programs start or quit randomly

  • Thread starter Thread starter ambrosetaylor
  • Start date Start date
A

ambrosetaylor

I'm supporting a user who's computer recently started opening or
closing programs ate random. She'll be running WordPerfect, Outlook,
IE6, and then need an address stored in an Excel spreadsheet so she'll
go to the shortcut in the start menu for Excel, click it, and the
windows will change focus, WordPerfect will ask if she wants to save
changes to the files she is now closing (when she didn't choose to)
etc.
It'll randomly jump around choosing things for her. She sits back and
waits until it quits and then continues her work.
I have not been able to get her system to reproduce the error while I'm
there but would like some options to troubleshoot with. Dr Watson
detects no faults with opened programs. The devices show as okay in
Device Mgr though I haven't messed with reinstalling drivers yet as it
doesn't seem to be a driver issue (could be wrong though).

She runs XP Pro, classic desktop, 256mb RAM 30G disk with most of the
space free.
This problem has only recently started (within 2 weeks).

Any ideas?

Thanks
 
I'm supporting a user who's computer recently started opening or
closing programs ate random. She'll be running WordPerfect, Outlook,
IE6, and then need an address stored in an Excel spreadsheet so she'll
go to the shortcut in the start menu for Excel, click it, and the
windows will change focus, WordPerfect will ask if she wants to save
changes to the files she is now closing (when she didn't choose to)
etc.
It'll randomly jump around choosing things for her. She sits back and
waits until it quits and then continues her work.
I have not been able to get her system to reproduce the error while I'm
there but would like some options to troubleshoot with. Dr Watson
detects no faults with opened programs. The devices show as okay in
Device Mgr though I haven't messed with reinstalling drivers yet as it
doesn't seem to be a driver issue (could be wrong though).

She runs XP Pro, classic desktop, 256mb RAM 30G disk with most of the
space free.
This problem has only recently started (within 2 weeks).
Click to expand...

Malware? Try a different mouse.
 
I'm supporting a user whose computer recently started opening or
closing programs at random. She'll be running WordPerfect, Outlook,
IE6, and then need an address stored in an Excel spreadsheet so she'll
go to the shortcut in the start menu for Excel, click it, and the
windows will change focus, WordPerfect will ask if she wants to save
changes to the files she is now closing (when she didn't choose to)
etc.
It'll randomly jump around choosing things for her. She sits back and
waits until it quits and then continues her work.
I have not been able to get her system to reproduce the error while I'm
there but would like some options to troubleshoot with. Dr Watson
detects no faults with opened programs. The devices show as okay in
Device Mgr though I haven't messed with reinstalling drivers yet as it
doesn't seem to be a driver issue (could be wrong though).

She runs XP Pro, classic desktop, 256mb RAM 30G disk with most of the
space free.
This problem has only recently started (within 2 weeks).
Click to expand...

The optical mouse needs to sit on a porous, dull surface rather than a
glossy, smooth surface.

A wireless mouse may need new batteries, or there could be radio
interference from a nearby device. Usually the wireless mouse has an
option to depress a button, on the mouse to set a new frequency, then
the receiver to search for the new frequency. That could help..

Malware could be the cause, as previously stated.
 
I believe it is a wheel mouse, not optical. I suspected some type of
Malware but have not scanned for anything yet.

Interestingly, Microsoft Knowledge Base posted and article about
programs starting or quitting unexpectedly being related to the
Advanced Language option being on.

Wierd...I am still working on it but thanks for the ideas!
 
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