Preview Pane problem in Outlook 2K

[LouV]

We are having a problem with Outlook 2K using the preview pane. Users will sometime get a grayed out preview pane and a message that says: "This item contains active content that cannot be displayed in the preview pane. Open the item to read its contents." When the user attempts to open the item they get an error message saying: "Can't open this item. Could not open the item. Try again." From then on, all other messages they try to open goes through the same series of events. The only way to get out of this is to shut down and re-start Outlook. After that, all the same messages open in the preview pane with no problem... until it happens again. This only seems to happen at our remote locations, and not when they are logged on the same subnet as the exchange server. Technet was not very helpful.
We run Exchange 2000 on Win 2K sp3 and Outlook 2000. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Lou

 

[ladyck3]

This is not a definite response and can may be be disputed, but if this is in a remote environment, the reason they cannot view those messages and have this problem, would be that their connection to the exchange server has been compromised. That's why when they reboot and log back in, all's well again.

The problem would be in the connection to the exchange server with whatever remote access they are using. Its not Outlook but the connection to the data that is the issue.

Hope this helps to point in the right direction...

Laurie


LadyCK3

 

[LouV]

Laurie, thank you for your response, however, I may not have been clear about the "re-boot" part. The user does not have to re-start the computer to get it to work, he closes and re-opens his Outlook mail client. I had originally thought it was a mail server connection problem, but while it's happening I tested his connection and was able to ping the mail server as well as other remote servers.

 

[ladyck3]

Sorry, I have nothing else.... was not sure if simply closing/opening Outlook resolved it or what... but even so... it is connection related between the remote and exchange server... ping or no ping, when outlook is reopen, it reconnects, that's why it works again...

not sure the connection type being used by maybe there are timeouts from the provider or something...

I got nuthin' else, sorry...

Laurie


LadyCK3

 

[LouV]

Laurie, no need to apologize. I appreciate your efforts. (You're the only one willing to help so far). I agree that it seems like some kind of connection problem, however, it's odd the other hundred or so remote users never report having to "re-boot" an Outlook client for any reason. The part about "being on the same subnet" could be misleading because the problem is very intermittant and the user may not be on the same mailserver-subnet long enough for it to happen.

So, come on folks. Laurie and I are stumped on this one. Aren't there any Outlook/Exchange experts out there willing to take a crack at this one?

Lou V.