Windows stop opening - Resource leak or virus?

[MickLang]

Intermittently I'm experiencing problems where windows either stop
opening or won't display fully, pull down menus and context menu's
fail to display etc etc. It seems like the OS has run out of gui
resources.

This is not specific to any program, for example, alt-tab stops
functioning normally, the window displaying the icons does not appear
and selecting alt-tab simply switches from one program to the next
(without waiting for the keyup from the alt-tab).

After closing a window or program, things function normally again,
however, after a while (20min-hour) the problem occurs again.
Gradually I end up having to reboot as I am forced to close more and
more programs until I'm only able to have a few open and it becomes
unworkable.

I've experienced this problem on Windows XP SP2, Vista both on my
laptop and now on a desktop PC running Windows XP SP2 at work. I'm
worried that this may be a virus not being detected by either Windows
Defender or my work's virus detection solution.

Can anyone help me on this ?

Michael

 

[Gerry]

Mick

How much RAM memory?

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

What is your CPU processor speed?

Do you leave your computer on 24/7?

Open Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
is more informative.

--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[... et al.]

Intermittently I'm experiencing problems where windows either stop
opening or won't display fully, pull down menus and context menu's
fail to display etc etc. It seems like the OS has run out of gui
resources.

This is not specific to any program, for example, alt-tab stops
functioning normally, the window displaying the icons does not appear
and selecting alt-tab simply switches from one program to the next
(without waiting for the keyup from the alt-tab).

After closing a window or program, things function normally again,
however, after a while (20min-hour) the problem occurs again.
Gradually I end up having to reboot as I am forced to close more and
more programs until I'm only able to have a few open and it becomes
unworkable.

I've experienced this problem on Windows XP SP2, Vista both on my
laptop and now on a desktop PC running Windows XP SP2 at work. I'm
worried that this may be a virus not being detected by either Windows
Defender or my work's virus detection solution.

Can anyone help me on this ?

I'm seeing something similar after having worked for a long time
- having opened and closed a lot of windows, having saved files
in newly created subfolders in the 'Open ...' dialog-window, et
cetera.
In my case there is a qualifying requirement.
In my case i only see this when i've done most work under a
virtual drive-letter created from a folder with the 'Subst'
command to shorten the paths. So it seems like a leak of some
kind when using virtual mapped driveletters like that.
(I don't map networkdrives so don't know if that is effected.)

Are you perhaps doing something similar?

 

[MickLang]

I believe the problem may be xp is running out of windows out of
windows handles. I believe one or more applications I'm running are
leaking handles. I've run Process Explorer and determined that IE7
looks like its a big culprit chewing up between 10,000-20,000 handles
per instance. Closing (with the option of reopening all tabs) and
restarting IE, results in it having just over 1000 handles.

 

[Gerry]

Mick

How much RAM memory?

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

What is your CPU processor speed?

Do you leave your computer on 24/7?

Open Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
is more informative.

--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[... et al.]

I'm seeing something similar after having worked for a long time -
having opened and closed a lot of windows, having saved files in newly
created subfolders in the 'Open ...' dialog-window, et cetera.
In my case there is a qualifying requirement.
In my case i only see this when i've done most work under a virtual
drive-letter created from a folder with the 'Subst' command to shorten
the paths. So it seems like a leak of some kind when using virtual
mapped driveletters like that.

I've now had this graphic corruption happen one (1) time without
me having 'Subst' a folder to a driveletter since a previous cold
boot, so i was wrong. It really isn't a prerequisite for me. It
possibly makes it happen sooner/quicker, but it isn't an absolute
requirement.