Outlook 2000 freezes when opening Calendar

[Spie]

Hi,

has anyone experienced this? A week ago one of our users complained that his
calender made his Outlook 'hang' trying to add an appointment on a date past
December 9 2003.
System: Exchange 55-sp4 on NT4-sp6a, Outlook 2000 on client Win2000.
I noticed that all other functions in Outlook worked without any problems,
but trying to open or even look at any date past December 9 in his calendar
would freeze the PC (CPU 100%).
Logging into another workstation produced exactly the same problem. Opening
the calendar in my own Outlook (admin) produced the same problem.
Following several Technet articles I exported all data, deleted the mailbox,
created a new one and imported the data again. That didn't help.
Next I've tried with Easy Recovery Pro, results were quite drastic: almost
all data from the calender was removed, not just data after de. 9. Since
this user has scheduled lots of things way into 2004 this is not acceptable
to him.
Since Dec. 9, it's not even possible anymore to open the calendar, the
system will 'freeze' at once (again, CPU 100%)
This morning I tried my luck with scanpst.exe, which gave as result: no
problems found.
Since I'm not a very experienced Exchange/Outlook admin I hope someone can
help me further with any tips or hints what more I can do about this.
Thanks,
Sjef

 

[Nikki]

Probably a corrupt meeting in the calendar. I have found that
it is usually in a recurring appointment that has gone bad during
the week of the freeze (in your case the 9th)

1) Open the Outlook but do not try to open the calendar.

2) Create a New folder (Calendar Test)

3) Do an advanced find on the old calendar and sort events
by recurrence.

- Press F3
- Change the Look For: text box to Appointments and Meetings
- Click on the Advanced tab
- Click Field
- Select All Appointment fields
- Select Recurring
- Condition: equals
- Value: Yes
- Click the Add to List button
- Click Find Now

Drop and drag from advanced find listed events one at a time to
the new calendar, when you get to the corrupt item it will give
you an error message or it will hang. (delete this item)

Or if it is not a recurring (which our's always are) you could
perform the find for all and do the same as above...

Move all your calendar items from Calendar Test folder back to
original calendar (these are previously dragged over items).

--
Nikki Peterson [MVP - Outlook]

Hi,

has anyone experienced this? A week ago one of our users complained that his
calender made his Outlook 'hang' trying to add an appointment on a date past
December 9 2003.
System: Exchange 55-sp4 on NT4-sp6a, Outlook 2000 on client Win2000.
I noticed that all other functions in Outlook worked without any problems,
but trying to open or even look at any date past December 9 in his calendar
would freeze the PC (CPU 100%).
Logging into another workstation produced exactly the same problem. Opening
the calendar in my own Outlook (admin) produced the same problem.
Following several Technet articles I exported all data, deleted the mailbox,
created a new one and imported the data again. That didn't help.
Next I've tried with Easy Recovery Pro, results were quite drastic: almost
all data from the calender was removed, not just data after de. 9. Since
this user has scheduled lots of things way into 2004 this is not acceptable
to him.
Since Dec. 9, it's not even possible anymore to open the calendar, the
system will 'freeze' at once (again, CPU 100%)
This morning I tried my luck with scanpst.exe, which gave as result: no
problems found.
Since I'm not a very experienced Exchange/Outlook admin I hope someone can
help me further with any tips or hints what more I can do about this.
Thanks,
Sjef

 

[Spie]

Thanks Nikki,

I agree it almost certainly is a corrupt recurring appointment. I'll follow
your tips.

Sjef

 

[Sjef]

Hi Nikki,

this morning I followed your instructions, and everything is working
perfectly again.
Thanks again!
Sjef

 

[Nikki]

Glad to hear it worked.

--
Nikki Peterson [MVP - Outlook]

Hi Nikki,

this morning I followed your instructions, and everything is working
perfectly again.
Thanks again!
Sjef

Probably a corrupt meeting in the calendar. I have found that
it is usually in a recurring appointment that has gone bad during
the week of the freeze (in your case the 9th)

1) Open the Outlook but do not try to open the calendar.

2) Create a New folder (Calendar Test)

3) Do an advanced find on the old calendar and sort events
by recurrence.

- Press F3
- Change the Look For: text box to Appointments and Meetings
- Click on the Advanced tab
- Click Field
- Select All Appointment fields
- Select Recurring
- Condition: equals
- Value: Yes
- Click the Add to List button
- Click Find Now

Drop and drag from advanced find listed events one at a time to
the new calendar, when you get to the corrupt item it will give
you an error message or it will hang. (delete this item)

Or if it is not a recurring (which our's always are) you could
perform the find for all and do the same as above...

Move all your calendar items from Calendar Test folder back to
original calendar (these are previously dragged over items).

--
Nikki Peterson [MVP - Outlook]

Hi,

has anyone experienced this? A week ago one of our users complained that his
calender made his Outlook 'hang' trying to add an appointment on a date past
December 9 2003.
System: Exchange 55-sp4 on NT4-sp6a, Outlook 2000 on client Win2000.
I noticed that all other functions in Outlook worked without any problems,
but trying to open or even look at any date past December 9 in his calendar
would freeze the PC (CPU 100%).
Logging into another workstation produced exactly the same problem. Opening
the calendar in my own Outlook (admin) produced the same problem.
Following several Technet articles I exported all data, deleted the mailbox,
created a new one and imported the data again. That didn't help.
Next I've tried with Easy Recovery Pro, results were quite drastic: almost
all data from the calender was removed, not just data after de. 9. Since
this user has scheduled lots of things way into 2004 this is not acceptable
to him.
Since Dec. 9, it's not even possible anymore to open the calendar, the
system will 'freeze' at once (again, CPU 100%)
This morning I tried my luck with scanpst.exe, which gave as result: no
problems found.
Since I'm not a very experienced Exchange/Outlook admin I hope someone can
help me further with any tips or hints what more I can do about this.
Thanks,
Sjef

 

[Justin]

I am having similar problems with outlook xp- have you
found anything that works? My system goes wacko as well
on pretty much any date. Was wondering if active sync
for my pocket pc had anything to do with it-

jtgoertzen

 

[brezzo]

when i try this method, outlook hangs on every single recurring item
copy over to the Temp Calendar Folder - any ideas? thanks in advance,

cormac j