Outlook Reminders

[ihatecrappymail]

Hi all. I'm having a bit of a problem with Outlook 2003, namely after I
open it and it tries to display my set reminders it freezes on the
Reminders window. It will stay like this for 10 minutes or so before
finally coming back.

I have tried using the /cleanreminders switch. I did this once before
and I thought it worked. However, it is happening again. I tried using
the switch a couple of more times with no success.

Any ideas on what I can do to fix this problem?

P.S. I am using Windows 2000 with SP4.

Thanks for the help!

 

[JCO]

What about other Office Products?
Maybe you can "pack" the PST file (database). Not sure what they call it.
Maybe compress it?
There is a item that can scan your PST file, to see if there is something
wrong with it. I think it is called ScanPST. I have a shortcut menu to
mine but created my self. You may have to search your computer for
ScanPST.exe then execute it.

The only other thing, is to un-install outlook. However, I would not
reinstall it unless you clean the Registry first. Get a free download
product, (ie Regseeker or CleanReg) and clean out the Registry. Then reboot
before installing Outlook 2003 again. If you have the full Office 2003
installed, I would remove the entire product and do what I mentioned above
(with the Registry).

You may want to export your entire PST Folder to a backup, such as
OLBackup.PST, for added safety.

 

[ihatecrappymail]

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about ScanPST, but I thought that
only works on personal folders. This user has her info stored on an
Exchange server so there wouldn't be a PST file would there?

Any other thoughts?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about ScanPST, but I thought that
only works on personal folders. This user has her info stored on an
Exchange server so there wouldn't be a PST file would there?

You are correct, SCANPST applies only to PSTs and not to Exchange
mailboxes.

 

[ihatecrappymail]

Well I went ahead and ran ScanPST on the OST file and it said it found
errors and corrected them. When I started up Outlook again, it started
normally and the reminders popped up like they should without locking
up the computer so hopefully this fixed it. I will let you all know if
it comes back again. Thanks!

 

[JCO]

Fingers are crossed.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Well I went ahead and ran ScanPST on the OST file and it said it found
errors and corrected them. When I started up Outlook again, it started
normally and the reminders popped up like they should without locking
up the computer so hopefully this fixed it. I will let you all know if
it comes back again. Thanks!

There's a separate SCANOST.EXE image for OSTs. I don't think you should use
SCANPST on OSTs.

 

[ihatecrappymail]

Well, its happened again! Any other tips? Someone told me that the
first thing to do when troubleshooting Outlook is check the account
using OWA. They said if the reminders work fine in OWA it is an Outlook
problem and not an Exchange problem.

So, I opened the mailbox using OWA and no reminders ever popped up.
Does that indicate a problem with the Exchange mailbox itself? If so,
how can I troubleshoot that to fix it?

Thanks!

 

[ihatecrappymail]

OK, well I feel stupid now. I think the reason reminders did not pop up
is because I was checking OWA in FireFox. I just checked it in IE6 and
the reminders popped up right away.

So I went back to the problem computer and ran Detect&Repair and it
went through without giving any errors messages or anything. Opened
Outlook, same thing. So, I tried renaming the OST file. Opened Outlook
again and everything loaded fine. Pop-up reminders worked like they
should. So to be sure I reboot the computer and try opening Outlook
again. The reminders freeze the comp up again! So, I reboot and try
installing SP2. Opened Outlook, same crap.

Thoughts?