Can't close programs in XP!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Shearer Cooper
  • Start date Start date
C

Chris Shearer Cooper

My XP Pro has started acting very strange ... it will work properly for
quite a while (hours or days) and then will ...
1) Not let me close programs. I can click on the "X" or (in the case of a
DOS command window) type exit, and the window remains.
2) Ignore Ctrl+Alt+Del
3) Ignore right-clicking on task manager in the task bar
4) Not show program names in the Alt-Tab program list (only icons)

At the suggestion of people on this forum, I tried freeing up space on my C:
Drive and defragging, both of which I did and it doesn't seem to help.

What else can I try?

Thanks,
Chris
 
Chris said:
My XP Pro has started acting very strange ... it will work properly for
quite a while (hours or days) and then will ...
1) Not let me close programs. I can click on the "X" or (in the case of a
DOS command window) type exit, and the window remains.
2) Ignore Ctrl+Alt+Del
3) Ignore right-clicking on task manager in the task bar
4) Not show program names in the Alt-Tab program list (only icons)

At the suggestion of people on this forum, I tried freeing up space on my C:
Drive and defragging, both of which I did and it doesn't seem to help.
Click to expand...

The First Question Of Troubleshooting: what changed between the time
things worked and the time they didn't?

The Second Question of Windows Troubleshooting: what is the
malware/virus status of the machine? If you think it is clean, what
programs (and versions) did you use to determine this?

Be sure the computer is clean:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

If everything looks good after answering the First Two Questions, check
your hard drive's health with a diagnostic utility downloaded from the
drive mftr. You will make a bootable cd/floppy from this file. Boot with
it and do a thorough test of the hard drive. If it fails any physical
tests, back up your data and replace the drive.


Malke
 
Sun, 29 Apr 2007 12:21:57 -0600 from Chris Shearer Cooper
My XP Pro has started acting very strange ... it will work properly for
quite a while (hours or days) and then will ...
1) Not let me close programs. I can click on the "X" or (in the case of a
DOS command window) type exit, and the window remains.
2) Ignore Ctrl+Alt+Del
3) Ignore right-clicking on task manager in the task bar
4) Not show program names in the Alt-Tab program list (only icons)

At the suggestion of people on this forum, I tried freeing up space on my C:
Drive and defragging, both of which I did and it doesn't seem to help.

What else can I try?
Click to expand...
Install a good virus scanner and run a full scan.

Or else do a Windows repair install. Something is seriously hosed.
 
You are of course right with the First and Second Questions.

1) Not sure. Since it doesn't happen regularly, I can't pinpoint exactly
when it happened, so I can't correlate with any major changes with the
computer. I installed a new mobo a couple months ago, but the puter worked
fine for 4-6 weeks, so I don't think that's it. No major software installs
around the time when I started seeing this problem.
2) SpySweeper with AntiVirus is run regularly.

I do have a hard drive that from time to time gives me warnings ... I've
physically removed it to see if that helps. If a dying hard drive is
capable of producing the symptoms I've seen, that seems very likely the
culprit.

Thanks!
Chris
 
reboot into safemode,
then check if the symptoms
alleviate or perpetuate...
My XP Pro has started acting very strange ... it will work properly for
quite a while (hours or days) and then will ...
1) Not let me close programs. I can click on the "X" or (in the case of a
DOS command window) type exit, and the window remains.
2) Ignore Ctrl+Alt+Del
3) Ignore right-clicking on task manager in the task bar
4) Not show program names in the Alt-Tab program list (only icons)

At the suggestion of people on this forum, I tried freeing up space on my C:
Drive and defragging, both of which I did and it doesn't seem to help.

What else can I try?

Thanks,
Chris
 
What do I lose by doing a Windows repair install? For example, do I have to
re-install all my software?

Thanks,
Chris
 
Nope, took out the offending hard drive, and the problem still happened. I
will next try diagnostic utilities for the remaining hard drives.
 
Chris said:
What do I lose by doing a Windows repair install? For example, do I have to
re-install all my software?
Click to expand...

You don't lose anything but Windows Updates when you do a Repair
Install, but I'd always have all data backed up first.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Remember to answer the First and Second questions before you do the
Repair Install. Since I can't see your computer, I can't rule out
hardware issues either. Here are some general hardware troubleshooting
steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot


Malke
 
Total paging file size = 2046M

I have 2G of RAM, and looking at task manager, I never use it all ... so I
could disable virtual memory, but I don't see how that could be causing the
specific problem I'm having. If my virtual memory were somehow hosed,
wouldn't that cause more problems?

Thanks,
Chris
 
That's the problem ... when the problem occurs, I can't close any programs.
I can sometimes switch between programs (sometimes) but however I tell the
program to close (Alt-F4, File:Exit, close button in top right) the program
just sits there and stares at me. Never goes away.
 
Back
Top