

Have you tried running scanpst.exe?

Alias

No I didn't, what is it? Obviously some kind of pst scanning tool....
Guess I'll Google it.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

No I didn't, what is it? Obviously some kind of pst scanning tool....
Guess I'll Google it.

It's the Inbox Repair tool and it's likely on your PC already. Look in
%CommonProgramFiles%\system\msmapi\1033

 

[umiwangu]

It's the Inbox Repair tool and it's likely on your PC already.  Look in
%CommonProgramFiles%\system\msmapi\1033

I replied to this last night, but apparently my reply didn't go
through.

Yes, I did find the repair tool (thanks Google Desktop) and ran it.
There were minor inconsistencies, which were repaired, but it still
doesn't work.

Any other ideas? I know this is probably a very difficult problem to
trace down, but I would like to fix it without reformatting (which it
sounds like I may have to do).

 

[umiwangu]

It's the Inbox Repair tool and it's likely on your PC already.  Look in
%CommonProgramFiles%\system\msmapi\1033

And now I'm getting a new message when trying to sync with the
iPAQ....

ActiveSync cannot log on to Microsoft Outlook. Make sure Microsoft
Outlook is installed and functioning correctly. You may need to
restart your computer. You could have a conflict due to two folders on
this computer are C:\Program Files\Microsoft and C:\Program Files
\Microsoft Office. If so, rename the C:\Program Files\Microsoft folder
so that it does not contain the word "Microsoft". If this folder
contains subfolders, you may need to reinstall programs in the renamed
folder. For more information....

Weird? And no, I don't have a folder called %Program Files%
\Microsoft...

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

And now I'm getting a new message when trying to sync with the
iPAQ....

Sounds like you should create a new mail profile and try that.
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm

Weird? And no, I don't have a folder called %Program Files%
\Microsoft...

Sounds to me like something is missing the quotes around a path containing a
space. %ProgramFiles% is, of course, "C:\Program Files" (usually).

 

[umiwangu]

Sounds like you should create a new mail profile and try that.http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm


Sounds to me like something is missing the quotes around a path containing a
space.  %ProgramFiles% is, of course, "C:\Program Files" (usually).

Hi Brian, creating a new profile did not help either. I had already
tried this on the other computer and it didn't help there either.

I think the ActiveSync messages are just repeating the message that
there's a problem, as the messages tend to be slightly different each
time.

Anything else to try?

 

[umiwangu]

Hi Brian, creating a new profile did not help either. I had already
tried this on the other computer and it didn't help there either.

I think the ActiveSync messages are just repeating the message that
there's a problem, as the messages tend to be slightly different each
time.

Anything else to try?

Fixed!

Apparently this is somewhat of a known issue with Google Desktop. I
just had the idea to uninstall GD and now Outlook works fine, syncing
with the PDA works as well. I'll follow the instructions here (http://
desktop.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=21364) and see
if I can get Outlook and GD to coexist, since I use the local search
quite a bit.

Cheers