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KavanX

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Outlook 2007 fails to connect to Exchange 2007 server

Hello,
I have a weird problem with Outlook 2007. A couple of days ago, a Windows XP user got an error message about a missing profile when starting Outlook 2007. When I tried to rebuild the profile, I received the following error message:

"The action cannot be completed. The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable"

The Exchange server is Exchange 2007 SP1 with Mailbox, CAS, and Hub servers in one server. Outlook uses MAPI to connect to this server and it can be pinged from the user's machine. I have uninstalled and installed Outlook 2007 to no avail. I have gone through the MS KB927481 article and it doesn't appear to be the solution. The user can use OWA without any problems.

Further, other users in this machine do not have this problem and if this user logs on to another machine with Outlook 2007 installed and tries to use Outlook, he runs into the same problem. So the problem is most likely is the user's profile but I don't want to nuke it as it would be a pain to rebuild it.

Any solutions on how I can get this user's Outlook working are greatly appreciated and thank you.
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barryhiggins3
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Hi,

To resolve this try the following

   1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
   2. Locate and then click the following subkey:
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC
   3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
   4. Type DefConnectOpts, and then press ENTER.
   5. Right-click DefConnectOpts, and then click Modify.
   6. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
   7. Exit Registry Editor.
I think this happens if you open or configure Outlook and there isnt a default gateway configure, it basically breaks Outlooks via the users ntuser.dat file

The above should fix it though.
Avatar of KavanX
KavanX

ASKER

Hi,
thanks for the reply. But, no dice. The user did not have the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC key and I had to add it. After adding it I still get the same error (or rather a variant of it).

"The connection to Microsoft Exchange is not available. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action"

Anything else that I can try out?
Hi,

Now that you've added the key try resetting up Outlook (close Outlook and use the mail applet in the control pannel to do this)
Avatar of KavanX

ASKER

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. I'm afraid the problem remains. When I go to add the new mail account in the mail applet, after pressing "Check Name" is the Exchange setup wizard, I get the following error:

"The name cannot be resolved. The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action"
hmmm..

Try changing the value to from 0 to 1
Avatar of KavanX

ASKER

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Sorry, no luck ....  weird problem, this.
Certainly is......

OK... How about this.

Take a normal users ntuser.dat file (from their roaming profile). Launch regedit Click on HK_Users then File, Load Hive...

Point to the ntuser.dat file , choose a letter (I usually use M or U or something) and expand it till you see
Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook
And Specifically Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC

Now do the same with the user who is having the problem (althoug hmake sure the user is logged off, or the old ntuser.dat will overwrite when then user loggs off and make a quick copy first before you edit it And choose a different letter when you load it) and compare the two. Hopefully something might jump out at you as being out of place. Then Make the changes to the one having the problems to match the working one.

Click on the letter you have chosen for the broken one then click File, Unload Hive...

Now log the user back on and give it a try. Failing that you could delete everything in the
Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\
key and hopefully when the user launches Outlook it will rebuild it from the default ntuser.dat file. That's a bit of a long shot though and may not work (still worth a try).
Avatar of KavanX

ASKER

Still no dice. I nuked all the Outlook keys from the Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\  key, rebooted the machine and tried again. Same error.
I'm out of ideas I'm afraid,

But then, I would have probably just rebuilt the profile some time ago.
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KavanX

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