Scheduling Problem on Windows 2000 SP4

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alan Parr
  • Start date Start date
A

Alan Parr

Hi Guys,

I have applied service pack 4 to my PC and I find that scheduled
applications are now running in background and I have no user interface.
Problems are with Norton Antivirus, One Button Checkup. However, I have also
tried a quick test with the calculator, just to see if was just Norton
products but the calculator does the same as well.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Al
 
Scheduled applications always run in the background when you
schedule them under an account other than your foreground
account.
 
Thanks Pegasus,

However, I have set the jobs up using the administrator account and I am
logged as administator when trying to get them to run and they still run in
background.

The jobs scheduled ok prior to service pack 4 load.

Kind regards,
Alan
 
Set up a test job like so:
- Create a batch file c:\test.bat with the following lines
inside:
@echo off
echo This is a test job. It runs under %UserName%.
echo %date% %time% Account=%UserName% >> c:\test.log
%SystemRoot%\system32\ping localhost -n 10

- Launch the Task Scheduler via the Control Panel.
- Create a new task. It must invoke c:\test.bat.
- Specify "administrator" as the account to be used.
- Specify that the job should run 5 minutes from now.
- Wait 5 minutes.

Did you see the job run? Is there an entry in c:\test.log?
What does it say? Run c:\test.bat directly from the
Command Prompt, and examine c:\test.log again.
Are the lines the same (other than for the time)?
 
Hi Pegasus,

I followed your instructions and the results were as follows:-

I ended up with 2 lines in test.log which were exactly the same apart from
the time.

Sat 01/11/2003 20:52:00.88 Account=Administrator
Sat 01/11/2003 20:52:15.34 Account=Administrator

However I did not see the job run.

I have another PC with the same W2K setup and SP4 - essentially they are
pretty much the same. I performed exactly the same exercise and I ended up
with the above two lines(time was different) but this time the scheduled job
displayed on the desktop, when it executed.

I hope this helps and please let me know if you want me to check anything
else.

Kind regards,
Alan
 
The tests you ran prove conclusively that there is something
wrong with the Task Scheduler on one of your machines.
The only thing I can suggest at this stage is to re-install
Internet Explorer 6. The Task Scheduler is bundled with it.
You may have to do it twice - the first time round it may
decide that IE6 is already installed, and terminate without
really doing anything.
 
Hi Pegasus,

Re IE6 - that's very interesting because as well as the 2 desktop PC's
already mentioned, I have a notebook, once again W2K and service pack 4, so
essentially the same. One desktop and the notebook have IE6 supplied by the
ISP and they are slightly customised according to the help - about page. The
task scheduler is working OK on these PC's. The other has IE6 - native for
want of a better word and this is the one that does not work. I don't know
if this gives any pointers to the problem but since you mentioned Internet
Explorer, I thought it worth mentioning.

Thanks for your help with this by the way, it is really much appreciated.

Kind regards,
Alan
 
Hi Pegasus,

Have reinstalled IE6 twice - yes it did not do anything the 1st time.

However, still no good, still no user interface.

Any further suggestion you make would be appreciated.

Alan
 
The last time I came across a problem like this, I armed myself with
a lot of patience and reported it by telephone to Microsoft. They
took it on board and asked for my credit card number for the
standard charge of around A$50.00 that they would levy in case
the problem was due to something I had done myself.

Several weeks later they agreed it was a bug. They gave me a
work-around and charged me nothing.

If it was my machine then I would use my standard approach:
- Rebuild the machine from scratch
- Keep Win2000 & all apps on drive C:.
- Keep all data on drive D:.
- Let the dust settle.
- When everything is just the way I like it, take an image of
drive C:, using DriveImage or Ghost.
- Update the image every 6 months.
- Keep the two most recent image files.
- When the system goes sour, restore the most recent
image.

I restore my Win2000 image about twice each year, due to
some weird and wonderful problem that I find extremely difficult
to resolve. Yours would be one of them.

Over the years I have come to realise that there is a big
difference between your own house and your Windows installation.
If you look well after your house, it just keeps getting better.
Windows, on the other hand, becomes battle-scarred after
a while, perhaps because so many different parties use and
abuse it (with "parties" I mean the suppliers of software and
tools). After a while it gets beyond salvation and must be
replaced.
 
Thanks Pegasus,

I'll take that onboard.

Alan


Pegasus (MVP) said:
The last time I came across a problem like this, I armed myself with
a lot of patience and reported it by telephone to Microsoft. They
took it on board and asked for my credit card number for the
standard charge of around A$50.00 that they would levy in case
the problem was due to something I had done myself.

Several weeks later they agreed it was a bug. They gave me a
work-around and charged me nothing.

If it was my machine then I would use my standard approach:
- Rebuild the machine from scratch
- Keep Win2000 & all apps on drive C:.
- Keep all data on drive D:.
- Let the dust settle.
- When everything is just the way I like it, take an image of
drive C:, using DriveImage or Ghost.
- Update the image every 6 months.
- Keep the two most recent image files.
- When the system goes sour, restore the most recent
image.

I restore my Win2000 image about twice each year, due to
some weird and wonderful problem that I find extremely difficult
to resolve. Yours would be one of them.

Over the years I have come to realise that there is a big
difference between your own house and your Windows installation.
If you look well after your house, it just keeps getting better.
Windows, on the other hand, becomes battle-scarred after
a while, perhaps because so many different parties use and
abuse it (with "parties" I mean the suppliers of software and
tools). After a while it gets beyond salvation and must be
replaced.
Click to expand...
 
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