cant create appointments - desperate

  • Thread starter Thread starter MS Help
  • Start date Start date
M

MS Help

A couple weeks ago Outlook stopped letting me create appointments. When I
create one and press "Save", Outlook freezes for a few seconds and then
crashes. The same thing happens when I try to view an email with a meeting
request. Also, when I sync my PDA, no changes are made to the Outlook
calendar. Everything else works fine.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook; tried using a new, blank
xxx.pst file, and tried using the .pst file from my notebook, all with the
same result. I cleanedreminders and even created a completely new profile.
Still crashes. I don't know what to do other then reformat my drive and
start over. That's a lot of work that I would like to avoid.

Using Office 2003 on WinXP Pro with latest updates. Office updates are
current too.

Please help if you can. I will try almost anything at this point.

Thanks
Bud
 
Here's another possibility: You may have a corrupted outcmd.dat file. This
is the file that stores your toolbar customizations, and when it becomes
corrupted, Outlook sometimes hangs. Try renaming or deleting your outcmd.dat
file while Outlook is closed. Renaming it might be the best idea if you have
a lot of customizations that you'd prefer not to lose; that way if renaming
the file doesn't solve your problem, you may be able to restore it later when
you do get Outlook working properly again.

Note: Since you're using Windows XP, you'll need to search within hidden
folders to find the outcmd.dat file.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please reply
only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***
 
Jocelyn -- I wasn't logged in properly when I originally posted this request.
This is my real login name

Bud
 
That's OK...just try what I suggested and let me know if it works.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please reply
only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***
 
I am sorry, I guess I forgot to tell you the results. I did try everything
you said, but no luck. I still had the same problem. I tried a few more
tricks that I found in this forum and elsewhere, like clearing reminders, but
nothing worked. I even went into my registry and deleted every reference to
outlook. Even a clean install of outlook did not fix the problem.

Since I have not been able to keep my calendar up to date for several weeks,
I could not wait any longer. So I just spent 7 hours reformatting my C drive,
reinstalling Windows and all its updates, and reinstalling office 2003 and
its updates. Of course it works now. I did save my old pst file, so I was
able to copy my contacts and calendar to the new outlook folder.

Now I have dozens of other applications to install, but that can wait.

Thanks for your help. I wish I knew what the problem was so I could keep it
from happening again.

Bud
 
Sorry you had to go through all that, but I'm glad it's finally working
again. Sometimes these issues take a LOT of troubleshooting to resolve and
it ends up being easier (believe it or not) to just start from scratch.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please reply
only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***
 
Back
Top