G
Guest
Having a rather odd problem with a Windows XP Pro SP2 installation on a DELL
laptop. The problem suddenly occurs after a few days “on-timeâ€. No reboot.
First thing I noticed I couldn’t save a file in Adobe Acrobat Reader which was
running as a plug in Firefox.
After a few hours of investigations, I see the following:
Can’t save / print files in:
Notepad – says out of memory and to close other apps.
Wordpad - does nothing says nothing - no save / print
Eudora - comes up with a blank exclamation window - no save / print
Regedit - does nothing says nothing - no save / print
IE6 - does nothing says nothing - no save / print
Firefox - comes up with a blank exclamation window - no save / print
Acrobar Rdr - does nothing says nothing - no save / print
However I can save / print in:
Word
Excel
Printing does work when I submit a test page in the queue. But it doesn't
for the Acrobat Writer print queue.
When I can’t print, I don’t get the window where a printer can be selected.
Next to this the system works fine, no strange things happening.
The above reproduces each time – straight after boot.
My virus scanner is AVAST – latest updates – full scan. – No virussen.
I made a driveimage of this installation to capture the problem and save work.
So I tried the following things already:
#1) I did a restore to a point where things did work. Exactly the same
problems.
#2) I check my hardware extensively with diagnostic tools for system and disk.
The disk has been working overtime the past hours with checks. Zero faults.
The 512Mb memory has been tested with several memory testers.
I have downloaded DELL diagnostics tools and did all tests – no faults.
#3) I updates the system to the latest XP updates – problem remains.
#4) Deleted all files from Temp area’s – cleaned the disk – no results.
#5) I took a 2 months old driveimage and did a restore, problem gone. It
works all fine. I don’t want to enter the restore route yet cause it sets me
back a few weeks.
#6) looked into the event logs for system, application – nothing suspicious.
Normally there is some kind of logging when memory is short – now nada,
nothing.
#7) Went to safe mode boot – same problems….
#8) Opened a DOS box – tried to print – just hangs…exit only with ctrl-break
Any idea’s where to look for this problem? Have dealt with XP a lot – this one
seems hard to crack – surfed the net extensively for a fix already.
Thx
Arno
laptop. The problem suddenly occurs after a few days “on-timeâ€. No reboot.
First thing I noticed I couldn’t save a file in Adobe Acrobat Reader which was
running as a plug in Firefox.
After a few hours of investigations, I see the following:
Can’t save / print files in:
Notepad – says out of memory and to close other apps.
Wordpad - does nothing says nothing - no save / print
Eudora - comes up with a blank exclamation window - no save / print
Regedit - does nothing says nothing - no save / print
IE6 - does nothing says nothing - no save / print
Firefox - comes up with a blank exclamation window - no save / print
Acrobar Rdr - does nothing says nothing - no save / print
However I can save / print in:
Word
Excel
Printing does work when I submit a test page in the queue. But it doesn't
for the Acrobat Writer print queue.
When I can’t print, I don’t get the window where a printer can be selected.
Next to this the system works fine, no strange things happening.
The above reproduces each time – straight after boot.
My virus scanner is AVAST – latest updates – full scan. – No virussen.
I made a driveimage of this installation to capture the problem and save work.
So I tried the following things already:
#1) I did a restore to a point where things did work. Exactly the same
problems.
#2) I check my hardware extensively with diagnostic tools for system and disk.
The disk has been working overtime the past hours with checks. Zero faults.
The 512Mb memory has been tested with several memory testers.
I have downloaded DELL diagnostics tools and did all tests – no faults.
#3) I updates the system to the latest XP updates – problem remains.
#4) Deleted all files from Temp area’s – cleaned the disk – no results.
#5) I took a 2 months old driveimage and did a restore, problem gone. It
works all fine. I don’t want to enter the restore route yet cause it sets me
back a few weeks.
#6) looked into the event logs for system, application – nothing suspicious.
Normally there is some kind of logging when memory is short – now nada,
nothing.
#7) Went to safe mode boot – same problems….
#8) Opened a DOS box – tried to print – just hangs…exit only with ctrl-break
Any idea’s where to look for this problem? Have dealt with XP a lot – this one
seems hard to crack – surfed the net extensively for a fix already.
Thx
Arno