Anybody know whats going on with my pc? Lately I will start a program and it will not load up but it is showing as running in task manager. If I try to end the task nothing happens and it remains in the task manager. Similar things happen when running programs they will just freeze up and if I try to close then I get the end now or wait message box which if I chose end now it has no effect. It will happen with random programs - winamp, nero, steam (halflife2)and I have not installed any programs lately. Also several programs at once can do this as I try to open each one which slows my pc so much I need to reboot. I have antivirus/firewall/spyware programs and they don't find anything . Anybody know why?
try start,run, and msconfig and see what apps are running in the background for your system so your not riding the cpu to hard.
pro`noob You didn't say what operating system you're using so assuming that you're using WinXP do a system restore to a date before the problem occurred. It sounds to me as though you have a corrupted operating system and of course the fix for each version of Windows is different unless you do a clean install. If you've installed an application recently try uninstalling it.
My msconfig only has 3 startup items going, msnmsgr for msn, ccApp which I think is to do with nortoninternet security and finally atiptaxx which is something to do with my graphics card drivers. And yes Sophocles I am running xp pro, the problem is I long since disabled system restore so that is not an option. The only things installed recently have been game demos of call of duty 2 and serious sam 2. I don't see them causing the problem but I will remove both just incase. As for a clean install - I am not a big fan of going throgh all the trouble of backup/reinstall/reconfig everytime something goes wrong. Ok so I know sometimes a reinstall is needed but I don't believe that is the easiest solution to my problem.
pro`noob Whether a reinstall is easiest or not depends on what the cause is. If the cause is a software conflict then that can be remedied by doing as you just stated, uninstalling your most recent installs. But if XP has been corrupted then a reinstall may be all that's left to you. I'm interested in hearing how you disabled system restore and why.
put your xp disc in your computer restsrt . boot from cd . select repair select o/s usually 1 press enter at the prompt type chkdsk /r space between chkdsk and /r this replaces all your corrupted files without hurting any of your data, takes about an hour on the not so fast computers works in most cases if not then format ref disable restore go to start settings control panel system porperties restore tick the box lol i do it when doing spyware removal and virus removal lots of the nasty buggers hide in system restore but always put it back on afterwards
I turned it off by control panel > system > system restore then clicked "turn off system restore" The reasons for this being to save hd space and also that I find actually doing a system restore rarely resolves the problem I am trying to fix and often causes more problems than I had to start with. Actually in all the years I have been using win xp I have never once found system restore to be beneficial to me If a fresh install is needed though then it will have to wait until next weekend now.
ok pcrepair, thanks. I am suprised I didn't think of that before I'll let you know how I get on. P.S. anybody know what the command is where windows checks the system files to check they are original versions?
pro`noob That is the correct way to turn it off although I don't know why you would want to. I've used system restore successfully more times than I care to count. It doesn't use that much hard disk space, using it doesn't make a redundant copy. Have you curred your lockup problems yet. If it's not a software or operating system problem then it could be hardware overhearing. Is your system overclocked?
I really don't think it is heat, for a start I have so many fans in and on my case that I almost don't need any air conditioning in the summer Also when these programs lock up the rest of the pc manages to run fine still, I can listen to music and even play games but then after a while I will just click on a program and it will lock up, with both the earlier program and the new one both running but un-closable. Programs continue to mount up in the taks manager like this until my pc slows to a crawl forcing me to reboot. I think its going to have to be the dreaded fresh install...
pro`noob Yes it does sound like a clean install is called for. But it's not that bad. I keep everything that I need on a separate partition so that once XP is reinstalled it only takes a couple of hours to get it just where I want it. From quick format of drive C: to complete recovery takes less than 3 hours which makes it a lot less dreaded. LOL And definitely less irritating than an endless search to discover an elusive cause.
Does the whole drive need reformatting before I can partition it? Or is there any software out there that partition the drive while keeping all my files and os in one piece.
pro`noob You can partition your drive manually or you can get software that does it. Partition magic is in my view the best. What is the size of your current hard disk? http://www.satellite-store.net/p22/Par-2.dwt
160gb total size, around half of that is unused. And partition magic does not require loss of any data? I am all out of dvd-r so backing up to disc is not possible at this moment.
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml Try the link above to get freeware to run and see what is actually running in the background that ties up your PC. For example, Drive Image 7.0, (Ghost 9.0,) runs a V2i program in the background that doesn't show up in Task Manager and can put a halt on your PC for up to 30 seconds. This did show up when running filemon.exe showing exact location and time of ALL programs running on your PC.
