Frequent nonresponsive program errors

[MaryL]

I get very frequent "nonresponsive program" errors where the screen freezes
and I have to use alt/ctrl/del. This brings up the dialog box which shows
the program is nonresponsive (and a request to send a report).
(1) This *always* happens when I am using Internet Explorer or newsgroups;
it *never* happens with any other program. When I click on the link and
nothing happens, I know the problem has struck again -- I can't even use the
backspace to get out of that location. This now occurs *several times every
day.*
(2) It most often happens when I click on a link within newsgroups but
sometimes occurs when I click on a link in IE after searching for a source
(and receiving a page of links for that search).

This first occurred several months ago and has been a continuing -- and
growing -- problem ever since. I use a virus checker (originally Norton,
now AVG) and AdAware frequently -- AVG every day and AdAware two or three
times a week. Neither shows any problems.

Can anyone help? This is becoming so frustrating that I am considering a
reformat, but it would take *many hours* to reinstall all of my programs and
reset the configurations. I do have backups of all data (several, in fact).

I am using Win XP-Home Edition.

Thanks,
MaryL

 

[DanS]

I get very frequent "nonresponsive program" errors where the screen
freezes and I have to use alt/ctrl/del. This brings up the dialog box
which shows the program is nonresponsive (and a request to send a
report). (1) This *always* happens when I am using Internet Explorer
or newsgroups; it *never* happens with any other program. When I
click on the link and nothing happens, I know the problem has struck
again -- I can't even use the backspace to get out of that location.
This now occurs *several times every day.*
(2) It most often happens when I click on a link within newsgroups but
sometimes occurs when I click on a link in IE after searching for a
source (and receiving a page of links for that search).

This first occurred several months ago and has been a continuing --
and growing -- problem ever since. I use a virus checker (originally
Norton, now AVG) and AdAware frequently -- AVG every day and AdAware
two or three times a week. Neither shows any problems.

Can anyone help? This is becoming so frustrating that I am
considering a reformat, but it would take *many hours* to reinstall
all of my programs and reset the configurations. I do have backups of
all data (several, in fact).

I am using Win XP-Home Edition.

Thanks,
MaryL

Other than AdAware, have you used Spybot Search & Destroy, M$ Anti-
Spyware, and looked at a HiJackThis! scan ?

It's been my experience that cleaning spyware/adware takes more than one
tool. If someone brings a PC to me for cleaning, I run all of those
tools. Each package can miss something, but they all don't miss the same
thing's.

DanS

 

[DanS]

And I forgot to mention, try Firefox as a browser. I stopped using IE a
long time ago.

 

[MaryL]

Other than AdAware, have you used Spybot Search & Destroy, M$ Anti-
Spyware, and looked at a HiJackThis! scan ?

It's been my experience that cleaning spyware/adware takes more than one
tool. If someone brings a PC to me for cleaning, I run all of those
tools. Each package can miss something, but they all don't miss the same
thing's.

DanS

I have used SpyBot but not the others. I will try them.

Thanks,
MaryL

 

[MaryL]

And I forgot to mention, try Firefox as a browser. I stopped using IE a
long time ago.

I will look into Firefox but am not at all familiar with it. I have
remained with IE primarily because that is the only browser supported by the
university where I work, and I have tried to keep basically the same setup
at home as I have there.

MaryL

 

[V Green]

I have used SpyBot but not the others. I will try them.

Thanks,
MaryL

This may be a problem with your ISP.

IE/Outlook may be trying to resolve connections to
the Net, but failing in some way.

What does your Event Viewer logs have to say?

 

[MaryL]

This may be a problem with your ISP.

IE/Outlook may be trying to resolve connections to
the Net, but failing in some way.

What does your Event Viewer logs have to say?

I hate to admit it, but I have no idea how to use Event Viewer logs. I did
a brief search after I read your message and found numerous sites. All seem
to require a number of steps, and I don't think I could understand the
information after following those steps. For example, I went to Computer
Management (as instructd) and double-clicked an event. That opened with a
long list of Information, Warnings, and Errors -- but no information that
meant anything to me. It listed information such as "application hang"
(obvious!) and (101). Can you suggest a relatively simple way to decipher
and use all of this?

Thanks,
MaryL

 

[DanS]

I will look into Firefox but am not at all familiar with it. I have
remained with IE primarily because that is the only browser supported
by the university where I work, and I have tried to keep basically the
same setup at home as I have there.

MaryL

There is virtually no difference between using IE and Firefox, unless
allowing ActiveX objects a REQUIRED, which may be why the University only
supports IE. Allowing use of ActiveX objects on a web page is the only
thing that Firefox doesn't support. If this is the case, I would think
that the University has some type of administrative web pages that do
indeed contain ActiveX content.

Firefox supports Flash, Shockwave, Java (Sun Java) etc. I had found
though in my case, when Firefox senses a page needs one of the plugins
and offer you the 'Install Missing Plugins' button. This usually fails.
The way to get it to work is d/l the plugin directly from Macromedia, or
Sun, or wherever.

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Note: Firefox and IE and Netscape and Opera can all co-exist on the same
PC with no ill-effects, so it's worth a shot to at least try it out.

 

[V Green]

I hate to admit it, but I have no idea how to use Event Viewer logs. I did
a brief search after I read your message and found numerous sites. All seem
to require a number of steps, and I don't think I could understand the
information after following those steps. For example, I went to Computer
Management (as instructd) and double-clicked an event. That opened with a
long list of Information, Warnings, and Errors -- but no information that
meant anything to me. It listed information such as "application hang"
(obvious!) and (101). Can you suggest a relatively simple way to decipher
and use all of this?

Thanks,
MaryL

On the Application Hang stuff, could you repeat the text
of the error from the Event Properties here so we can have
a look at it? Specifically, the error code (like
0xC000005 - may be something else).

You can type the error msg. or parts of it into Google
and get (usually) lots of info...

 

[MaryL]

There is virtually no difference between using IE and Firefox, unless
allowing ActiveX objects a REQUIRED, which may be why the University only
supports IE. Allowing use of ActiveX objects on a web page is the only
thing that Firefox doesn't support. If this is the case, I would think
that the University has some type of administrative web pages that do
indeed contain ActiveX content.

Actually, I think the University has simply chosen the path that is
"easiest" for them to follow. Tech support would really prefer to have all
of us using *exactly* the same software (IE, Outlook, MS Word, Excel, etc.).
Fortunately, they do not actually "require" any of those except IE and
Outlook. Therefore, I continue to use WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Eudora,
etc. -- but always with the knowledge that there will be no help because
they are not supported.

Firefox supports Flash, Shockwave, Java (Sun Java) etc. I had found
though in my case, when Firefox senses a page needs one of the plugins
and offer you the 'Install Missing Plugins' button. This usually fails.
The way to get it to work is d/l the plugin directly from Macromedia, or
Sun, or wherever.

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Note: Firefox and IE and Netscape and Opera can all co-exist on the same
PC with no ill-effects, so it's worth a shot to at least try it out.

That's good news and makes it worth a try, as you said.

MaryL

 

[MaryL]

On the Application Hang stuff, could you repeat the text
of the error from the Event Properties here so we can have
a look at it? Specifically, the error code (like
0xC000005 - may be something else).

You can type the error msg. or parts of it into Google
and get (usually) lots of info...

I do not see any codes similar to what you mentioned. Am I looking in the
right location? I am looking under Event Viewer (Local)>Application. That
location lists columns including Type, Date, Time, Source, Category, Event,
User, and Computer. Under Source, I find information such as Application
Hang (when the Type shows Error) and Userenv (when the Type shows Warning).
The column for Category shows (101), Event always shows 1001 or 1002 for
Errors and 1517 for Warning, and User shows N/A when there is no problem,
System for Warnings, and N/A for Errors.

None of this makes any sense to me. Have I gone to the wrong location? I
do not get any additional information if I right-click and select
Properties.

Thanks,
MaryL

 

[V Green]

I do not see any codes similar to what you mentioned. Am I looking in the
right location? I am looking under Event Viewer (Local)>Application. That
location lists columns including Type, Date, Time, Source, Category, Event,
User, and Computer. Under Source, I find information such as Application
Hang (when the Type shows Error) and Userenv (when the Type shows Warning).
The column for Category shows (101), Event always shows 1001 or 1002 for
Errors and 1517 for Warning, and User shows N/A when there is no problem,
System for Warnings, and N/A for Errors.

None of this makes any sense to me. Have I gone to the wrong location? I
do not get any additional information if I right-click and select
Properties.

Thanks,
MaryL

Unfortunately, I cleared my Event Viewer logs
this morning when I visited them to reply to your post,
so I don't have any examples to play with right now.

But I got 11,300 hits on Google when I typed in:

"event viewer" + 1001

Maybe something there will make sense.