Unable to kill Process in Windows XP

[Guest]

This morning I tried to install an add-in for Excel, and it hung before
displaying the add-in manager. I could not shut the program down normally,
so I tried to end the process. This did not work in Task manager, nor did
TASKKILL /F end it. I then went on to the web for a few good utilities, and
downloaded some from SysInternals. Unfortunately, they were unable to kill
the process. This was not limited to Excel, shutting down worked and it
later affected Ad-Aware and WinZip. I downloaded and installed the Debugger,
and repeated the Excel hang. I then tried to attach the debugger to the
process and was unable to do so.

One curious thing, using Process Explorer to view the hung process shows
that it's parent process is Non-Existent. I don't know if that is normal,
but it's about all I can find that doesn't look like it would be ordinary
(I'm no expert, but I like to try and fend for myself before asking for help).

Can anyone point me in a direction here? I don't want to reinstall
everything and hope it works right, it seems to me that something is corrupt
and needs repairing, not reinstalling. Is there a tool that's designed for
this type of thing? What can I do, and what should I do next?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Smike]

that it's parent process is Non-Existent. I don't know if that is normal,

1. it may be normal
for example, open consol window CMD.EXe
then you type notepad in command line of consol window

cmd.exe would be parent process of notepad.exe precess
if you close consol window (CMD.EXe), parent process of notepad.exe
will be "Non-Existent"

2. how did you try to kill your process in "Task manager",
sometime "End Task" is not working for hung process, use "Terminate
process"

regards
http://ircd.org

 

[Rock]

Smike wrote:

Response inline

1. it may be normal
for example, open consol window CMD.EXe
then you type notepad in command line of consol window

cmd.exe would be parent process of notepad.exe precess
if you close consol window (CMD.EXe), parent process of notepad.exe
will be "Non-Existent"

Doesn't happen that way on my system. Closing cmd.exe causes notepad
..exe to be displayed under explorer.exe in process explorer - no
indication of a "Non Existent" parent process.

2. how did you try to kill your process in "Task manager",
sometime "End Task" is not working for hung process, use "Terminate
process"

regards
http://ircd.org

<snip>

 

[Guest]

I used the End Process option in Task Manager after End Task did not work.
When the End Process option did not work, I used Taskkill /F from the command
line. When that didn't work I tried using tools that I got from the
internet, mainly ones listed on sysinternals.com.