I have a strange happening on my Gateway P4 Desktop running on XP. I had the
circumstance when all seemed to be working well when suddenly Outlook 2000
wouldn't open. I'd click on it and would see the program logo but the
program itself wouldn't open. I'd see it loaded in the Task Manager. I tried
various things like uninstalling and reinstalling but nothing worked. I came
down one day to a blue screen with a report that the primary HDD had failed.
I thought "that's it" and replaced it with a Samsung HDD of similar size and
reinstalled everything including Outlook 2000 from the Microsoft 2000 Pro
Suite. Everything ran fine for a month.

Now the same thing again. Outlook 2000 doesn't open. On bootup I get a
system message that there's a problem with the HDD - go to Troubleshooting
in the Owner's Manual (whatever that is). I hit Enter and Windows loads
normally but Outlook won't open. I'm busy right now downloading my data to a
portable storage drive. That's after checking the primary HDD for errors
(none) and defragging

Does this sound familiar to anybody? I haven't got a clue what's going on.
Is my new HDD failing already? Why only symptoms from Outlook? What am I
doing wrong? I'd appreciate some help, as I struggle on from my Gateway 9500
laptop. Thanks in anticipation, Denzil.

Close Outlook. Find and rename outcmd.dat to .old. (If using Windows 2000
or XP, you will need to enable searching hidden and system folders.)

Once you have done so, reopen Outlook and it should open fine. You will
need to rebuild any custom toolbars or customizations as the file outcmd.dat
controls how the toolbars display. When it becomes corrupted, it will cause
Outlook to hang because it cannot create the toolbars that you expect.


--�
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Denzil Hathway asked:

| I have a strange happening on my Gateway P4 Desktop running on XP. I
| had the circumstance when all seemed to be working well when suddenly
| Outlook 2000 wouldn't open. I'd click on it and would see the program
| logo but the program itself wouldn't open. I'd see it loaded in the
| Task Manager. I tried various things like uninstalling and
| reinstalling but nothing worked. I came down one day to a blue screen
| with a report that the primary HDD had failed. I thought "that's it"
| and replaced it with a Samsung HDD of similar size and reinstalled
| everything including Outlook 2000 from the Microsoft 2000 Pro Suite.
| Everything ran fine for a month.
|
| Now the same thing again. Outlook 2000 doesn't open. On bootup I get a
| system message that there's a problem with the HDD - go to
| Troubleshooting in the Owner's Manual (whatever that is). I hit Enter
| and Windows loads normally but Outlook won't open. I'm busy right now
| downloading my data to a portable storage drive. That's after
| checking the primary HDD for errors (none) and defragging
|
| Does this sound familiar to anybody? I haven't got a clue what's
| going on. Is my new HDD failing already? Why only symptoms from
| Outlook? What am I doing wrong? I'd appreciate some help, as I
| struggle on from my Gateway 9500 laptop. Thanks in anticipation,
| Denzil.