Windows stop opening - Resource leak or virus?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MickLang
  • Start date Start date
M

MickLang

Guest
Intermittently I'm experiencing problems where windows either stop
opening or won't display fully, pull down menus and context menu's
fail to display etc etc. It seems like the OS has run out of gui
resources.

This is not specific to any program, for example, alt-tab stops
functioning normally, the window displaying the icons does not appear
and selecting alt-tab simply switches from one program to the next
(without waiting for the keyup from the alt-tab).

After closing a window or program, things function normally again,
however, after a while (20min-hour) the problem occurs again.
Gradually I end up having to reboot as I am forced to close more and
more programs until I'm only able to have a few open and it becomes
unworkable.

I've experienced this problem on Windows XP SP2, Vista both on my
laptop and now on a desktop PC running Windows XP SP2 at work. I'm
worried that this may be a virus not being detected by either Windows
Defender or my work's virus detection solution.

Can anyone help me on this ?

Michael
 
RE: Windows stop opening - Resource leak or virus?

There may be a couple of reasons for this:

1. Lets start with Microsoft Updates.
Make sure your computer is fully updated with the latest patches and
hotfixes from Microsoft.

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
Go here scan for updates, download them and install them.
Reboot the computer and check whether it makes any difference.

2. Chkdsk
Go to start > run > cmd
In the msdos screen type "chkdsk /f" without Quotes
It will ask you to restart the computer so that it can scan the entire hdd.
Restart the computer and let it scan.

3. Defragment the hdd
Right click My Computer > Manage > Disk Defragmenter
Degragment your hdd. It can take several hours to defragment your hard drive
depening upon your hard disk space.

4. Clean up all the cookies and temporary file
Go to My Computer > right click on the drive where Windows is installed;
usually C drive.
Go to Properties
Click on Disk Cleanup.
check all the options and clean up the clutter.

5. Yes you are right it can be a virus.
UPDATE your antivirus software and run the full system scan and see if there
is any virus which is affecting your computer to run normally.

Hope this helps
"MickLang" wrote:

> Intermittently I'm experiencing problems where windows either stop
> opening or won't display fully, pull down menus and context menu's
> fail to display etc etc. It seems like the OS has run out of gui
> resources.
>
> This is not specific to any program, for example, alt-tab stops
> functioning normally, the window displaying the icons does not appear
> and selecting alt-tab simply switches from one program to the next
> (without waiting for the keyup from the alt-tab).
>
> After closing a window or program, things function normally again,
> however, after a while (20min-hour) the problem occurs again.
> Gradually I end up having to reboot as I am forced to close more and
> more programs until I'm only able to have a few open and it becomes
> unworkable.
>
> I've experienced this problem on Windows XP SP2, Vista both on my
> laptop and now on a desktop PC running Windows XP SP2 at work. I'm
> worried that this may be a virus not being detected by either Windows
> Defender or my work's virus detection solution.
>
> Can anyone help me on this ?
>
> Michael
>
 
Re: Windows stop opening - Resource leak or virus?

Mick

How much RAM memory?

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

What is your CPU processor speed?

Do you leave your computer on 24/7?

Open Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
is more informative.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


MickLang wrote:
> Intermittently I'm experiencing problems where windows either stop
> opening or won't display fully, pull down menus and context menu's
> fail to display etc etc. It seems like the OS has run out of gui
> resources.
>
> This is not specific to any program, for example, alt-tab stops
> functioning normally, the window displaying the icons does not appear
> and selecting alt-tab simply switches from one program to the next
> (without waiting for the keyup from the alt-tab).
>
> After closing a window or program, things function normally again,
> however, after a while (20min-hour) the problem occurs again.
> Gradually I end up having to reboot as I am forced to close more and
> more programs until I'm only able to have a few open and it becomes
> unworkable.
>
> I've experienced this problem on Windows XP SP2, Vista both on my
> laptop and now on a desktop PC running Windows XP SP2 at work. I'm
> worried that this may be a virus not being detected by either Windows
> Defender or my work's virus detection solution.
>
> Can anyone help me on this ?
>
> Michael
 
Re: Windows stop opening - Resource leak or virus?

MickLang wrote:

> Intermittently I'm experiencing problems where windows either stop
> opening or won't display fully, pull down menus and context menu's
> fail to display etc etc. It seems like the OS has run out of gui
> resources.
>
> This is not specific to any program, for example, alt-tab stops
> functioning normally, the window displaying the icons does not appear
> and selecting alt-tab simply switches from one program to the next
> (without waiting for the keyup from the alt-tab).
>
> After closing a window or program, things function normally again,
> however, after a while (20min-hour) the problem occurs again.
> Gradually I end up having to reboot as I am forced to close more and
> more programs until I'm only able to have a few open and it becomes
> unworkable.
>
> I've experienced this problem on Windows XP SP2, Vista both on my
> laptop and now on a desktop PC running Windows XP SP2 at work. I'm
> worried that this may be a virus not being detected by either Windows
> Defender or my work's virus detection solution.
>
> Can anyone help me on this ?

I'm seeing something similar after having worked for a long time
- having opened and closed a lot of windows, having saved files
in newly created subfolders in the 'Open ...' dialog-window, et
cetera.
In my case there is a qualifying requirement.
In my case i only see this when i've done most work under a
virtual drive-letter created from a folder with the 'Subst'
command to shorten the paths. So it seems like a leak of some
kind when using virtual mapped driveletters like that.
(I don't map networkdrives so don't know if that is effected.)

Are you perhaps doing something similar?


--
Nah-ah. I'm staying out of this. ... Now, here's my opinion.

Please followup in the newsgroup.
E-mail address is invalid due to spam-control.
 
Re: Windows stop opening - Resource leak or virus?

I believe the problem may be xp is running out of windows out of
windows handles. I believe one or more applications I'm running are
leaking handles. I've run Process Explorer and determined that IE7
looks like its a big culprit chewing up between 10,000-20,000 handles
per instance. Closing (with the option of reopening all tabs) and
restarting IE, results in it having just over 1000 handles.
 
Re: Windows stop opening - Resource leak or virus?

Mick

How much RAM memory?

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

What is your CPU processor speed?

Do you leave your computer on 24/7?

Open Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
is more informative.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


MickLang wrote:
> I believe the problem may be xp is running out of windows out of
> windows handles. I believe one or more applications I'm running are
> leaking handles. I've run Process Explorer and determined that IE7
> looks like its a big culprit chewing up between 10,000-20,000 handles
> per instance. Closing (with the option of reopening all tabs) and
> restarting IE, results in it having just over 1000 handles.
 
Re: Windows stop opening - Resource leak or virus?

.... et al. wrote:

> MickLang wrote:
>
>> Intermittently I'm experiencing problems where windows either stop
>> opening or won't display fully, pull down menus and context menu's
>> fail to display etc etc. It seems like the OS has run out of gui
>> resources.
>>
>> This is not specific to any program, for example, alt-tab stops
>> functioning normally, the window displaying the icons does not appear
>> and selecting alt-tab simply switches from one program to the next
>> (without waiting for the keyup from the alt-tab).
>>
>> After closing a window or program, things function normally again,
>> however, after a while (20min-hour) the problem occurs again.
>> Gradually I end up having to reboot as I am forced to close more and
>> more programs until I'm only able to have a few open and it becomes
>> unworkable.
>>
>> I've experienced this problem on Windows XP SP2, Vista both on my
>> laptop and now on a desktop PC running Windows XP SP2 at work. I'm
>> worried that this may be a virus not being detected by either Windows
>> Defender or my work's virus detection solution.
>>
>> Can anyone help me on this ?
>
> I'm seeing something similar after having worked for a long time -
> having opened and closed a lot of windows, having saved files in newly
> created subfolders in the 'Open ...' dialog-window, et cetera.
> In my case there is a qualifying requirement.
> In my case i only see this when i've done most work under a virtual
> drive-letter created from a folder with the 'Subst' command to shorten
> the paths. So it seems like a leak of some kind when using virtual
> mapped driveletters like that.

I've now had this graphic corruption happen one (1) time without
me having 'Subst' a folder to a driveletter since a previous cold
boot, so i was wrong. It really isn't a prerequisite for me. It
possibly makes it happen sooner/quicker, but it isn't an absolute
requirement.


--
Nah-ah. I'm staying out of this. ... Now, here's my opinion.

Please followup in the newsgroup.
E-mail address is invalid due to spam-control.
 
Back
Top