New windows / menus won't open (out of resources)

[Guest]

I am running into a problem where, with only a few applications open, I run
out of some kind of Windows resource and can no longer open new windows.
This includes the ability to click on menu items and have them drop down. It
also includes the ability to click "Start" and have those menus appear. It
also includes the ability to do Ctrl-Alt-Delete and have task manager appear
(instead it just beeps).

I am running Windows XP with SP2. My computer has 512MB of RAM and 1000MB
of paging file space.

I have tried to examine and remove unnecessary programs being run at startup.

Any suggestions as to what to look for?

David Schreiber

 

[Malke]

I am running into a problem where, with only a few applications open,
I run out of some kind of Windows resource and can no longer open new
windows.
This includes the ability to click on menu items and have them drop
down. It
also includes the ability to click "Start" and have those menus
appear. It also includes the ability to do Ctrl-Alt-Delete and have
task manager appear (instead it just beeps).

I am running Windows XP with SP2. My computer has 512MB of RAM and
1000MB of paging file space.

I have tried to examine and remove unnecessary programs being run at
startup.

What does a scan with a current antivirus program (meaning a version not
earlier than 2003 using updated virus definitions) show?

Also, remove spyware with Spybot Search & Destroy from
www.safer-networking.org and Ad-aware from www.lavasoftusa.com. Be sure
to update these programs before running them. These programs are free,
so run them both since they complement each other. It is best to run
antivirus and spyware removal tools in Safe Mode. You may also want to
run CWShredder and HijackThis from http://aumha.org/freeware.htm.
Although CWShredder is no longer being updated, it will still clean
older variants of the CoolWebSearch malware. A combination of
HijackThis and About:Buster (http://www.majorgeeks.com) works well in
removing homepage hijackers. Please read the instructions carefully.
Make sure you are able to see all hidden files and extensions (View tab
in Folder Options). Also, make sure you've visited Windows Update and
applied all security patches. Do not install driver updates from
Windows Update. Make sure you are running a firewall.

Malke

 

[Eric Hymander]

Adjust your desktop heap size:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems.

The "Windows" value has a long string, including
"SharedSection=xxxx,yyyy,zzzz". The second number (yyyy) is the one that
you want to increase. It is probably at 3MB (3072) which allegedly supports
15,000 elements (windows, menus, etc.). While arbitrarily high values are
not recommended, other users found 8MB fixed the problem (8192).

While this may work, I cannot explain why your current value does not. I
have XP SP1 with 256MB and have never encountered this with a 3072 heap
size. Oh well. Hope it works.

 

[Guest]

Eric,

I ran a quick test and this appears to have fixed me problem.

Thanks! I really appreciate your help.

David Schreiber