Too many instances open at once

[Rose]

I have a gentleman here who I will say is a little impatient. Every couple
weeks he calls us and says that he can't get his Internet Explorer to work
and could we fix it. Well, I'll get over there and sure enough, if I click
on the icon nothing happens. I check the task manager and there is usually
6-10 instances of Internet Explorer running in processes but not in
applications. So I start ending those processes and when it's down to maybe
2 instances running, it will then open up the browser. I've seen him use
his computer. If something doesn't start right away when he (double, triple
or quadruple) clicks, he then starts clicking on it again. I've seen
impatient people before (I used to be one) but have not seen this problem
before. Is it just him or could there be some underlying problem that might
be causing this to happen. He has Windows XP with IE 6. I am open to
suggestions as this has happened twice this week already.

TIA,
Rose

 

[Ted Zieglar]

No amount of help you can provide your customer will save him from himself.

When the Internet Explorer icon is double-clicked, the program opens within
a second or so, depending on how many other programs are open, how much RAM,
how fast the connection, etc. Viruses and other malware will make any
computer run slower.

Are you sure you cross-posted to enough newsgroups?

 

[Rose]

I kinda figured it was just him. Thanks.

Oh, I could have cross-posted to more if I had tried.

Rose

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I have a gentleman here who I will say is a little impatient. Every couple
weeks he calls us and says that he can't get his Internet Explorer to work
and could we fix it. Well, I'll get over there and sure enough, if I click
on the icon nothing happens. I check the task manager and there is usually
6-10 instances of Internet Explorer running in processes but not in
applications. So I start ending those processes and when it's down to maybe
2 instances running, it will then open up the browser. I've seen him use
his computer. If something doesn't start right away when he (double, triple
or quadruple) clicks, he then starts clicking on it again. I've seen
impatient people before (I used to be one) but have not seen this problem
before. Is it just him or could there be some underlying problem that might
be causing this to happen.

Check for other unnecessary processes?
I have seen this symptom caused by the Java utility jusched.exe
Disable it from Startup using msconfig.

He has Windows XP with IE 6. I am open to
suggestions as this has happened twice this week already.

TIA,
Rose

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[StressMonkey]

Thanks for the suggestion. The only other things I found that were
unnecessary and finally just stopped were Compuserve and AIM. He hasn't
called in 2 days so that's a good sign. I think he just doesn't want to
wait.

 

[Frank Saunders, MS MVP-OE]

I kinda figured it was just him. Thanks.

Oh, I could have cross-posted to more if I had tried.

He might be infested with malware.
What You Should Know About Spyware
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/devioussoftware.mspx

So How Did I Get Infected Anyway?
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=27971

Help with Hijackware
All MS - MVP Sites.
(http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm)
(http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm)
(http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm)
(http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/darnit.html)
(http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm)

Unexplained computer behavior may be caused by deceptive software.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827315