Really weird IE/Windows bug

[cuba.addict]

Here is what happens:
Whenever I open a certain number of IE windows, windows start
re-painting and flickering around the screen in a really abnormal
manner. It is not easy to explain it in words, so I have made 2 low-res
videos, one short (1.7Mb) and one longer (10.3Mb):
http://outdated.info/iebug/short.avi
http://outdated.info/iebug/full.avi

The number of IE windows required falls significantly over time. When
Windows has just launched, the bug does not occur, however, now with
140 days of uptime it is enough for me to open 7 IE windows in order to
cause this condition.

They don't have to be specifically IE windows - it can be anytning that
uses the IE control - Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft Money; maybe
it was even WinAMP once. And they don't have to be separate processes
either - just increasing the window count under one IE process
contributes to the bug as well.

I have experienced this lots of times on my home machine with two
different Windows 2000 installations and twice on my office machine
with a Windows XP installation. Both machines run with very high
uptimes for a Windows workstation - usually reaching 6 months or so.

I have checked for viruses and spyware lots of times, found nothing. I
have also tried disabling all IE addons, this also yields no result.

Of course, this bug is not fatal - I just have to restart my
workstation every 4-6 months and it's all fine again, but I really
wonder what the cause of such outrageously paranormal behaviour might
be.

It is very easy for me to trigger the bug now, so if You have any
supposed cures for this, it's easy to check if it works or not.

If anyone has any ideas what to do with all that - please let me know


Best regards,
Andrejs Krasilnikovs.

 

[GateKeeper]

First thing that pops into my mind is: how do you keep the computer
running for 140 days without restarting? Many Microsoft Updates (and
other software installations) require you to restart the computer. I
find it hard to believe you don't have a single required restart in more
than 4 months! And if you haven't installed any updates in 140 days,
then you probably should do some updating.

Given that, I can only add that such weird behavior is usually
associated with display drivers. But if you really don't restart your
computer for *months*, who knows?

 

[Rez]

Here is what happens:
Whenever I open a certain number of IE windows, windows start
re-painting and flickering around the screen in a really abnormal
manner. It is not easy to explain it in words, so I have made 2 low-res
videos, one short (1.7Mb) and one longer (10.3Mb):
http://outdated.info/iebug/short.avi

Very weird. I've seen the "paint multiple windows" issue occasionally,
when resources get confused, but this ain't it.

I have experienced this lots of times on my home machine with two
different Windows 2000 installations and twice on my office machine
with a Windows XP installation. Both machines run with very high
uptimes for a Windows workstation - usually reaching 6 months or so.

My XPPro box has had uptime as high as 11.5 months, and doesn't do any
such thing, it doesn't do much IE-per-se stuff but it's used all the
time for WMP8 and WinAmp. Um... could it be that your affected machines
all have the same video driver? Mine are Matrox, a very stable driver.

~REZ~

 

[cuba.addict]

Updates just pile up and then I install them altogether

I did not come up with this problem just now - I think I'm encountering
it from time to time for some 3-4 years now. So I really doubt that
Microsoft would suddenly fix it in one of their updates of the last 5
months, although of course there is a tiny chance. But then, if I
install them and restart, I don't know if the bug is fixed for another
3-4 months

Display drivers are a valid option, updated them a couple of times back
when I first saw this horror happen, but that did not change anything.

Also: sometimes the new window that has just opened (and caused this
mayhem to happen) has corrupted fonts afterwards - loading something
like FixedSys or SansSerif instead of all the fonts it should use

 

[cuba.addict]

My XPPro box has had uptime as high as 11.5 months, and doesn't do any

such thing, it doesn't do much IE-per-se stuff but it's used all the
time for WMP8 and WinAmp. Um... could it be that your affected machines
all have the same video driver? Mine are Matrox, a very stable driver.

The home machine, that I experience it regularly with, has an ATI
Radeon 9600XP card with ATI drivers from somewhere around 2004. The
office machine has a GeForce 2MX currently, but it is possible that
back when I experienced the bug with it, it had a different card -
perhaps, ATI as well? But the office machine is used through Remote
Desktop anyways, so I suppose the video card display driver is not used
for that.