XP Pro - After an idle period - Everything Says "Failed to initialize properly"

[jeff.buddington]

Hello-

Was hoping someone could provide thoughts or ideas:

WinXP Pro
1GB RAM
System has been running with good performance for years.

I have a system that when you reboot you can use for hours straight
with NO problems. As soon as you leave it idle for a relatively short
period of anywhere from 10 minutes or thereabout, the hard drive
indicator starts to show constant activity. After moving the mouse and
starting to work with the system again, no matter WHAT application is
being used it says "failed to initialize properly" even if it's a ping
in a command prompt. If I close some applications or tray icons and
get some RAM back then some applications work again temporarily.

I thought it might be too much RAM being used and loaded Security Task
Manager (from Neuber I believe) and nothing out of the ordinary (to my
eye anyway) I see Explorer, and other applications that I know about...
totalling roughly 360MB RAM used or less.. I also see several
svchost.exe and one lsass.exe. These are all under windows system32
and indicate no threat. I have checked the majority of processes
against known descriptions found on Google, etc. and verified no
spyware/viruses that I can tell of. I have Spybot S&D 1.4 which
indicates a few cookies but no spyware or applications. Bullguard v6.1
indicates no viruses. It takes about 96MB of RAM and Explorer 64MB RAM
etc. etc.

If I reboot my machine it works perfectly most of the time as long as I
don't leave it idle. Hard drive light is mostly off and not very
active while typing this, sending emails, web browsing, using the
computer etc.

I checked my screen saver thinking it might be some bogus screen saver
and it was just the plain Windows XP Pro Logo screen saver - very
minimal. So I decided just as I am typing this to disable the screen
saver and "monitor sleep" all together. Spybot prompted me to change a
registry entry when I disabled it but was so quick I couldn't read
exactly what it said. Something like screens.exe was making a registry
change. I accepted it because it only said this when I disabled the
screen saver.

If this rings a bell with someone or it sounds like a virus that you
had a problem with before, can you email me the specific name of the
virus/spyware so that I can follow up with Bullguard to see if it's in
their definition files yet? I have been very pleased (in my personal
opinion) about the level of protection and few problems I have had over
the years with this specific computer by the protection that the
combination of Spybot S&D WITH TEA-TIMER ENABLED and BullGuard have
provided with quick operation and low overhead, with reasonable cost.

This has only started happening recently after some Windows Updates
loaded, Including Genuine Advantage. I also loaded Internet Explorer 7
Beta 2 a while back and had no problems with my computer until the
latest windows updates. I also have iTunes 6.0.1.3 loaded and had
IDENTICAL problems with an XP TABLET PC editions after upgrading from
iTune 4.x to 6.x. I thought it might be iTunes, but I am never running
it when the problem occurs, and only the iTunesHelper is running in
memory.

After the problem occurs, It's hard to tell what processes are
running/using how much RAM because in most all cases when the problem
occurs there is not enough resources to run security task manager, the
screen is blank or it says "failed to initialize properly" until I
reboot and can run it again.

I set my paging file size per recommendation of Win XP to 1.5GB Min and
1.8GB Max. I still have 3GB free on the drive. When it happens I am
typically not running a ton of applications simultaneously. Even when I
am running a LOT at the same time, I never have problems until leaving
the computer idle.

Thoughts? Would you be so kind as to email a cc: of your reply to the
following email address (you know what to substitute) @:
jeff.buddington -AT- gmail.com

Jeff

 

[beenthere]

Hello-

Was hoping someone could provide thoughts or ideas:

WinXP Pro
1GB RAM
System has been running with good performance for years.

I have a system that when you reboot you can use for hours straight
with NO problems. As soon as you leave it idle for a relatively short
period of anywhere from 10 minutes or thereabout, the hard drive
indicator starts to show constant activity. After moving the mouse and
starting to work with the system again, no matter WHAT application is
being used it says "failed to initialize properly" even if it's a ping
in a command prompt. If I close some applications or tray icons and
get some RAM back then some applications work again temporarily.

I thought it might be too much RAM being used and loaded Security Task
Manager (from Neuber I believe) and nothing out of the ordinary (to my
eye anyway) I see Explorer, and other applications that I know about...
totalling roughly 360MB RAM used or less.. I also see several
svchost.exe and one lsass.exe. These are all under windows system32
and indicate no threat. I have checked the majority of processes
against known descriptions found on Google, etc. and verified no
spyware/viruses that I can tell of. I have Spybot S&D 1.4 which
indicates a few cookies but no spyware or applications. Bullguard v6.1
indicates no viruses. It takes about 96MB of RAM and Explorer 64MB RAM
etc. etc.

If I reboot my machine it works perfectly most of the time as long as I
don't leave it idle. Hard drive light is mostly off and not very
active while typing this, sending emails, web browsing, using the
computer etc.

I checked my screen saver thinking it might be some bogus screen saver
and it was just the plain Windows XP Pro Logo screen saver - very
minimal. So I decided just as I am typing this to disable the screen
saver and "monitor sleep" all together. Spybot prompted me to change a
registry entry when I disabled it but was so quick I couldn't read
exactly what it said. Something like screens.exe was making a registry
change. I accepted it because it only said this when I disabled the
screen saver.

If this rings a bell with someone or it sounds like a virus that you
had a problem with before, can you email me the specific name of the
virus/spyware so that I can follow up with Bullguard to see if it's in
their definition files yet? I have been very pleased (in my personal
opinion) about the level of protection and few problems I have had over
the years with this specific computer by the protection that the
combination of Spybot S&D WITH TEA-TIMER ENABLED and BullGuard have
provided with quick operation and low overhead, with reasonable cost.

This has only started happening recently after some Windows Updates
loaded, Including Genuine Advantage. I also loaded Internet Explorer 7
Beta 2 a while back and had no problems with my computer until the
latest windows updates. I also have iTunes 6.0.1.3 loaded and had
IDENTICAL problems with an XP TABLET PC editions after upgrading from
iTune 4.x to 6.x. I thought it might be iTunes, but I am never running
it when the problem occurs, and only the iTunesHelper is running in
memory.

After the problem occurs, It's hard to tell what processes are
running/using how much RAM because in most all cases when the problem
occurs there is not enough resources to run security task manager, the
screen is blank or it says "failed to initialize properly" until I
reboot and can run it again.

I set my paging file size per recommendation of Win XP to 1.5GB Min and
1.8GB Max. I still have 3GB free on the drive. When it happens I am
typically not running a ton of applications simultaneously. Even when I
am running a LOT at the same time, I never have problems until leaving
the computer idle.

Thoughts? Would you be so kind as to email a cc: of your reply to the
following email address (you know what to substitute) @:
jeff.buddington -AT- gmail.com

Hi Jeff. Go have a look at your Event Viewer. Apps, and System.
Dbl\click any errors\warnings. you might get some clues.

 

[Meat Plow]

Hello-

Was hoping someone could provide thoughts or ideas:

WinXP Pro
1GB RAM
System has been running with good performance for years.

I have a system that when you reboot you can use for hours straight with
NO problems. As soon as you leave it idle for a relatively short period
of anywhere from 10 minutes or thereabout, the hard drive indicator starts
to show constant activity. After moving the mouse and starting to work
with the system again, no matter WHAT application is being used it says
"failed to initialize properly" even if it's a ping in a command prompt.
If I close some applications or tray icons and get some RAM back then some
applications work again temporarily.

I thought it might be too much RAM being used and loaded Security Task
Manager (from Neuber I believe) and nothing out of the ordinary (to my eye
anyway) I see Explorer, and other applications that I know about...
totalling roughly 360MB RAM used or less.. I also see several svchost.exe
and one lsass.exe. These are all under windows system32 and indicate no
threat. I have checked the majority of processes against known
descriptions found on Google, etc. and verified no spyware/viruses that I
can tell of. I have Spybot S&D 1.4 which indicates a few cookies but no
spyware or applications. Bullguard v6.1 indicates no viruses. It takes
about 96MB of RAM and Explorer 64MB RAM etc. etc.

If I reboot my machine it works perfectly most of the time as long as I
don't leave it idle. Hard drive light is mostly off and not very active
while typing this, sending emails, web browsing, using the computer etc.

I checked my screen saver thinking it might be some bogus screen saver and
it was just the plain Windows XP Pro Logo screen saver - very minimal. So
I decided just as I am typing this to disable the screen saver and
"monitor sleep" all together. Spybot prompted me to change a registry
entry when I disabled it but was so quick I couldn't read exactly what it
said. Something like screens.exe was making a registry change. I
accepted it because it only said this when I disabled the screen saver.

If this rings a bell with someone or it sounds like a virus that you had a
problem with before, can you email me the specific name of the
virus/spyware so that I can follow up with Bullguard to see if it's in
their definition files yet? I have been very pleased (in my personal
opinion) about the level of protection and few problems I have had over
the years with this specific computer by the protection that the
combination of Spybot S&D WITH TEA-TIMER ENABLED and BullGuard have
provided with quick operation and low overhead, with reasonable cost.

This has only started happening recently after some Windows Updates
loaded, Including Genuine Advantage. I also loaded Internet Explorer 7
Beta 2 a while back and had no problems with my computer until the latest
windows updates. I also have iTunes 6.0.1.3 loaded and had IDENTICAL
problems with an XP TABLET PC editions after upgrading from iTune 4.x to
6.x. I thought it might be iTunes, but I am never running it when the
problem occurs, and only the iTunesHelper is running in memory.

After the problem occurs, It's hard to tell what processes are
running/using how much RAM because in most all cases when the problem
occurs there is not enough resources to run security task manager, the
screen is blank or it says "failed to initialize properly" until I reboot
and can run it again.

I set my paging file size per recommendation of Win XP to 1.5GB Min and
1.8GB Max. I still have 3GB free on the drive. When it happens I am
typically not running a ton of applications simultaneously. Even when I am
running a LOT at the same time, I never have problems until leaving the
computer idle.

Thoughts? Would you be so kind as to email a cc: of your reply to the
following email address (you know what to substitute) @:
jeff.buddington -AT- gmail.com

Jeff

Don't let it idle.

 

[Harry Ohrn MS MVP]

There is a Trojan called screens.exe See here for more info
http://research.sunbelt-software.com/threatdisplay.aspx?name=COOL! Remote Control&threatid=40870

There is also a program called ScreenShot which has screens.exe as it's
executable http://www.gutmannsoft.com/en/screenshot/support.php

I'd suggest you check the above and see if they shed any light. Another
option would be to post a HiJackThis Log at the appropriate forum here
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30&sid=548557e03a50c76e76082b1edb148ad4 If
you don't know how to do that just ask at the forum.

 

[Walter Mautner]

Meat Plow wrote:

......
a hundred lines of qouted text, my mousewheel is already worn out

Don't let it idle.

....
one line of comment, the kind that makes me feel like my mousewheel, after a
hard days work.

AND WTF why this crossposted to a quadzillion of unknown newsgroups?

To the OP: looks like a memory leak.
Either a damaged screensaver or some helper, or a badly programmed trojan.
Let windows do the compare-and-repair.

 

[Damian]

Meat Plow wrote:

.....
a hundred lines of qouted text, my mousewheel is already worn out
...
one line of comment, the kind that makes me feel like my mousewheel,
after a hard days work.

AND WTF why this crossposted to a quadzillion of unknown newsgroups?

<groups restored>

And who in the **** made you the usenet god?

**** off, nazi.

 

[Frank]

Hello-

Was hoping someone could provide thoughts or ideas:

WinXP Pro
1GB RAM
System has been running with good performance for years.

I have a system that when you reboot you can use for hours straight
with NO problems. As soon as you leave it idle for a relatively short
period of anywhere from 10 minutes or thereabout, the hard drive
indicator starts to show constant activity. After moving the mouse
and
starting to work with the system again, no matter WHAT application is
being used it says "failed to initialize properly" even if it's a ping
in a command prompt. If I close some applications or tray icons and
get some RAM back then some applications work again temporarily.

I thought it might be too much RAM being used and loaded Security Task
Manager (from Neuber I believe) and nothing out of the ordinary (to my
eye anyway) I see Explorer, and other applications that I know
about...
totalling roughly 360MB RAM used or less.. I also see several
svchost.exe and one lsass.exe. These are all under windows system32
and indicate no threat. I have checked the majority of processes
against known descriptions found on Google, etc. and verified no
spyware/viruses that I can tell of. I have Spybot S&D 1.4 which
indicates a few cookies but no spyware or applications. Bullguard
v6.1
indicates no viruses. It takes about 96MB of RAM and Explorer 64MB
RAM
etc. etc.

If I reboot my machine it works perfectly most of the time as long as
I
don't leave it idle. Hard drive light is mostly off and not very
active while typing this, sending emails, web browsing, using the
computer etc.

I checked my screen saver thinking it might be some bogus screen saver
and it was just the plain Windows XP Pro Logo screen saver - very
minimal. So I decided just as I am typing this to disable the screen
saver and "monitor sleep" all together. Spybot prompted me to change
a
registry entry when I disabled it but was so quick I couldn't read
exactly what it said. Something like screens.exe was making a
registry
change. I accepted it because it only said this when I disabled the
screen saver.

If this rings a bell with someone or it sounds like a virus that you
had a problem with before, can you email me the specific name of the
virus/spyware so that I can follow up with Bullguard to see if it's in
their definition files yet? I have been very pleased (in my personal
opinion) about the level of protection and few problems I have had
over
the years with this specific computer by the protection that the
combination of Spybot S&D WITH TEA-TIMER ENABLED and BullGuard have
provided with quick operation and low overhead, with reasonable cost.

This has only started happening recently after some Windows Updates
loaded, Including Genuine Advantage. I also loaded Internet Explorer
7
Beta 2 a while back and had no problems with my computer until the
latest windows updates. I also have iTunes 6.0.1.3 loaded and had
IDENTICAL problems with an XP TABLET PC editions after upgrading from
iTune 4.x to 6.x. I thought it might be iTunes, but I am never
running
it when the problem occurs, and only the iTunesHelper is running in
memory.

After the problem occurs, It's hard to tell what processes are
running/using how much RAM because in most all cases when the problem
occurs there is not enough resources to run security task manager, the
screen is blank or it says "failed to initialize properly" until I
reboot and can run it again.

I set my paging file size per recommendation of Win XP to 1.5GB Min
and
1.8GB Max. I still have 3GB free on the drive. When it happens I am
typically not running a ton of applications simultaneously. Even when
I
am running a LOT at the same time, I never have problems until leaving
the computer idle.

Thoughts? Would you be so kind as to email a cc: of your reply to the
following email address (you know what to substitute) @:
jeff.buddington -AT- gmail.com

Jeff

 

[Randall Smith]

<SNIP>

Why did you post someone else's post Frank? And then not even give an
answer or suggestion. When I click on the link to reply to the original
person. I get that the message was removed from the server. Is it an old
post you are trying to keep alive for some reason?

 

[Frank]

<SNIP>

Why did you post someone else's post Frank? And then not even give an
answer or suggestion. When I click on the link to reply to the
original person. I get that the message was removed from the server.
Is it an old post you are trying to keep alive for some reason?

I am using the msnews server and it will not resolve to other servers.
So I really don't know what you are talking about, or if I am the
Frank to which you are referring.

 

[Walter Mautner]

I am using the msnews server and it will not resolve to other servers.
So I really don't know what you are talking about, or if I am the
Frank to which you are referring.

You (same headers, same "nntp-posting-host" IP) posted in
Message-ID: <[email protected]>

a full reply to Message-ID:
<[email protected]>
From: (e-mail address removed)

with the whole text quoted but not any addition.

IF you don't believe it use Google Groups to search for the messages-ids.
Maybe your cat hit the reply button that time? ;-)

Btw. your newsserver path ends in TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl (unresolveable) and
not in something that looks like msnews... really suspicious.