Task bar freezes when screen saver is activated

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jonathan Sachs
  • Start date Start date
J

Jonathan Sachs

This is with Windows XP SP1.

The problem used to be rare. It is still intermittent, but for the
last couple of weeks it has been happening several times a day.

When the problem appears, only some parts of the taskbar are displayed
when I unlock the screensaver. The rest of the area where the taskbar
should be shows wallpaper. The visible part of the taskbar may or may
not include buttons. If it does, they do nothing when clicked, and do
not change color when the mouse is passed over them.

The only solution I have found for this problem is to reboot. When I
shut down the system, it displays a "This program is not
responding..." message box. When I try to click the "End now" button,
though, the message box disappears. Then I must initiate the reboot
process again, and keep doing it until I get lucky and catch "End now"
before the box disappears.

The title bar of the box says:

End Program - TRd ww: C:\ Program Files\Java\jre...

The message box is too narrow to display the entire pathname, and
cannot be resized. I have looked in the Java directory, and it
contains JRE directories for two versions of Java; I have no way of
knowing which one is being used or what file is involved.

I have a current copy of Norton Antivirus which pronounces my system
clean. Suspecting malware, I ran Ad Aware, which found one nasty and
removed it. After I rebooted Ad Aware confirmed that the item was
gone, but the taskbar problem did not go away.

Is there any way to diagnose this? Restarting my system several times
a day is turning into a major nuisance.
 
This is with Windows XP SP1.
Click to expand...
Is there any way to diagnose this? Restarting my system several times
a day is turning into a major nuisance.
Click to expand...

Not offering any fix, but logging of/on should bring everything backw/o a
reboot. Or, in the processes, kill explorer.exe, then restart it if doesn't
restart on it's own.

Also, look in the processes for that java program running also and kill
that to see if the problem still occurs.

What screensaver ? An intrinsic XP one or third-party ?
 
Not offering any fix, but logging of/on should bring everything backw/o a
reboot.
Click to expand...

I have tried that. It didn't work. (It's not really a solution anyway,
because it disrupts my work just as much as a reboot and takes almost
as long.)
Or, in the processes, kill explorer.exe, then restart it if doesn't
restart on it's own.
Click to expand...

I will try that the next time the problem occurs.

For some reason it's not occurring now. I have no idea why; absolutely
nothing has changed since I did the malware cleanup, and that did not
help.
Also, look in the processes for that java program running also and kill
that to see if the problem still occurs.
Click to expand...

I would certainly do othat, if I knew what program it is. How can I
tell? The only clue I have is the message box, which truncates the
pathname.
What screensaver ? An intrinsic XP one or third-party ?
Click to expand...

Windows XP built-in.
 
I have tried that. It didn't work. (It's not really a solution anyway,
because it disrupts my work just as much as a reboot and takes almost
as long.)
Click to expand...

That shouldn't take nearly as long as booting up from a reset. Unless of
course you have a TON of stuff running at startup, like AOL, MusicMatch
Jukebox, QuickTime, Dell Diagnostics (or whatevero OEM if so), etc.....
I will try that the next time the problem occurs.
Click to expand...

Explorer.exe is the Windows shell, and is what provides the taskbar,
Start Menu, system tray, desktop etc....

If explorer does not automatically restart, doing a ctrl-alt-del -> task
manager -> applications tab, new task button, then just type explorer in
that box. it is essentially the 'Run' box.
For some reason it's not occurring now. I have no idea why; absolutely
nothing has changed since I did the malware cleanup, and that did not
help.


I would certainly do othat, if I knew what program it is. How can I
tell? The only clue I have is the message box, which truncates the
pathname.
Click to expand...

Well, the process name will most likely be java.exe. You can d/l Process
Explorer (formerly from Sysinternals, now purchased by MS) which is like
task manager on steroids. You can identify services running inside
svchost processes, and a lot more.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Process
Explorer.mspx

Windows XP built-in.
Click to expand...

Regards,

DanS
 
That shouldn't take nearly as long as booting up from a reset....
Click to expand...

I did not explain myself completely. The time needed to restart all of
the applications I typically run, reload the files, and restore their
working contexts (mostly by hand) dwarfs log-in time or reboot time.

As it happens, the problem recurred as I was reading your message. I
tried that solution. It worked, but with an odd side effect. I always
keep a certain folder open in one corner of my desktop, and partially
behind it, an ICQ window. When I reopened the folder it went behind
the ICQ window, as if ICQ had suddenly become Always On Top. (I did
not make it so, and when I looked at its Preferences box I didn't find
any option that could be used to make it so.)

This is distinctly better than having to reboot, but...

Any idea what could be happening?
Well, the process name will most likely be java.exe.
Click to expand...

Nope. There is no java.exe running when this happens.
You can d/l Process
Explorer (formerly from Sysinternals, now purchased by MS) which is like
task manager on steroids. You can identify services running inside
svchost processes, and a lot more.
Click to expand...

Before I go after that, could you please clarify how it will help me?
Can I point at the message box and find out what process owns it? That
seems to be the only type of help that would be useful here.
 
...

This is distinctly better than having to reboot...
Click to expand...

After I posted that I discovered another bizarre side effect: one of
my startup tasks (one that I need regularly) disappeared from the
system tray, although the task is still running. If that happens
consistently, I can't use this solution after all. Oh well, it was a
good try. Thank you for the suggestion.
 
After I posted that I discovered another bizarre side effect: one of
my startup tasks (one that I need regularly) disappeared from the
system tray, although the task is still running. If that happens
consistently, I can't use this solution after all. Oh well, it was a
good try. Thank you for the suggestion.
Click to expand...

Well yes, that is a side effect. That application is not coded fully to
support the system tray icon function. It is still running but the icon is
not put back in the tray. Probably 1/2 of ALL applications that put an icon
in the tray will not put it back when Explorer is killed and restarted.
 
Well yes, that is a side effect. That application is not coded fully to
support the system tray icon function. It is still running but the icon is
not put back in the tray. Probably 1/2 of ALL applications that put an icon
in the tray will not put it back when Explorer is killed and restarted.
Click to expand...

I'll report it to the publisher, but if their response is consistent
with their responses to far more serious defects that I and others
have reported in the past, nothing will happen.
 
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