An earlier question about this that I posted was answered rudely. So I'll
make a second attempt with more info.

Our DSL has been off for the last couple of weeks and our PC has been doing
fine. No new virus warnings during that time and no strange behavior. As of
yesterday, DSL is back on and now the icons and the toolbars on the desktop
continuously disappear, then reappear every ten seconds or so. I originally
thought that it was only happening on my side of the PC but my sons side is
doing it as well. Applications run fine but you don't have time to open any
file folder before everything drops off the screen, taking everything with
it. The CPU meter spikes to 100% everytime the missing items reappear so if
you're using a CPU intensive program it stops cold. I did a system restore
but it still does the same thing. The desktop background does go anywhere
though. My son keeps insisting that explorer.exe is the culprit and although
running it immediately brings everything back up it only lasts a moment. I
also tried all this in safe mode for what its worth.

What the heck is going on?

"howarya46" wrote:

> An earlier question about this that I posted was answered rudely. So I'll
> make a second attempt with more info.
>
> Our DSL has been off for the last couple of weeks and our PC has been doing
> fine. No new virus warnings during that time and no strange behavior. As of
> yesterday, DSL is back on and now the icons and the toolbars on the desktop
> continuously disappear, then reappear every ten seconds or so. I originally
> thought that it was only happening on my side of the PC but my sons side is
> doing it as well. Applications run fine but you don't have time to open any
> file folder before everything drops off the screen, taking everything with
> it. The CPU meter spikes to 100% everytime the missing items reappear so if
> you're using a CPU intensive program it stops cold. I did a system restore
> but it still does the same thing. The desktop background does go anywhere
> though. My son keeps insisting that explorer.exe is the culprit and although
> running it immediately brings everything back up it only lasts a moment. I
> also tried all this in safe mode for what its worth.
>
> What the heck is going on?

Since you mentioned the Internet was OFF for a couple of weeks (I assume on
holiday), that mean your Anti-virus and windows are hungry for updates,
beside other applications may also need to updates, hence the Disappear and
the High spike of the CPU usage. But I/we cannot be certain that this is the
whole scenario and nothing else on this machine, so please run through these
cleaning steps.
Follow these steps and then send your Log file to one of many forums for
Hijackthis, some of them listed below:
Go through these Cleaning steps:
1... Click start >> Control Panel >> Double Click Network and Internet
Connections >> Double click Internet Options, on the IE Properties window
you will see these Options:
General | Security | Privacy | Content | Connections | Programs
| Advanced .

Click on General Tab (1st Tab on the left) and you will see a Button called
[ Clear History ..] click on it to clear your History caches, then click on
[Delete Files..] to delete Internet Files created over the time, click on [
Delete Cookies...] to delete your cookies left by visiting websites.

Then click on Advanced tab and scroll down to under the Browsing Option:
[&] Browsing
[ ] Enable Third-Party browser extensions (Req Rest) uncheck this box.
= Then try to Disable the Add-Ons on your Browser somehow installed on your
browser, On how to disable the Add-ons follow this:
Click on Programs Tab and then click the Manage Add-Ons Button there Disable
the None/Not Verified Plug-ins/Add-ons ( you need to Renable them one-by-one
later and see which is the culprit .
How to manage Add-Ons:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883256
Scan for malware from here:
SuperAntispyware - Free
http://www.superantispyware.com/supe...freevspro.html
RootkitRevealer v1.71
By Bryce Cogswell and Mark Russinovich
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...tRevealer.mspx

Run a scan from here on-line:
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/d...d=ie&venid=sym
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
Download Avast Cleaner (off-line scanner) from here:
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-virus-cleaner.html

Lots of tools to download and disinfect your machine (off-line scanner):
http://www.bitdefender.co.uk/site/Do...eeRemovalTool/

After the scan run disk clean-up on your drive then defrag and run this
command:
sfc /scannow click [Ok] and let it run.

Open a Notepad, customize or minimize to the taskbar as you will need it
later for this step to copy the error message on it.
Open a run command and type in:
eventvwr.msc click [OK] you will get the Event viewer control Panel.
click on each of these:
Application
System
Security
Look in the right Pane/window for error message with red (X) or Yellow
exclamation mark /!\ , double click each one to get more info about the
causer.
On the Event error properties message you will see:
Up Arrow
Down arrow
Two pages
Click on the two pages to copy the error message then bring up the Notepad
you opened earlier and right click on the first line and select Paste from
the list, this will paste the error message on a Notepad.
Please don't duplicate the error message one of each kind will be sufficient.
HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

It will help you to both identify and remove any hijackware/spyware. Post
your log to
http://www.merijn.org/index.php
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30,
http://castlecops.com/forum67.html,
http://forums.subratam.org/index.php?showforum=7, or other appropriate
forums for expert analysis, not here.

Let us know your progress.
nass
----
http://www.nasstec.co.uk

I also have blinking icons.
During this I found these programs running.
isass.exe
winlogin.exe
svchost.exe system
explor.exe Ron
taskmg.exe
dthtml.exe
csrss.exe
system
system idle process
It seems like the icons that are windows type are the ones blinking. What
can I do to cure this? All programs show about 0-5 % useage of the cpu but,
system idle which is 98 % but, each varies with in one or two percent.
Ron B.

"nass" wrote:

>
>
> "howarya46" wrote:
>
> > An earlier question about this that I posted was answered rudely. So I'll
> > make a second attempt with more info.
> >
> > Our DSL has been off for the last couple of weeks and our PC has been doing
> > fine. No new virus warnings during that time and no strange behavior. As of
> > yesterday, DSL is back on and now the icons and the toolbars on the desktop
> > continuously disappear, then reappear every ten seconds or so. I originally
> > thought that it was only happening on my side of the PC but my sons side is
> > doing it as well. Applications run fine but you don't have time to open any
> > file folder before everything drops off the screen, taking everything with
> > it. The CPU meter spikes to 100% everytime the missing items reappear so if
> > you're using a CPU intensive program it stops cold. I did a system restore
> > but it still does the same thing. The desktop background does go anywhere
> > though. My son keeps insisting that explorer.exe is the culprit and although
> > running it immediately brings everything back up it only lasts a moment. I
> > also tried all this in safe mode for what its worth.
> >
> > What the heck is going on?
>
> Since you mentioned the Internet was OFF for a couple of weeks (I assume on
> holiday), that mean your Anti-virus and windows are hungry for updates,
> beside other applications may also need to updates, hence the Disappear and
> the High spike of the CPU usage. But I/we cannot be certain that this is the
> whole scenario and nothing else on this machine, so please run through these
> cleaning steps.
> Follow these steps and then send your Log file to one of many forums for
> Hijackthis, some of them listed below:
> Go through these Cleaning steps:
> 1... Click start >> Control Panel >> Double Click Network and Internet
> Connections >> Double click Internet Options, on the IE Properties window
> you will see these Options:
> General | Security | Privacy | Content | Connections | Programs
> | Advanced .
>
> Click on General Tab (1st Tab on the left) and you will see a Button called
> [ Clear History ..] click on it to clear your History caches, then click on
> [Delete Files..] to delete Internet Files created over the time, click on [
> Delete Cookies...] to delete your cookies left by visiting websites.
>
> Then click on Advanced tab and scroll down to under the Browsing Option:
> [&] Browsing
> [ ] Enable Third-Party browser extensions (Req Rest) uncheck this box.
> = Then try to Disable the Add-Ons on your Browser somehow installed on your
> browser, On how to disable the Add-ons follow this:
> Click on Programs Tab and then click the Manage Add-Ons Button there Disable
> the None/Not Verified Plug-ins/Add-ons ( you need to Renable them one-by-one
> later and see which is the culprit .
> How to manage Add-Ons:
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883256
> Scan for malware from here:
> SuperAntispyware - Free
> http://www.superantispyware.com/supe...freevspro.html
> RootkitRevealer v1.71
> By Bryce Cogswell and Mark Russinovich
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...tRevealer.mspx
>
> Run a scan from here on-line:
> http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/d...d=ie&venid=sym
> http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
> Download Avast Cleaner (off-line scanner) from here:
> http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-virus-cleaner.html
>
> Lots of tools to download and disinfect your machine (off-line scanner):
> http://www.bitdefender.co.uk/site/Do...eeRemovalTool/
>
> After the scan run disk clean-up on your drive then defrag and run this
> command:
> sfc /scannow click [Ok] and let it run.
>
> Open a Notepad, customize or minimize to the taskbar as you will need it
> later for this step to copy the error message on it.
> Open a run command and type in:
> eventvwr.msc click [OK] you will get the Event viewer control Panel.
> click on each of these:
> Application
> System
> Security
> Look in the right Pane/window for error message with red (X) or Yellow
> exclamation mark /!\ , double click each one to get more info about the
> causer.
> On the Event error properties message you will see:
> Up Arrow
> Down arrow
> Two pages
> Click on the two pages to copy the error message then bring up the Notepad
> you opened earlier and right click on the first line and select Paste from
> the list, this will paste the error message on a Notepad.
> Please don't duplicate the error message one of each kind will be sufficient.
> HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us
>
> It will help you to both identify and remove any hijackware/spyware. Post
> your log to
> http://www.merijn.org/index.php
> http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30,
> http://castlecops.com/forum67.html,
> http://forums.subratam.org/index.php?showforum=7, or other appropriate
> forums for expert analysis, not here.
>
> Let us know your progress.
> nass
> ----
> http://www.nasstec.co.uk

Frequently it's your antivirus scanning it that is causing the problem.
Check the forum for your AV.

randy.sigler wrote:

> Did you every get a reply?
>
> I am having the same problem.
>
> randy.sigler(@)gmail(dot)com
>
>

On Apr 13, 6:23*pm, randy.sigler <randy.sig...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Did you every get a reply?
>
> I am having the same problem.
>
> randy.sigler(@)gmail(dot)com
>
> --
> randy.sigler

What anti-virus system do you have installed? I noticed this
"flashing" occuring when I was using McAfee VirusScan with its default
Virus "shield" settings of all files. This caused the Desktop and
toolbars to always be scanned / refreshed (a PAIN!) However, this was
"years ago" and I have since stopped using any McAfee version.

On Apr 14, 12:03 pm, smlunatick <yves...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Apr 13, 6:23 pm, randy.sigler <randy.sig...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Did you every get a reply?
>
> > I am having the same problem.
>
> > randy.sigler(@)gmail(dot)com
>
> > --
> > randy.sigler
>
> What anti-virus system do you have installed? I noticed this
> "flashing" occuring when I was using McAfee VirusScan with its default
> Virus "shield" settings of all files. This caused the Desktop and
> toolbars to always be scanned / refreshed (a PAIN!) However, this was
> "years ago" and I have since stopped using any McAfee version.

I experience the same issue since yesterday - might have got it after
visiting a torrent site
I ran some antivirus and anti-spyware applications and it still does
not resolve the issue.
seems like the explorer.exe process shuts down and restarts all the
time which causes the desktop UI to disappear and reappear every few
seconds up to a few minutes
note: because the issue is in the explorer.exe , other applications
that are open do not blink

The best thing you can do is to devirus the computer first then you will
have a place to start

htpp://www.randem.com/virusproblems.html can help you in this effort


--
Randem Systems
Your Installation Specialist
The Top Inno Setup Script Generator
http://www.randem.com/innoscript.html
http://www.rndem.com/installerproblems.html
http://www.randem.com/vistainstalls.html
http://www.financialtrainingservices.org


"PsyGuy71" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Did any resolution come from all this? I am trying to troubleshoot for
> a friend whose laptop (XP-SP2) is doing the same thing as described
> here (I think).
>
> Boots fine. Upon the system coming up it's like it refreshes... the
> icons and taskbar disappears with just the desktop wallpaper showing.
> Again, apps run fine IF you can get to the icon and get it to launch
> BEFORE the screen resets. About every 10 sec it will do this refresh,
> which will take about 5 sec or so to complete. I notice the lower
> right icon system tray comes back on in a step-by-step fashion. Can't
> get a wireless signal since the refresh takes out the wifi manager in
> the system tray.
>
> There was no Antivirus software installed to begin with, so of course
> that was not causing it (likely something picked up because of the LACK
> of AV software).
>
> Windows Explorer won't stay open, nor will the Start menu if I was
> trying to access something, nor the Control Panel.
>
> The Task Manager Processes does show that the Explorer.exe does spike
> up during this - the number isn't always consistent and can vary from
> about 11 to 98. When the desktop is fine in that 10sec window it is
> 0-2.
>
> I did install McAfee and ran a scan without results, although without
> the internet connection it wasn't able to update so the DATs are more
> than a year out of date.
>
>
> --
> PsyGuy71