Outlook 2003 error: Unable to start processing services. Could not open the item. Try again.

[Tim Mostad]

I have an XP SP2 system on which I had Office 2003 Pro installed (no Exchange Server, the PST is local). My Outlook was running fine but then started to have problems so I thought I would remove and reinstall it. I now get:
"Unable to start processing services. Could not open the item. Try again."

I uninstalled/reinstalled ActiveSync 3.7.1. I ran scanpst.exe on all of my .pst files and it found problems but they were repaired. I ran "Detect and Repair" with both options checked and it reported that it ran fine. Nothing I do gets me anywhere. I did a thorough search of the web and Microsoft KBs. Help please!

 

[Tim Mostad]

After some thrashing I discovered an incomplete uninstall causing version problems. Once the old version of Outlook was completely removed and the new one installed the problem went away.
I have an XP SP2 system on which I had Office 2003 Pro installed (no Exchange Server, the PST is local). My Outlook was running fine but then started to have problems so I thought I would remove and reinstall it. I now get:
"Unable to start processing services. Could not open the item. Try again."

I uninstalled/reinstalled ActiveSync 3.7.1. I ran scanpst.exe on all of my .pst files and it found problems but they were repaired. I ran "Detect and Repair" with both options checked and it reported that it ran fine. Nothing I do gets me anywhere. I did a thorough search of the web and Microsoft KBs. Help please!