Startup items not starting

[news.microsoft.com]

System is XP Home SP3. About half the time I boot, after the system
settles down I notice that most of the systray icons I expect to see are
missing and, in fact, the startup items--Norton, etc.--are not running.
This doesn't happen on every boot, and I cannot figure out why. The
system is always properly shut down when not in use.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Gerry]

Jason

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the
System and Application logs in Event Viewer relating to the last boot in
normal mode . No Information Reports or Duplicates please. Indicate
which also appear in a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[news.microsoft.com]

Jason

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the
System and Application logs in Event Viewer relating to the last boot in
normal mode . No Information Reports or Duplicates please. Indicate
which also appear in a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry

There is nothing in the System (or Application) log that looks
suspicious. There are no Errors, just one Warning about a missing remote
printer profile.

I will try booting until all of what I expect to see in the systray is
present and see how many process are running. Then I will try booting
until I see the condition I reported and see if the number differs. I
did this casually a while back and didn't see a difference.

 

[news.microsoft.com]

There is nothing in the System (or Application) log that looks
suspicious. There are no Errors, just one Warning about a missing remote
printer profile.

I will try booting until all of what I expect to see in the systray is
present and see how many process are running. Then I will try booting
until I see the condition I reported and see if the number differs. I
did this casually a while back and didn't see a difference.

I did the experiment. No matter how the system ends up after boot--all
the items showing in the systray or just a handful--Task Manager lists
54 tasks. And tonight while I was away from the machine for dinner, and
it was in the not-enough-icons state, Norton popped up and ran a scan.
Its icon was one that was *not* showing.

 

[Ron Badour]

It sounds like things are being started but the icons are being blocked from
showing in the systray. Have you run complete scans with Norton AV and a
malware program such as Spybot that have been updated with current
definitions?

 

[jason]

It sounds like things are being started but the icons are being blocked from
showing in the systray. Have you run complete scans with Norton AV and a
malware program such as Spybot that have been updated with current
definitions?

I agree. I think things are running but not showing. And yes, I did all
the scans I could think of .. no problems. There are now *always* 52-53
tasks running after boot settles down regardless of what's showing in
systray. Norton, as I mentioned, seems to be hiding but running. That is
my main concern: are the av & firewall programs actually running. I
*think* they are, but am not sure... I wish the svchost entries would
identify the particular service they represent. (Vista does show this
for some of them - a step in the right direction.)

Jason

 

[news.microsoft.com]

snip

Have you run complete scans with Norton AV and a
malware program such as Spybot that have been updated with current
definitions?

Yes. Aside from a couple of *old* IE7 cookies (we use Firefox now), the
scans found nothing unusual.

I agree with you - the tasks are running, but something is preventing
the systray icons from being displayed.

 

[Ron Badour]

It sure sounded like a malware problem, however, it seems you have ruled
that out. I am wondering if something being started at boot is causing the
problem. On the msconfig startup tab, try disabling all the start up items
but one and rebooting. Does the icon appear? If so, enable one more start
up item and reboot. Keep doing this until everything is enabled or the
problem occurs. Another thing to think about--did you install any programs
just prior to when the problem started?

 

[jason]

Another thing to think about--did you install any programs
just prior to when the problem started?

I will try the msconfig experiment. Good suggestion.

No, no system changes at all except the usual MS updates.

Jason

 

[Gerry]

Have you checked the display options for your missing icons ?

Right click on Start and select Properties, Taskbar tab, Customise.
Before attempting to change to change an option uncheck the Lock Taskbar
option on the Taskbar tab and remember to relock the Taskbar after
completing any changes. It may be you have checked the Hide Inactive
Icons on the Taskbar tab without fully appreciating the consequences.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[news.microsoft.com]

Have you checked the display options for your missing icons ?

Right click on Start and select Properties, Taskbar tab, Customise.
Before attempting to change to change an option uncheck the Lock Taskbar
option on the Taskbar tab and remember to relock the Taskbar after
completing any changes. It may be you have checked the Hide Inactive
Icons on the Taskbar tab without fully appreciating the consequences.

That doesn't seem to be the problem. Hide Inactive is not checked. And
what started me down this path was the fact that the behavior seems
random. Sometimes after boot there only a few icons showing, on the next
boot the whole crowd is present...

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

You should consider launching a script from startup that does a 15 second
wait, then launches the problem Notification software.
--example.vbs--
set shell=createobject("wscript.shell")
wscript.sleep 15000
shell.run "c:\myfolder\myapp.exe"
shell.run "c:\myfolder2\myapp2.exe"
--end file--