Office Outlook 2007 on XP hangs at splash screen

Hi there.
I am hoping someone can help me to fix this problem correctly, as I've only got a temporary fix in place at present:

I have a Win XP SP3 computer with Office 2007 Pro on it, all updates current. Two days ago, in one of the limited user accounts (which is the main user of the computer and the only account that actually uses Outlook), I tried to open Outlook, and it hung on the splash screen and would never open. I then tried to open Outlook in an administrative account, and the same thing happened.

I ran the scanpst.exe function, and it said it corrected some things in the *.pst file, but that didn't get the program to open (didn't think it would, but it was worth a try). Tried opening in safe mode, (outlook.exe /safe), and also with /resetnavpane switch, but still no joy. It then gave me a box to try detect and repair, which I selected, but that didn't work either. I then tried a "repair" to Office through the Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, but that got about 1/3 of the way through and then just hung for 2 hours.

I did notice that the searchindexr.exe process was taking up 40-50% of the CPU consistently, and decided that this would need some attention, but I wanted to try a couple other things first.

I had noticed that one Windows Update had come through for junk email update since the last time the program worked, so, just for kicks, I tried a system restore to three days prior, but it still didn't resolve the problem - just messed up my Avast! for some reason.

After removing and reinstalling Avast!, I booted into safe mode, and tried opening Outlook from my administrative account, and, success! And you know what? searchindexer.exe was not running in safe mode. Okay, now I was on to something.

So, I opened up Services and changed Windows Search and Indexing Service to "disabled", then rebooted into normal mode. In the admin account, Outlook opened up. But I don't use the program in that account, so I logged off and went into the limited account. Outlook opened there as well. All emails were there, all folders - everything. I verified in Task Manager that searchindexer.exe was not running, and it wasn't.

So, for some reason, this process was preventing Outlook from opening. I am keeping it turned off for now, but I would really like to know how to resolve this properly, so I can have indexing back on. Anyone have any ideas? Do I need to "reset" indexing through Control Panel? I'm not sure, but I think that would take a very long time, no?

I appreciate any help on this one - I am stumped; can't find anything on the web of anyone having this same problem.

Thanks!

 

A disk error seems a possibility. I would run chkdsk /r on the drive.

 

Hi.
I ran chkdsk /r a couple of times. Not sure if it did anything, as I was not there to watch it. I don't know where to find the results of this (if any). At any rate, the searchindexer.exe process was still taking up 45-50% CPU afterwards, and would still lock up Outlook and prevent it from opening. So I went into Control Panel and reset indexing, then rebooted. Outlook will open now and indexing is working at 0-2% CPU.

Is there a way for me to see a log of what the chkdsk /r did?

Thanks.

 

It's in Event Viewer under Application. Look for events with Source Winlogon or Wininit of about the time and date the system was rebooted to carry out the chkdsk. From what you say it looks as if resetting the drive index fixed it, but errors in that might have been caused by disk errors. Let us know what you discover.

 

Okay, thank you - I found the reports and am pasting them below. I ran CHKDSK 3x and each time it found things to fix. So, I am wondering if it is time for a sfc /scannow? I also found another error that is happening quite often with SQL, and I'm not sure if it's related, but it sounds pretty urgent and I have no idea how to address it. I hope you can help me?

CHKDSK results:

1st run
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
CHKDSK is recovering lost files.
Cleaning up 251 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 251 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 251 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.
Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

152529142 KB total disk space.
79480932 KB in 144403 files.
51748 KB in 20887 indexes.
4 KB in bad sectors.
405338 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
72591120 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
38132285 total allocation units on disk.
18147780 allocation units available on disk.

2nd run
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 35 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 35 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 35 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.

152529142 KB total disk space.
79599492 KB in 144975 files.
51856 KB in 21131 indexes.
4 KB in bad sectors.
405874 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
72471916 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
38132285 total allocation units on disk.
18117979 allocation units available on disk.

3rd run
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 8 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 8 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 8 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.

152529142 KB total disk space.
79683128 KB in 145008 files.
51956 KB in 21145 indexes.
4 KB in bad sectors.
406902 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
72387152 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
38132285 total allocation units on disk.
18096788 allocation units available on disk.


And, seeing this database error in event viewer has me concerned:

SQL Server detected a logical consistency-based I/O error: incorrect pageid (expected 1:959; actual 0:0). It occurred during a read of page (1:959) in database ID 4 at offset 0x0000000077e000 in file 'c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA\MSDBData.mdf'. Additional messages in the SQL Server error log or system event log may provide more detail. This is a severe error condition that threatens database integrity and must be corrected immediately. Complete a full database consistency check (DBCC CHECKDB). This error can be caused by many factors; for more information, see SQL Server Books Online.

I have no idea about this! :-o

and these:

-Outlook: Failed to get the Crawl Scope Manager with error=0x8007043c.

-Outlook: Failed to determine if the store is in the crawl scope (error=0x8007043c).

-The configuration of the AdminConnection\TCP protocol in the SQL instance MSSMLBIZ is not valid.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

 

Your chkdsk reports are normal enough, nothing significant at all, but it won't do any harm to run sfc. Can't help with the sql error, sorry. Hopefully someone else may be able to.

 

sfc /scannow didn't report anything. Should I start another thread with the SQL issue?

 

Unless your system starts obviously misbehaving I wouldn't worry about it. Everyone's event viewer contains loads of errors. You will soon know about it if something isn't right

 

deleted - duplicate post

 

Okay! Thanks for your help!