A Slightly Different Statup Issue Than What I've Read Here So Far

[Guest]

My start up issue is, in a sense, the opposite of most of the issues discussed so far. In my case, my startup time is fine and I don't need to get rid of anything in my startup

My issue is that items which I have in my startup sometimes DON'T startup. My startup includes, among other things

Norton AV 200
Wetsock
APC Powerchute Personal Editio
Fastfolder
Day Toda
Webshot
Yahoopop
Hotpoppe
Microsoft Fax Consol
Microsoft Shortcut Ba

On any given day, the programs that don't startup may vary

For example, Fastfolders which is supposed to place an icon in the system tray starts but the icon sometimes doesn't appear. Without the icon, it's useless so it means ending the program and restarting which it does just fine

Webshots starts about 50% of the time. Other times I have to go into the Startup group and start it manually
The Hotpopper tray icon may or may not appearbut the program runs. The icon isn't that important but I do have to take an extra step to verify that it was running

I have APC Powerchute donfigured to "Always Hide" which it does most times but it does reappear at least once per week - sometimes more.

I also don't really trust that NAV 2004 actually does a live update like it should so I manually run it from time to time just to ensure that I have the latest version and virus signatures

Any thoughts
Thx
Phi

 

[Malke]

My start up issue is, in a sense, the opposite of most of the issues
discussed so far. In my case, my startup time is fine and I don't need
to get rid of anything in my startup.

My issue is that items which I have in my startup sometimes DON'T
startup. My startup includes, among other things,

Norton AV 2004
Wetsock
APC Powerchute Personal Edition
Fastfolders
Day Today
Webshots
Yahoopops
Hotpopper
Microsoft Fax Console
Microsoft Shortcut Bar

On any given day, the programs that don't startup may vary.

For example, Fastfolders which is supposed to place an icon in the
system tray starts but the icon sometimes doesn't appear. Without the
icon, it's useless so it means ending the program and restarting which
it does just fine.

Webshots starts about 50% of the time. Other times I have to go into
the Startup group and start it manually. The Hotpopper tray icon may
or may not appearbut the program runs. The icon isn't that important
but I do have to take an extra step to verify that it was running.

I have APC Powerchute donfigured to "Always Hide" which it does most
times but it does reappear at least once per week - sometimes more.

I also don't really trust that NAV 2004 actually does a live update
like it should so I manually run it from time to time just to ensure
that I have the latest version and virus signatures.

Very interesting. Can you determine any commonality between the times
the programs don't start? In other words, is it always at the same
time, or is it random, is it when something is connected to the pc that
isn't always connected, like a pda for instance? If you really can't
find any one circumstance that is the same when you have the
application failures and the failures to start are really random, then
perhaps you have some bad hardware. It's hard to give you specific
hardware troubleshooting tips with such vague information, but here are
some generic steps:

1) open the computer and run it open, cleaning out all dust bunnies and
observing all fans (overheating will cause system freezing); 2) test
the RAM - I like Memtest86 from www.memtest86.com - let the test run
for an extended (like overnight) period of time - unless errors are
seen immediately; 3) test the hard drive with a diagnostic utility from
the mftr.; 4) the power supply may be going bad or be inadequate for
the devices you have in the system; 5) test the motherboard with
something like TuffTest from www.tufftest.com. Testing hardware
failures often involves swapping out suspected parts with known-good
parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are uncomfortable
opening your computer, take the machine to a good local computer repair
shop (not a CompUSA or Best Buy type of store).

I really don't think your computer is overheating - at least not from
the way you describe things. It might be the power supply or RAM,
though. What are your specs? You might just want to take the advice of
the last sentence and take the box to a local repair shop and have them
really test it out for you over an extended period of time. If you can
think of anything else that might help us get a handle on this - any
more details that would spark some ideas, please do repost. Also, if
you ever find out what caused this, I'd love it if you'd post back so
we can all learn.

Good luck,

Malke

 

[Guest]

Thx for the reply. I don't think mine is a hardware problem really. Once I've started up, my system is really rock solid. As for hardware, my system is constant. I rarely attach a pda or other device at startup time. It's always the same.

The only "non-std" device in my system is that I'm running a non-cerified driver for my USR Courier modem. I think it's a win98 driver. I use my Courier modem for faxing which is why I have fax console starting up at startup. Fax Console always starts properly though.

I don't know. It could be NAV's Live Update running at startup that grabs so much cpu that the other programs timeout.- it's very hard to tell, really. None of the other programs do anything that take any real time I think.

 

[Lem]

Thx for the reply. I don't think mine is a hardware problem really. Once I've started up, my system is really rock solid. As for hardware, my system is constant. I rarely attach a pda or other device at startup time. It's always the same.

The only "non-std" device in my system is that I'm running a non-cerified driver for my USR Courier modem. I think it's a win98 driver. I use my Courier modem for faxing which is why I have fax console starting up at startup. Fax Console always starts properly though.

I don't know. It could be NAV's Live Update running at startup that grabs so much cpu that the other programs timeout.- it's very hard to tell, really. None of the other programs do anything that take any real time I think.

Phil,
That's not a bad guess. A quick look on Google found http://www.greatis.com/regrun3startuporder.htm which says that it can be used to specify the order in which startup items start. I have no information other than what is on that site, but you might want to try it
out. Post back with results, positive or negative.

 

[Guest]

I may play with it Tuesday and see what happens. I also just realized that I had turned off some services a while back because I felt they weren't needed. I'll revisit those Tuesday as well. Maybe I was too aggressive. I downloaded regrun. it's shareware nd not cheap. There must be freeware that does the same thing. There's always Regedit, of course.

 

[Malke]

I may play with it Tuesday and see what happens. I also just realized
that I had turned off some services a while back because I felt they
weren't needed. I'll revisit those Tuesday as well. Maybe I was too
aggressive. I downloaded regrun. it's shareware nd not cheap. There
must be freeware that does the same thing. There's always Regedit, of
course.

Hi, again Phil. Well, I just don't know what it could be then. I know
lots of people have had trouble with NAV, but also lots of people have
*never* had any trouble with NAV. I'm one of the latter group; I've
used NAV products for years and years. The only reason I didn't go to
NAV 2004 is that I dislike and mistrust their activation (and certainly
not because I pirate!), and I find them too expensive for all my
computers. I've been using F-Prot which goes by a user license instead
of per seat for home use. That said, I suppose it could be NAV. If you
ever figure this out, please let us know.

Best of luck,

Malke

 

[Guest]

Updat

Haven't done anything yet. During this morning's startup, everything worked except Webshots

Go Figure!

 

[Guest]

The only thing I've done so far is install a new version of Fastfolders. That seems to have cleared up the fastfolders icon problem, at least for today

The only issue this morning is that my DaytoDay icon didn't appear in the tray like it should.