Re: Can't open Items

RnR wrote:
On Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:05:42 -0500, Charles <cwmickey@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Christopher Muto wrote:
"Charles" <cwmickey@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:7ysAk.14792$Dj1.4744@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
S.Lewis wrote:
"Christopher Muto" <muto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:W4qdnUcyFd-dXEzVnZ2dnUVZ_jSdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"S.Lewis" <Gossamer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:xkfAk.37333$De7.24529@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Charles" <cwmickey@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:UGeAk.13490$Dj1.12578@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Christopher Muto wrote:
you said 'when the problem happens'... does this mean that sometimes the icons for the items do appear in the start menu, and sometimes they work, but other times they do not? sounds like some sort of resource problem or a hard drive problem. i suggest a scan of the hard drive using the manufacturers diagnostic tool and/or a system restore to a point in time well prior to when you first started to notice the problem.

"William R. Walsh" <wm_walsh@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:f5d75f3e-e929-4783-baa4-1badac477746@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi!

None of these are running scans when the problem happens which
has now been noted to be just happening randomly.
You might find a clue in the processes list of the Windows Task
Manager. Sometimes a process that's doing a lot of disk churning will
also be using some or a lot of CPU time.

William
Christopher,

The icons are always listed in the start menu but about half the time when I click on them I get the busy hourglass for about 4-5 seconds then nothing. I have run the hard drive diagnostic and both passed.

William,

As stated in the original post the processes list has nothing that stands out. Even when this (drive activity light)is happening, the system idle process is at 99%. I know something is doing something but I just can't seem to find out what it is.

Charles
F8 at the Dell (splash) screen and boot the system in "safe mode with networking". Click on those items in the start menu to verify function.

If they're fine in safe mode, you might try going into start/run/msconfig/ok/startup (items) and temporarily disabling all startup programs.

Reboot in "normal mode" and check function of items in the start menu again. If they're "cured", then a program or combination of programs are likely causing your issue.

You can then go back into msconfig and enable programs individually to find the culprit or see where the breaking point is for the system.

Sounds like a system resources issue due to software or services.


Stew
sounds like a plan... but a shorter approach might be to just uninstall zone alarm pro and see if the problems go away with it.

Agreed. With the list of security SW's he's posted he's running the risk of overkill depending on how all of that is configured.

It's been a long, long time since I've used ZA - but I've noted the threads here regarding issues.
I will try the option of removing Zone Alarm later today and see what happens. Would the option of disabling ZA work to check things out or would I really need to remove it? I have seriously thinking about dumping it when my paid subscription runs out and trying something else. As to the amount of virus and spyware programs I have, only AVG Free is configured to run daily. The others are there for manual use whenever I think about running them which is usually every month or so.
disabling it should probably reveal if it is the culprit. follow that link i provided above to the zone alarms support forums. there you will see many discussions about various issues with zone alarm. they seem to have answers for all of them but it just sounds like more effort than it is worth. easier to just remove it and not look back.


I had a quick look at that last but will give it a better look later today also. On another train of thought, what is the possibility of Micro$oft issuing "fixes" that may mess up certain things on older computer systems in a push towards 'Vista instead of XP for the masses'? I've often wondered whether they would stoop to this level tho.

Charles


I think most of the replies you got are on the right track. I
personally dumped AVG and ZA after noticing some problems. My guess
is you have some conflicting software (likely one of the ones you
mentioned) that are fighting for a piece of cpu time or ram. To me
and based on what I've read in the past, you have too many programs
that overlap (based on what you posted earlier). Your problem might
also be caused by a bad install, file gone bad or just wrong settings.
If it were me, I'd begin to uninstall one by one, the programs you
posted earlier and see if things run better. I hesitate to say
disable them because sometimes the disable doesn't work (in my
experience) because I've seen processes still running after I
supposedly disabled stuff. I know it's a pain to uninstall stuff but
the good thing is, if you reinstall it, you can do a clean install
which might help. Personally I think I'd eliminate some of the
programs you posted earlier because it sounds like some overlap /
overkill. Right now I'm using just Kaspersky on my main laptop with
no overlapping programs and it runs well. Of course it's possible all
of this is not the culprit but it just sounds like this would be a
good first place to start to narrow down the problem. I feel your
pain tho as I have continuing minor problems too but not bad enough to
do a complete system install. Incidentally I recall years ago some
saying you should do a complete reinstall to get your registry back in
order. Not sure if that's still the best method (of course it can't
hurt) but I prefer the backup and restore method. And if you ever
solve your problem here, please backup fast !!!


I uninstalled a couple of items including ZA Pro a couple of days ago and everything seems to be much quicker and more responsive. Hmmm it sounds like I'm talking about my car doesn't it. I'll see after a couple of more days and then decide what to do. For the time being I am using the Windows XP Firewall.

Charles
.

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