Outlook 2007 reading pane gone blank

[Blue Max]

This doesn't work for us. We check the other applications and they already
have the initials, etc. The problem still occurs. For us, the problem
often resolves itself after a long, long wait - almost as if it was an
indexing problem?

*********************

 

[Scotch]

Hello again folks... unfortunately I'm back.

The gremlins have returned, and now plague me again on most, but not all, of
the times I open Outlook - so as I feared the extensive troubleshooting steps
I described above on 1st April did not, after all, get rid of them. It's
getting me down. The problem is obviously nothing to do with the Office 2003
components. I promise I wasn't doing a deliberate April Fool on all of you
who may have read the thread and then tried a fix based on what I wrote!

I've read some of the other helpful suggestions made by others here, but:

- In Manage Com add-ins, I don't seem to have one called simply 'MS Outlook
Add-In' (Gustavo's suggestion)
- I don't have any third-party security software (virus and firewall are
provided by MS Live OneCare), and I would say my laptop as a whole is fairly
'clean' of too much other software (other than Lenovo software tools
specificlally for this machine)
- I don't have Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional Plug-in
- My initials are already enabled in my other Office 2007 programmes (Word,
Excel etc).

Given the very careful troubleshooting steps I've gone through, and the
large number of other people reporting similar problems, the strong inference
has surely got to be that we have a programming bug here and that we need
some comment and help from MS.

One thing we know is that for many users the trouble seemed to start in
March and has been associated with one or other of the updates around that
time.

Another thing clear from my own experience is that on my laptop the problem
is very probably associated with Business Contact Manager in some way. I'd
be interested whether others agree - has everyone with the problem also got
BCM? My reasoning is that I cleaned up my computer and got everything
working very well, then the Outlook problems only began again after I
re-installed BCM.

As reported in my previous 1st April post, everything seemed to work fine
for a few days. One thing I did notice is that, after starting Outlook on
about 3rd April, a box popped up saying 'Starting SQL Server Database...', or
some such, with a blue bar showing that this was loading. I believe this is
something to do with BCM? Though I'm not quite sure if I need it on a
single-user laptop? Anyhow, it was after that point that the problems began
again. Can someone tell me if it may be something to do with that component?

If I open Vista's Performance & Reliability Monitor tool, and go into the
System Stability Chart, it tells me that I had a gradually improving
stability index for a few days, and then from 3rd April it fell again each
day, because of an 'Application Failure', details of which are that
Outlook.exe 'stopped working'.

Please could some wizard give us the magic potion, so we can all go quietly...

Cheers

 

[Scotch]

PS Following the above post, I went surfing again, and discovered a possible
link between our problems and MS update KB946983, the Security Update for
Outlook issued in the first half of March. Try Googling the phrase
'KB946983' and you'll see what I mean. It appears that MS may be aware that
this update may have caused some unforeseen consequences and problems, and
are investigating to some extent. It looks as if they are trying to find out
what other part of Outlook the update is incompatible with. If this update
is the root cause of my own problems, my experience suggests that maybe the
incompatibility lies with some part of Business Contact Manager.

Some people seemed to have found that uninstalling KB946983 caused their own
Outlook problems to go away, so I'm trying this and I'll keep the forum
posted. Certainly Outlook is working OK at the moment - after the first
switch-on following the uninstall of that update.

I'm just an amateur here - we really need input from the right technical
expert who can give correct advice on whether this may be the cause and if so
what users should do in the meantime. Also in the meantime, more posts from
other users with the same experiences might be useful to keep the ball
rolling and to give an idea of the scale of the problem.

Cheers

 

[Blue Max]

Hello, Scotch!

You describe our own problems to the 'T'. We have also suspected the
'Business Contact Manager', but have no definitive evidence to that effect
except for the following: FIRST, Outlook 2007 periodically displays some
odd messages relating to BCM. SECOND, we apparently disabled BCM at the
office (no Business Contact Manager shown in the folder pane), and Outlook
2007 works fine there.

We have followed many of the same troubleshooting procedures as you, but
cannot get rid of the problem. We do note, however, that it is sporadic.
We will observe that the pane is blank, but later notice that the pane is
updated and everything seems to work. At one time we felt the problem might
be associated with indexing new folders we would connect to from our office.

We have also noted that the problem not affects the reading pane, but
contact displays, adding attachments to new emails, and opening attachments
from old emails. These operations can be executed, without any error
messages, but they never finalize (i.e., attachment not added, or attachment
never opens).

I think you may be on to something regarding the BCM. I am going to figure
out how to uninstall or disable it an see what happens. For us the Business
Contact Manager is a little bit of a redundant enigma and it seems to
continue causing problems. Good luck, please let us know if you find any
resolutions and we will try to do the same.

Thanks,
Richard

********************

 

[Scotch]

Thanks, Blue Max.

I can report that since uninstalling update KB946983, as described in my
second post of 7 April, the problems seem to have gone away again, and
Outlook - with Business Contact Manager - appears to be working well. OK, so
it's only 2 days experience, but it feels promising.

If this is the correct diagnosis then the problem is not BCM per se, but
update KB946983 causing some kind of incompatibility with BCM.

If this is right, then advice from MS is needed on when the bug has been
fixed and it is safe to install a revised version of the update.

Scotch

 

[Blue Max]

I certainly concur. When a fix or update breaks something, it should be
quickly acknowledged (if indeed it is the problem) and summarily corrected.
Furthermore, I wish that Microsoft had an automated method for monitoring
the newsgroup threads so they could identify related issues and advise us of
a possible fix.

**************

 

[Dapyman]

The dialog box issue is what was causing my problem and opening Word, forcing
Outlook to close via task manager, and then restarting work for me. Thanks
for the post.

 

[jlrodgers]

So has anything been reported to Microsoft to tell them that if you
happen to have the Business Contact Manager and that update (that I
can't remember the name of) with no other addins installed but
Microsoft ones -- that outlook crashes, doesn't load the reading pane,
doesn't check for messages, and sometimes takes up a good portion of
the processor?

I know my computer itself has been seeking for fixes for outlooks
crashes for probably over 200 exact same ones since the security
update. There's about 50 (after I got tired of the problem reports
reporting over 400 problems so I cleared the list) that get checked
for every few days for me hoping they've got a fix for it.

Not even Outlook knows what's going on, as every time it crashes,
it'll restart but there's never a box saying "X plugin has had issues,
if you continue to see this message disable X or look for updates".

 

[joey022461]

I JUST got off the phone with MS Tech about the reading pane being grayed out.
This recently just happened to me too.

This is what happened, and how it was fixed...

After him deleting registry keys(which I had to restore.. I use BCM also)
I watched him do this:

He searched for two files...
outcmd.dat
frmcache.dat

both were under the docs and settings folders under MY user name.

He renamed the files outcmd.datold, and frmcache.datold

When he restarted Outlook, the reading pane option was available again.
I asked if the new update caused the issue and he did not think so.

So everyone can try this to see if it works for u.

I was mad when he turned off all add-ins that I always used, and deleted reg
keys because I had to restore my reg and put the add-ins back. He ALSO wanted
to uninstall the whole program and reinstall, but I demanded that he did not
do that because I DIDNT THINK that was the issue, and that would have just
caused a nightmare I think.

So try the above easy fix. I hope it was a permanent fix too : )

Thanks...

JP

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

I doubt outcmd did anything - its toolbar customization. frmcache is the
forms cache and they could possibly cause nothing to display in the reading
pane. uninstall/reinstall rarely does anything that detect and repair
(office diagnostics) doesn't. At least he didn't tell you to reformat, or
worse yet, "write zeros".

 

[jlrodgers]

After spending an hour opening, crashing, closing, forcibly
terminating the process (just to check messages once) -- I'm disabling
the business contact manager. Shame as we were going to actually use
it. That doesn't work, KB946983's being taken off -- and hopefully I
actually can since many updates have been released since.

I sure hope Microsoft decides to fix this issue..... having to disable
a Microsoft Plugin for their own product that it's designed for just
so it works is not acceptable.

 

[joey022461]

did you try deleting those two files? I use BCM too but dont seem to have
trouble with it..

OVERALL I think Outlook/BCM are two very UNSTABLE PROGRAMS...
Be sure to always have backups ready.. : )

 

[jlrodgers]

Neither file is even listed on my computer (or at least not indexed
for search results). There are no custom forms, and no toolbar
customization done - everything is the default install. And
considering it happened the exact same second the install of the KB
thing was done, pretty suspicious in itself. And actually even when
things weren't working, I could sometimes go a day or two with no
problems at all. Then it acted up to get even for the good days (or
you'd think given how it did it's thing).

 

[Blue Max]

I was mad when he turned off all add-ins that I always used, and deleted
reg
keys because I had to restore my reg and put the add-ins back. He ALSO
wanted
to uninstall the whole program and reinstall, but I demanded that he did
not
do that because I DIDNT THINK that was the issue, and that would have just
caused a nightmare I think.

Hello Joey,

Admire you for sticking to your guns and asking for a meaningful resolution!
I would like a nickel for everytime I was asked to re-install an application
and it did not make a bit of difference! Reinstallation, with all it's
undesirable ramifications, seems to be a stock answer when the technician
cannot find a quick solution. This time-wasting recommendation is being
prematurely suggested more and more often, especially by foreign
(non-English) support departments that struggle with trouble-shooting
concepts and language barriers.

 

[Rude Rup]

I am not too sure if this would work for everyone, but I had the same
problem, and I (for some reason) tried this solution.
- Close the Outlook Window
- Go to Task Manager and End the Outlook Program
- Go to Start Menu> Run and type "outlook.exe /cleanprofile" and press
enter

This will reopen the Outlook Window, and the reading pane should work
fine. Atleast it did for me. Best of luck.

- Rupesh

 

[Scott]

Has anyone else noticed that when you first start outlook a window pops up
asking for the user's name and their initials? I have this problem after
installing a new exchange server, when I set up a new profile, for some users
(XP), it just has the blank reading pane. But I noticed that after setting up
a new profile when you first open outlook it prompts for the user's name and
initials, but in some instances that dialog goes away right away without
letting you click ok. It seems like the popup might still be open but hidden
and keeping outlook from working properly.

I also have another issue, where a user receives a 6MB attachment and they
can never open it. The orange status bar on the top of the message just keeps
going and the message never opens, either in the reading pane or by opening
the whole message. This never happened with our hosted exchange. Oh, also,
with the first issue above, outlook works just fine when logged in as another
user. But with this newly created user and new mailbox acct the reading pane
doesn't work. But this issue also occured with an existing user after
upgrading to vista ultimate...

 

[Brian Tillman]

Has anyone else noticed that when you first start outlook a window
pops up asking for the user's name and their initials?

If you start Word or Excel first and fill in that dialogue, you shouldn't
see it any more.

I also have another issue, where a user receives a 6MB attachment and
they can never open it. The orange status bar on the top of the
message just keeps going and the message never opens, either in the
reading pane or by opening the whole message.

Can you save the attachment to disk and open it?

 

[Scott]

Yes if I right click on the message and go to "view attachments" I can open
it from there, but the message itself never opens. It just continues loading
with the orange status indicator across the top of the reading pane.

 

[Blue Max]

Thanks, Rude, I'll give this one a try next time we have the problem.
Incidentally, the problem has decreased in frequency. We wonder if
Microsoft has addressed the issue since we have not had a problem for some
time. Wish they would respond to threads like this and clarify what the
problem was and how it was resolved.

********************

 

[Joey]

I could KISS the guy that said to open Word and enter your initials and name... that was all the problem was with mine. Outlook was COMPLETELY unresponsive for me, I open word, type in name and initials and reopen outlook and WHAM it works 100%!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I registered just to say this.