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Q168883: XFOR: 4037 Event Starting Internet Mail Service, 1067 IMC Error

Article: Q168883
Product(s): Microsoft Exchange
Version(s): winnt:4.0,5.0,5.5
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbtshoot kbusage exc4 exc5 exc55
Last Modified: 02-DEC-1999

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Exchange Server, versions 4.0, 5.0, 5.5 
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SYMPTOMS
========

The Internet Mail Service (or Internet Mail Connector, in version 4.0) stops
responding and cannot be restarted. If you attempt to start it manually or run
the Internet Mail Wizard, an event similar to the following is logged in the
Windows NT Event Viewer application event log:

  Event ID: 4037
  Type: Error
  Source: MSExchangeIMC
  Category: Internal Processing
  Description: An exception has occurred which was handled internally by the
  Internet Mail Service. This may have resulted in a message not being
  delivered.

If you attempt to start the Internet Mail Connector, the following error message
is also displayed:

  Could not start the Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Connector service on
  \\<servername>.

  Error 1067: The process terminated unexpectedly.

If you attempt to stop the Internet Mail Service, you find that the Stop button
is unavailable.

CAUSE
=====

This problem may result from a corrupt message in the Exchange Server directory
(the Imcdata\In or IMCdata\Out directories). Resolving this condition is the
subject of this article.

The same error and symptom may result from a corrupted message in the message
transfer agent (MTA) store. For more information, see the "More Information"
section of this article.

RESOLUTION
==========

To resolve this problem:

1. Stop the Internet Mail Service using the Kill.exe file or the Tlist utility
  from the Windows NT Resource Kit or BackOffice Resource Kit. The IMC service
  should be displayed as stopped in Control Panel when you double-click
  Services.

2. Create two sub-directories called Temp under the Imcdata\In and Imcdata\Out
  directories.

3. Move all the files from the Imcdata\In directory to the Imcdata\In\Temp
  directory and from the Imcdata\Out directory to the Imcdata\Out\Temp
  directory.

4. Delete the Imcdata\queue.dat file.

5. Restart the Internet Mail Service. If it starts and stays on, test the normal
  operation, and then move to step 7.

6. If the IMC stops again, the corrupt message is not in the directory, but
  rather in the MTA store, and you have to follow the steps in the articles
  referenced in the "More Information" section of this article.

7. Move 50 percent of the messages from the Imcdata\In\Temp directory to the
  Imcdata\In directory and from the Imcdata\Out\Temp directory to the
  Imcdata\Out directory. Delete the Queue.dat file, and then stop the Internet
  Mail Service and restart it. If this process is successful, repeat it until
  you find the bad messages and move all the good messages out.

NOTE: Another method to find the bad message is to move all the files from the
Imcdata\In directory to the Imcdata\In\Temp directory and from the Out directory
to the Out\Temp directory, when the IMC is still in the locked state. You may
receive a message that a certain file cannot be moved because it is in use. This
file is most probably the corrupt file, and the IMC crashed while trying to
process it.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The same error message and symptom may result from a corrupted message in the
MTA store.

For additional information about troubleshooting a corrupted message in the MTA
store, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:

  Q165505 XADM: How to View/Delete Messages in MTS-IN and MTS-OUT Queues

  Q157323 XCON: Identifying and/or Reconstructing a Connector Queue


Additional query words: dr. watson

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbtshoot kbusage exc4 exc5 exc55 
Technology        : kbExchangeSearch kbExchange500 kbExchange550 kbExchange400 kbZNotKeyword2
Version           : winnt:4.0,5.0,5.5
Issue type        : kbprb

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