Control Panel Unresponsive

[Guest]

Whenever I launch Control Panel it comes up fine, but when I attempt to
launch an application from an icon within it, Control Panel seems to hang
(hour glass). I am running XP Pro SP2. I can launch the same application
(for instance Security Center) from the Start Menu and it works fine. Any
suggestions?

Thanks,
Gordon Staley

 

[JerryM \(ID\)]

You do double click the control panel Icons don't you ?

 

[Guest]

Yes, I am double-clicking. When I do, it looks like nothing is happening,
but when I carefully single click on another icon the icon focus does not
change. If I move the cursor off of the control panel and then back on (no
clicking) the cursor turns into an hour glass. If I try to close the control
panel using F4 or the white X on red background, I get the dialog box that
tells me the program is not responding.

Gordon

 

[JerryM \(ID\)]

You might try using SFC /SCANNOW to see if it can repair the program.

Be sure to have the XP CD handy

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Control Panel stops responding in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;843551

 

[Guest]

I did as you suggested. The program ran for a while (the progress bar moved
from left to right), and then closed. Sadly the problem still persists. I'm
going to post a response to the other thread on this as well. One other
symptom that I was reminded of was that when I right click on the desktop to
change the display settings the same symptoms occur. The system in all other
ways appears to run fine (Outlook, Excel, IE, Word, Messenger, ...) even when
Control Panel or Right-click on the desktop seem to be hung.

Still puzzled,
Gordon

 

[Guest]

I looked this KB article over but it doesn't appear to apply to my situation.
I didn't see the application they told me to close in the task manager. I
checked for the latest update via the Windows Update web site, but was told I
was current.

While on the site I checked my update history and noticed that there was an
update that involved .Net. Given the KB article you listed, it did got me
thinking about doing a System Restore. I restored to a point just prior to
that update. This was after the XP SP2 update. Sadly, the problem still
persists.

In another thread to the origianl base note I mentioned another symptom that
I was reminded of in all this. When I right click on the desktop to change
the display settings the same symptoms occur. The system in all other ways
appears to run fine (Outlook, Excel, IE, Word, Messenger, ...) even when
Control Panel or Right-click on the desktop seem to be hung.

I'm giving consideration to doing a system restore back to a point before XP
SP2, but I don't have a great deal of confidence that will solve the problem.

Still puzzled,
Gordon

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Gordon,

What are you using for Display drivers? Are they the latest version?

Right-click is slow or weird behavior caused by context menu handlers
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

Right click causes an error and crashes Explorer.exe after installing
Windows XP SP2?
http://www.winxptutor.com/sp2/divxcrash.htm

 

[Guest]

Wes,

I requested a driver update through the device manager and one was loaded.
The control panel has improved but I can still force the problem. Now when I
reboot (just to get a known starting point) and launch control panel the
first time I double click on an icon (in this instance I chose add or remove
programs) it works just fine. Also right clicking on the desktop to change
display properties also worked fine.

Then if I close the first control panel app and try to open another one I
get the same symptoms described before. The control panel stops responding
and the control panel application I attempted to launch never comes up. At
this point if I right mouse on the desktop to adjust display settings it too
stops responding as do all items on the task bar, Start Menu included.

Still baffled,
Gordon