Can't close programs in XP!

  • Thread starter Chris Shearer Cooper
  • Start date
C

Chris Shearer Cooper

My XP Pro has started acting very strange ... it will work properly for
quite a while (hours or days) and then will ...
1) Not let me close programs. I can click on the "X" or (in the case of a
DOS command window) type exit, and the window remains.
2) Ignore Ctrl+Alt+Del
3) Ignore right-clicking on task manager in the task bar
4) Not show program names in the Alt-Tab program list (only icons)

At the suggestion of people on this forum, I tried freeing up space on my C:
Drive and defragging, both of which I did and it doesn't seem to help.

What else can I try?

Thanks,
Chris
 
M

Malke

Chris said:
My XP Pro has started acting very strange ... it will work properly for
quite a while (hours or days) and then will ...
1) Not let me close programs. I can click on the "X" or (in the case of a
DOS command window) type exit, and the window remains.
2) Ignore Ctrl+Alt+Del
3) Ignore right-clicking on task manager in the task bar
4) Not show program names in the Alt-Tab program list (only icons)

At the suggestion of people on this forum, I tried freeing up space on my C:
Drive and defragging, both of which I did and it doesn't seem to help.
Click to expand...

The First Question Of Troubleshooting: what changed between the time
things worked and the time they didn't?

The Second Question of Windows Troubleshooting: what is the
malware/virus status of the machine? If you think it is clean, what
programs (and versions) did you use to determine this?

Be sure the computer is clean:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

If everything looks good after answering the First Two Questions, check
your hard drive's health with a diagnostic utility downloaded from the
drive mftr. You will make a bootable cd/floppy from this file. Boot with
it and do a thorough test of the hard drive. If it fails any physical
tests, back up your data and replace the drive.


Malke
 
S

Stan Brown

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 12:21:57 -0600 from Chris Shearer Cooper
My XP Pro has started acting very strange ... it will work properly for
quite a while (hours or days) and then will ...
1) Not let me close programs. I can click on the "X" or (in the case of a
DOS command window) type exit, and the window remains.
2) Ignore Ctrl+Alt+Del
3) Ignore right-clicking on task manager in the task bar
4) Not show program names in the Alt-Tab program list (only icons)

At the suggestion of people on this forum, I tried freeing up space on my C:
Drive and defragging, both of which I did and it doesn't seem to help.

What else can I try?
Click to expand...
Install a good virus scanner and run a full scan.

Or else do a Windows repair install. Something is seriously hosed.
 
C

Chris Shearer Cooper

You are of course right with the First and Second Questions.

1) Not sure. Since it doesn't happen regularly, I can't pinpoint exactly
when it happened, so I can't correlate with any major changes with the
computer. I installed a new mobo a couple months ago, but the puter worked
fine for 4-6 weeks, so I don't think that's it. No major software installs
around the time when I started seeing this problem.
2) SpySweeper with AntiVirus is run regularly.

I do have a hard drive that from time to time gives me warnings ... I've
physically removed it to see if that helps. If a dying hard drive is
capable of producing the symptoms I've seen, that seems very likely the
culprit.

Thanks!
Chris
 
D

db

reboot into safemode,
then check if the symptoms
alleviate or perpetuate...
My XP Pro has started acting very strange ... it will work properly for
quite a while (hours or days) and then will ...
1) Not let me close programs. I can click on the "X" or (in the case of a
DOS command window) type exit, and the window remains.
2) Ignore Ctrl+Alt+Del
3) Ignore right-clicking on task manager in the task bar
4) Not show program names in the Alt-Tab program list (only icons)

At the suggestion of people on this forum, I tried freeing up space on my C:
Drive and defragging, both of which I did and it doesn't seem to help.

What else can I try?

Thanks,
Chris
 
C

Chris Shearer Cooper

What do I lose by doing a Windows repair install? For example, do I have to
re-install all my software?

Thanks,
Chris
 
C

Chris Shearer Cooper

Nope, took out the offending hard drive, and the problem still happened. I
will next try diagnostic utilities for the remaining hard drives.
 
M

Malke

Chris said:
What do I lose by doing a Windows repair install? For example, do I have to
re-install all my software?
Click to expand...

You don't lose anything but Windows Updates when you do a Repair
Install, but I'd always have all data backed up first.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Remember to answer the First and Second questions before you do the
Repair Install. Since I can't see your computer, I can't rule out
hardware issues either. Here are some general hardware troubleshooting
steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot


Malke
 
C

Chris Shearer Cooper

Total paging file size = 2046M

I have 2G of RAM, and looking at task manager, I never use it all ... so I
could disable virtual memory, but I don't see how that could be causing the
specific problem I'm having. If my virtual memory were somehow hosed,
wouldn't that cause more problems?

Thanks,
Chris
 
C

Chris Shearer Cooper

That's the problem ... when the problem occurs, I can't close any programs.
I can sometimes switch between programs (sometimes) but however I tell the
program to close (Alt-F4, File:Exit, close button in top right) the program
just sits there and stares at me. Never goes away.
 

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