Freezing Over Start Menu.... Again

  • Thread starter Thread starter JamesJ
  • Start date Start date
J

JamesJ

This is driving me nuts and was wondering if anyone else has encountered
this.

When passing over any other item the item information is displayed right
away with no problems.

But, when I pass the mouse pointer over a particular item, in the start menu
the system
hangs and the 'highlight' stops over particular item without displaying item
information.
(in MS Access it's referred top as the Control Tip Text).
After about 20 seconds the item info gets displayed and things go back to
normal.

It seem to occur with one item but has occurred with another item before.

While it's hanging, if I click in the start menu somewhere I get the
'Windows not responding - 'Shut Down' or ''Cancel'.
This occurs once per session. Once I restart it occurs again until I hover
over the item and wait 20 seconds.

I've removed the item and re-pinned it. I've removed several other items
form the start menu
and it still occurred on the same item. I've pinned a shortcut of the item
as opposed to the exe.
Nothing seems to work.

Has anyone else had this problem??

Any help will be appreciated,
James
 
It may be symptomatic rather than being a cause

eg other CPU-hogging processes running at the same time and interfering with
the info being displayed (?).

If so, Task Manager may help in that respect to identify any culprit(s).
 
First, I've 'Tweaked my services using suggestions at Vipers's web site.
Why would it occur only once after reboot then seem to be fine. I'm not
talking
immediately after reboot. If I wait an hour after reboot and move over the
item(s) it hangs.

Second, why is it always the same start menu item(s)?
Also, the same thing occurs in explore with the same program(s)
If I right click the right pane of the folder with start menu item in it it
takes 10 to 15
seconds for the context menu to come up. Then if I select 'Pin to start
menu' it
takes nearly 30 seconds for the task to complete.

I just added memory and this wasn't happening before. I ran the Windows
Memory Diagnostics Tool
twice and Vista gave me no indications of a problem. Of course I can't find
any report anywhere. Vista seem to be keeping
me in the dark about that.

Ironic. I add memory and my system runs worse. I went from 1 gb to 3 gb and
my system wasn't hanging before.

James
 
JamesJ said:
First, I've 'Tweaked my services using suggestions at Vipers's web site.
Why would it occur only once after reboot then seem to be fine. I'm not
talking
immediately after reboot. If I wait an hour after reboot and move over the
item(s) it hangs.

Second, why is it always the same start menu item(s)?
Also, the same thing occurs in explore with the same program(s)
If I right click the right pane of the folder with start menu item in it it
takes 10 to 15
seconds for the context menu to come up. Then if I select 'Pin to start
menu' it
takes nearly 30 seconds for the task to complete.

I just added memory and this wasn't happening before. I ran the Windows
Memory Diagnostics Tool
twice and Vista gave me no indications of a problem. Of course I can't find
any report anywhere. Vista seem to be keeping
me in the dark about that.

Ironic. I add memory and my system runs worse. I went from 1 gb to 3 gb and
my system wasn't hanging before.

James
Click to expand...

To find the memory scan report have a look here:
(I'm running Win7 so the path may be slightly different).
Control Panel
System and Security
Administrative tools
Event Viewer
Applications and Services logs
Microsoft
Windows
Memory Diagnostics-results

With the Start menu freezing, are these Microsoft entries or
third-party software?
You might find an entry in one of the Event Viewer logs.
 
As far as the memory diagnostic report.. there is none. I navigated to the
proper branch and no events.

Now another anomoly:
Right after bootup when I click the start menu orb only the top 3 items
display an icon and the system hangs.
The other 5 show no icon for about 20 seconds then they appear.
After some reboots the start menu opens but is tranparent, can see the
desktop underneath... no items or
anything for about 20 seconds then they appear.

There is no event being reported at the time the system hangs waiting for
the item information for the start menu items.
These items are third party software (Active Disk Image and Desktop Maestro)
that I've had for some time and I had issues like this before I added
memory.

I did paste 2 'Error' events that occured during a bootup about an hour ago:

Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60
WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32
_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated
in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of
error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the
problem is corrected.

Code Integrity is unable to verify the image integrity of the file
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files\Microsoft Security
Essentials\Drivers\mpfilter\mpfilter.sys because the set of per-page image
hashes could not be found on the system.
 
JamesJ said:
As far as the memory diagnostic report.. there is none. I navigated to the
proper branch and no events.

Now another anomoly:
Right after bootup when I click the start menu orb only the top 3 items
display an icon and the system hangs.
The other 5 show no icon for about 20 seconds then they appear.
After some reboots the start menu opens but is tranparent, can see the
desktop underneath... no items or
anything for about 20 seconds then they appear.

There is no event being reported at the time the system hangs waiting for
the item information for the start menu items.
These items are third party software (Active Disk Image and Desktop Maestro)
that I've had for some time and I had issues like this before I added
memory.

I did paste 2 'Error' events that occured during a bootup about an hour ago:

Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60
WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32
_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated
in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of
error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the
problem is corrected.

Code Integrity is unable to verify the image integrity of the file
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files\Microsoft Security
Essentials\Drivers\mpfilter\mpfilter.sys because the set of per-page image
hashes could not be found on the system.
Click to expand...

I haven't got a clue about those messages.
I would boot into safe mode for a while and see how the Start menu behaves etc.
If it seems ok, then get rid of the software giving you problems.
If the Start menu still has problems in safe mode then I would suspect Vista is
corrupted somehow.
Maybe try a 'sfc /scannow' file check, a system restore or even consider a clean install.
 
I ran 'sdc /scannow' didn't indicate a problem.
In safe mode the problem doesn't exist.
The sofware wasn't giving me a problem before.
Why would the software all of a sudden cause problems?
They are both purchased software and I'll consider removing them.
And why is the start menu acting up now when I try to open it.
The problems seems to be getting worse.

Thanks,
James
 
JamesJ said:
I ran 'sdc /scannow' didn't indicate a problem.
In safe mode the problem doesn't exist.
The sofware wasn't giving me a problem before.
Why would the software all of a sudden cause problems?
They are both purchased software and I'll consider removing them.
And why is the start menu acting up now when I try to open it.
The problems seems to be getting worse.
Click to expand...

I don't know why the software is giving you problems now, but it could
be a Microsoft update that has broken something or a recent third-party
software update.
You could remove the software to get back to a stable system and then
re-install one at a time to narrow it down to one program. Then look for
updates/help from that software company.
 
JamesJ said:
I ran 'sdc /scannow' didn't indicate a problem.
In safe mode the problem doesn't exist.
The sofware wasn't giving me a problem before.
Why would the software all of a sudden cause problems?
They are both purchased software and I'll consider removing them.
And why is the start menu acting up now when I try to open it.
The problems seems to be getting worse.

Thanks,
James
Click to expand...


Those messages look like something from SQL, MySQL or some similar
database program perhaps related to "Code Integrity" and it seems like
it's trying to find something it cannot. Does any of your software use
and SQL like program, perhaps online backup or something?

If you could prevent that from starting with Windows you might be able
isolate the problem.
 
I uninstalled one of the 3rd party software and after a reboot the system
started hanging on another start menu item that it wasn't hanging on before.

Out of curiosity I uninstalled Microsoft Security Essentials and the problem
magically went away.
I reinstalled MSE and the problem returned.
Uninstalled MSE and installed AVGFree and the problems has gone away.
It's like night and day.
I'm considering checking out the MSE forum and see if anyone else is having
the same problem
I just hope I haven't spoken too soon.

Thanks,
James
 
Not sure if that was had anyhting to do with the start menu problem but I do
have access 2007
but nothing of access starts at startup.

James
 
Didn't exist in regular safe mode.
I believe I found the problem.
It was my anit-virus software - MSE

James
 
Well the "SELECT" keyword is a database thing and some backup software
can use it. I am a little unsure about how some of the stuff you have
works so have no real answer but I thing you can find MSCONFIG to see
what is running and temporarily do a lot with it without harming your
system.
 
I've discovered it was Microsoft Security Essentials causing the hanging.
I uninstalled it and it went away. Reinstall and it returned.
I uninstalled MSE and I installed AVGFree and the problem has totally
disappeared.

James
 
James, thanks for reporting back to the group, it often helps others. I
suspect that MSE keeps a database of what's where and things like file
versions and sizes, perhaps in order to replace things that get damaged
by malware or crashes, so it maybe has MSSQL Lite or something running.

Glad you found the problem anyway.
 
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