T
TLee3
A few days ago my Outlook XP/2002 mysteriously crashed/shut-down and I was
unable to successfully open it for any period of time without it mysteriously
shutting down again. After double-clicking Outlook’s icon, it would appear to
at first open successfully and then the “Outlook.pst file not shut down
properly….checking for problems†dialog box would invoke for a few minutes to
check and repair the file. After that the “Archive.pst file not closed
properly…..checking….†dialog box also pops up for a minute or two to repair
that file, then Outlook suddenly would shut down totally with no error
message. After a few trials of this I noticed the shutdown timing was
inconsistent and appeared to happen faster the more I tried to open it
(before a total computer re-boot). Finally I noticed that my e-mail was
attempting to download almost as soon as I opened Outlook (cycling icon in
lower right corner) which gave me a clue to solve the problem.
Before I opened Outlook, I right clicked it’s desktop icon which allowed me
to wipe out the internet ISP connection (email accounts) information. Once I
did that I was/am able to now successfully open Outlook without it crashing.
Everything on the surface appears to be normal as before, with email already
in the .pst file successfully displaying in the In-Box, all folders intact,
and basic functionality seems to work. I then re-input all my email accounts
(x2) ISP connectivity information, used the “test†button on both accounts,
and connectivity and test emails are successful. Then I tried to download
from my ISP provider’s (Cox) POP3/SMTP server, and the “fun†begins. What
happens is mail does appear to start to download, but it is OLD mail whose
date appears to start the day/date after my last successfully received email
sitting in my Outlook In-Box before the crash, but A YEAR EARLIER ! (for
example, last email in In-Box dated 2/14/07, first email downloaded is
2/15/06 !). And there’s LOTS of email it wants to download. I abort the
process to spare further grief and explore the problem. What’s even stranger
is I can’t figure where this email is coming from, since such old emails have
been deleted off my ISP’s mailbox server for some time (which I confirmed by
checking). But they are valid archive emails as far as I can tell.
I have tried the Office repair function (invoked through add-remove programs
software) and the “repair†seems to run successfully, but doesn’t solve the
problem. Exploring this forum I discovered the scanpst.exe functionality, and
have used this on both the Outlook.pst folder and the Archive.pst folder, but
this doesn’t solve the problem (the scan revealed “minor optional†repair
problems in the Outlook.pst file, and no problems in the Archive.pst file – I
chose to repair the Outlook.pst, but it made no improvements to my issue). My
next step might be an un-install/re-install of Outlook 2002, but I am
hesitant, as reading about related issues in this forum where people have
tried this and it made no difference.
I need some direction please – my questions/issues are:
1) What caused this problem in the first place, and how can I avoid it in
the future ?
2) What is happening now, and how can I only get the NEWEST e-mail (since
last one sitting in Outlook In-Box) to download since the crash (solving to
what appears to be my remaining problem to successful Outlook recovery –
though I haven’t tried my PDA to Outlook ActiveSync yet !).
3) I’m considering upgrading to Outlook (Office Pro) 2003 (not 2007); might
this solve the problem ?? Do I have to un-install Outlook (Office) 2002
before I would install Office 2003 ?
Would appreciate some expert advise, please.
Regards,
TLee3
unable to successfully open it for any period of time without it mysteriously
shutting down again. After double-clicking Outlook’s icon, it would appear to
at first open successfully and then the “Outlook.pst file not shut down
properly….checking for problems†dialog box would invoke for a few minutes to
check and repair the file. After that the “Archive.pst file not closed
properly…..checking….†dialog box also pops up for a minute or two to repair
that file, then Outlook suddenly would shut down totally with no error
message. After a few trials of this I noticed the shutdown timing was
inconsistent and appeared to happen faster the more I tried to open it
(before a total computer re-boot). Finally I noticed that my e-mail was
attempting to download almost as soon as I opened Outlook (cycling icon in
lower right corner) which gave me a clue to solve the problem.
Before I opened Outlook, I right clicked it’s desktop icon which allowed me
to wipe out the internet ISP connection (email accounts) information. Once I
did that I was/am able to now successfully open Outlook without it crashing.
Everything on the surface appears to be normal as before, with email already
in the .pst file successfully displaying in the In-Box, all folders intact,
and basic functionality seems to work. I then re-input all my email accounts
(x2) ISP connectivity information, used the “test†button on both accounts,
and connectivity and test emails are successful. Then I tried to download
from my ISP provider’s (Cox) POP3/SMTP server, and the “fun†begins. What
happens is mail does appear to start to download, but it is OLD mail whose
date appears to start the day/date after my last successfully received email
sitting in my Outlook In-Box before the crash, but A YEAR EARLIER ! (for
example, last email in In-Box dated 2/14/07, first email downloaded is
2/15/06 !). And there’s LOTS of email it wants to download. I abort the
process to spare further grief and explore the problem. What’s even stranger
is I can’t figure where this email is coming from, since such old emails have
been deleted off my ISP’s mailbox server for some time (which I confirmed by
checking). But they are valid archive emails as far as I can tell.
I have tried the Office repair function (invoked through add-remove programs
software) and the “repair†seems to run successfully, but doesn’t solve the
problem. Exploring this forum I discovered the scanpst.exe functionality, and
have used this on both the Outlook.pst folder and the Archive.pst folder, but
this doesn’t solve the problem (the scan revealed “minor optional†repair
problems in the Outlook.pst file, and no problems in the Archive.pst file – I
chose to repair the Outlook.pst, but it made no improvements to my issue). My
next step might be an un-install/re-install of Outlook 2002, but I am
hesitant, as reading about related issues in this forum where people have
tried this and it made no difference.
I need some direction please – my questions/issues are:
1) What caused this problem in the first place, and how can I avoid it in
the future ?
2) What is happening now, and how can I only get the NEWEST e-mail (since
last one sitting in Outlook In-Box) to download since the crash (solving to
what appears to be my remaining problem to successful Outlook recovery –
though I haven’t tried my PDA to Outlook ActiveSync yet !).
3) I’m considering upgrading to Outlook (Office Pro) 2003 (not 2007); might
this solve the problem ?? Do I have to un-install Outlook (Office) 2002
before I would install Office 2003 ?
Would appreciate some expert advise, please.
Regards,
TLee3