pst file errors (Outlook 2003 (11.8118.8122) SP2)

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I’ve just changed a few weeks ago to Vista which I installed on a clean hard disk. Next I added Outlook, as part of Office 2003. Other progs were added subsequently.

Outlook has been working fine, but yesterday, I got an dialogue box message telling me to run Scanpst.exe which I did. It found approx 70 errors, and apparently repaired them.

This morning however I got a different error

Cannot start MS Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook window. The set of folders could not be opened. The service is not available.

I Googled for a solution, but found little, then searched the archives here, but got not matches. I also checked System Restore, but only had one entry in it, for a CounterSpy update today. I went back to this state in case CounterSpy had been the problem.

Then I tried running scanpst again and it appeared to solve the problem

I did have a strange error when I restarted tho. It all opened fine which it wouldn’t do before, but I got 106 reminders (most of which were birthdays. I didn’t check them all, but the vast bulk were not due today. I decided to look at this issue later, and deferred them for 4 hours.

I then got another reminder box up this time with only 5 reminders showing. Unfortunately, I can’t now remember if they were due to be set for today. I tried to dismiss all, and got another error.

Cannot turn of the reminder. You may be reminded again. Could not complete the operation. One or more parameter values are not valid.

I’ve never had a pst error before in many years of Outlook use so two in two days (I know it may be the same issue) is highly suspicious.

I have up-to-date AVG, I run ADaware, CounterSpy and the Windows firewall is on – (my preferred solution ZoneAlarm free apparently is not yet Vista compatible.)

Anyone got any ideas on solutions?

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If you are getting error messages please post the exact text. Have you run disk drive diagnostics (i.e. chkdsk)? Have you tried a repair of the Office install?

Joe

--Joe

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Joe

Thanks

I had tried a repair however, I hadn’t thought to try a chkdsk, but I have now. It did find a few errors, but it scrolled up the screen so fast, I couldn’t see what was there. It doesn’t appear to have worked.

The exact error messages were included in the post, I just didn’t make it clear enough.

The first error message was

Cannot start MS Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook window. The set of folders could not be opened. The service is not available.

Later I got

Cannot turn off the reminder. You may be reminded again. Could not complete the operation. One or more parameter values are not valid.

Colin

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I also tried

outlook.exe /cleanreminders

and that doesn’t seem to have worked either.

Colin

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Have you installed ANY Office updates since your “Clean” install of Outlook and/or Office?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I’m 99.9% certain I have.

When I switched to Vista I also selected the MicrosoftUpdate option which includes Office as well as Windows.

I have it set to download but not install, and I glance at the details but unless there is s major warning in Windows Secrets newsletter that I have seen in time, I then tend to select all the updates.

Colin

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Open any Office product, go to Help and About. There you will see what SP is installed, there is SP2 for Office 2003. If SP 2 is not shown then you need to get it installed and then ALL others. To my knowledge there are NO show stoppers in the Office 2003 updates.

To check for Office updates, again open any Office product, go to Help, and Check for updates. I use Word all the time as it loads the fastest.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Thanks

I had put the version no in the original heading. It was Outlook 2003 (11.8118.8122) SP2.

I’ve just checked (you have to do it from the Control panel now as I’m on Microsoft update), and there was a Junk e-mail filter there so I installed that.

Colin

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Did you install Office ‘as an administrator’?

Joe

--Joe

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Yes I did.

I am reasonably certain that with the new UAC feature on Vista, you do not have a choice, you have to run any install as Administrator

Colin

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Have you tried logging in as another user and see if it still happens there?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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You can run as a user who is a member of the administrative group. Not the same as ‘run as administrator’.

Joe

--Joe

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