Desktop icons on new XPH install

  • Thread starter Thread starter WayneM
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W

WayneM

Yesterday I upgraded my wife's Me machine to XP Home using a retail upgrade
version from BestBuy.

The upgrade seemed to go okay with the exception of when she right clicks on
the
desktop to arrange icons. Every time we do this the system stops responding.
i.e. the hour glass just keeps working and we can't do anything else.

Eventually a Dr Watson thing comes up. I've selected the send report option
but I don't get any info back from MS since the something seems to be
causing her machine to hang.

When I do a C-A-D, I find several instances of Dr Watson running. If I end
those the system starts responding again.

I can't copy/paste the error info but basically there is an indication of a
DrWatson Postmortem Debugger error:

Event Type: BEX P1 drwten32.exe, P2 5.11.2600, P3 3b7d84a2, P4 dbgHelp.dll,
P6 4110969a, P7 0001295d, P8 C0000409 P9 00000000.

I've checked the MS KB but couldn't find anything relating to this issue. I
think we're entitled to MS support, but I haven't tried to contact MS yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

TIA,

Wayne
 
In WayneM <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
Yesterday I upgraded my wife's Me machine to XP Home using a retail
upgrade version from BestBuy.

The upgrade seemed to go okay with the exception of when she right
clicks on the
desktop to arrange icons. Every time we do this the system stops
responding. i.e. the hour glass just keeps working and we can't do
anything else.
Eventually a Dr Watson thing comes up. I've selected the send report
option but I don't get any info back from MS since the something
seems to be causing her machine to hang.

When I do a C-A-D, I find several instances of Dr Watson running. If
I end those the system starts responding again.

I can't copy/paste the error info but basically there is an
indication of a DrWatson Postmortem Debugger error:

Event Type: BEX P1 drwten32.exe, P2 5.11.2600, P3 3b7d84a2, P4
dbgHelp.dll, P6 4110969a, P7 0001295d, P8 C0000409 P9 00000000.

I've checked the MS KB but couldn't find anything relating to this
issue. I think we're entitled to MS support, but I haven't tried to
contact MS yet.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

TIA,

Wayne
Click to expand...

What's the system's stats? It could be that you need more RAM or even that
you have a low end video card. Upgrading one or both might help the
situation out. Another idea is to run (and I know this seems a bit
backwards) the desktop itself as a separate instance of explorer. While it
does eat an additional 8 MB of RAM or so normally it has often cleared
issues like this up for people. Basically it keeps the system from crashing
entirely when there's a problem with the instance of explorer (either shell
or the desktop which both run in the same instance.)

There's a bunch of different tweaking applications which would do this for
you but if you're comfortable editing the registry on your own here's a
link:

Explorer as a Separate Process :
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/tips/sep_explorer.html

If you're looking for a tweak application to do it for you I'd recommend the
trial version of XSP which is available at www.x-setup.net and only $8 USD
if you wanted to buy it after you've found it's hidden treasures. (Nope, I'm
not affiliated with them at all.)

Additionally you might try cutting down on un-needed services. BlackViper's
site is probably still down but there's always this:

The archive of BlackViper's stuff:
http://web.archive.org/web/20041128084144/www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Normally it's better to do a clean installation of the OS as opposed to an
upgrade which it sounds like you did. You don't have to install ME first in
order for it to work, instead during the installation process it will ask
for your copy of the ME CD for qualification. That is an idea that you can
consider so long as you're able to backup your wife's applications and data
that she'd like to save prior to doing the installation.

Galen
--

"But there are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world
without them."

Sherlock Holmes
 
Galen,

Thanx for the suggestions. I forgot to mention that I did check that she had
all the latest drivers, etc.. The system is a P3-800 with 512 MB of RAM.
However, the video card is an older nVidia TNT card with 32 MB of RAM - I
think.

I thought about a clean install but I didn't want to go through the trouble
of re-installing all the software. My wife has all her data on a second
physical HDD besides having CD-R backup; so the upgrade seemed the easiest
option.

I'll look at some of the links you provided and report back if I get the
problem fixed or find a work around. If no other problems crop up, the
simplest fix might be to not mouse right click on the desktop.

Wayne
 
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