Windows XP Intermittent Problem

I seriously suggest you scan for malware then! It is not normal to have Explorer misbehave like that at all. And it certainly isn't normal for your peripherals to switch on spontaneously. Though having them go AWOL after the screensaver kicks in seems pretty common for HP scanners :(

Regards, Martin Brown

** Posted from **

I agree, this is not normal behaviour. IME Explorer extensions are a common cause of explorer instability.

I think this is one of the things that Vista was supposed to 'fix', by restarting processes in the back-ground.

The same sort of thing surfaced in a new W2K installation that I was nursing in the spring - but an error window was generated. The MS W2K newsgroup had no ideas at the time.

Perhaps the XP 'fix' was simply to disable the error messages?

An attempt to repair the W2K installation resulted in a lost OS and nxmonths of system building, somaybe it's wiser just to live with it, if you've got an effective work-around.

RL

Oh, that thing! I have it turned off.

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

| 1962 | Common Values Common Purpose Common Buzzwords Common Ignorance

Umm... is this the machine that you didn't bother to update to XP SP3 (service pack 3)? If so, perhaps this would provide a suitable incentive? You were asking if XP SP3 was safe in:

but I couldn't determine if you actually installed it.

I've seen the same cut-n-paste problem on my machines and a few customers, but that was in about 2004 or 2005. It seems to have gone away, probably thanks to some update around then or possibly due to my tweaks.

When I setup an XP machine, there are a few "features" that I disarm. One of these may be causing the problem.

Windoze uses the temporary files directory far too much and often. Too many files in there and I start to see problems. The trouble is that the supplied cleanup mechanism for cleaning out the mess is broken by another mis-feature. If you try to run the disk cleanup from: My Computah -> Right click on the C: drive Select Properties -> General -> Disk Cleanup You may notice that it says "Compress Old Files" and runs literally forever. This is a bad thing. Compressing old files makes the machine run slower when it has to compress and uncompress them. It's one reason that XP machines tend to slow down with use. There's no easy way to uncompress them[1]. Also, it takes forever to search for candidate files to compress and then compress them. This may have been a good idea in the days of small hard disks, but todays drives have more than enough diskspace. The problem isn't so much the compress/decompress lag as it is seems that users are reluctant to wait for Windoze Cleanup to slog through these files and finally offer to clean out the temp directory.

To disarm this "feature", Start up the registry editor with: Start -> Run -> cmd regedit Highlight "My Computah" near the top of the tree. F to open the FIND window. Type in "Compress Old Files" and hit "Find Next". When it appears, you might want to save the registry key first. Save it as "compress old files.reg". Then hit delete. Confirm and Exit regedit. Now, run the Disk Cleanup tool again and you'll notice that "Compress Old Files" is absent and that disk cleanup will proceed normally. Check what you want to vaporize and hit OK.

[1] The details on "compress old files":

Compressed files and folders will usually (not always) be shown in blue color in Windoze Explorer. To uncompress them, right click on a file or folder, properties -> Advanced, and uncheck the "compress ..." checkbox.

To do the same thing to an entire drive: Start -> run -> cmd cd / compact /u /s /a /q /i *.* This is rather dangerous and should not be performed casually. However, it has slightly improved the performance of one or two machines I've worked over.

You can get a report of how much compressing has been done with: Start -> run -> cmd cd /directory_you_want_to_check compact

There are some options available. Try: compact /?

For example on my W2K box: Listing C:\\802.11\\ New files added to this directory will not be compressed. 6380415 : 6380415 = 1.0 to 1 802.11-1999.pdf 2289616 : 2289616 = 1.0 to 1 802.11a-1999.pdf 1119110 : 1119110 = 1.0 to 1 802.11b-1999.pdf 451088 : 451088 = 1.0 to 1 802.11b-1999_Cor1-2001.pdf 554102 : 554102 = 1.0 to 1 802.11F-2003.pdf 2135343 : 2135343 = 1.0 to 1 802.11g-2003.pdf 29017 : 29017 = 1.0 to 1 802.11h-2003.pdf 2592598 : 2592598 = 1.0 to 1 802.11i-2004.pdf 1270712 : 1270712 = 1.0 to 1 802.11j-2004.pdf 5059214 : 5059214 = 1.0 to 1 802.15.4-2003.pdf 92910 : 92910 = 1.0 to 1 MIB-D6.2.txt 64966 : 64966 = 1.0 to 1 SDL-AP_Files.ZIP 34403 : 34403 = 1.0 to 1 SDL-MacMib_Files.ZIP 273832 : 273832 = 1.0 to 1 SDL-Sta_Files.ZIP 6361 : 6361 = 1.0 to 1 SDT_Files.ZIP Of 15 files within 1 directories

0 are compressed and 15 are not compressed. 22,353,687 total bytes of data are stored in 22,353,687 bytes. The compression ratio is 1.0 to 1.

For a report on the entire drive, run: cd / compact /s /q Let it scroll through the directories. It took about 5 mins on my slow PIII/1GHz. The summary report is at the end: Of 208148 files within 16256 directories 5397 are compressed and 202751 are not compressed. 44,321,021,555 total bytes of data are stored in 43,991,947,823 bytes. The compression ratio is 1.0 to 1.

Exterminating "compress old files" has not fixed all the other problems with Windoze. However, it's the fix that seems to have stabilized a few machines for me, which makes it worth trying. (No warranty expressed or implied). Let me know how it works.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Nope, been avoiding it due to rumors about problems with AMD CPU's, and Symantec.

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
     It\'s what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.

It is scanned on a daily basis.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

Sigh. Make an image backup of your hard disk to either another drive or a mess of DVD's. Make two if you're paranoid. Then, rip out Norton Internet Security, Norton 360, or whatever you're using, and replace it with any one of a dozen possible better alternatives. If you think you may want to restore Norton at a later date, record the various serial numbers. Be sure to also remove Live Reg and Live Update. If you have any registry protection software, aggressive anti-spyware software, or other security software, either temporarily remove them, or somehow disarm them. Extra credit for downloading the removal tool from the Symantec web pile which cleans the crud it left behind in the registry.

Once you've purged your machine of any potential obstructions to installing XP SP3, do a bit of minor housekeeping. Defrag is sometimes useful. Make sure you have plenty of empty disk space. Do the Disk Cleanup ritual (after disarming compress old files as previously detailed).

It takes 30-60 minutes to install XP SP3 depending on CPU horsepower. After the install, there will be a few additional XP updates to install. When done, test the results to be sure that things are still working. If not, use the image backup DVD or HD to restore your system to it's previous condition.

Yeah, it's a pain in the posterior, but you deserve it as penitence for not having partaken in the Windoze Update Ritual. Hopefully, it will fix the cut-n-paste problem, in addition to other issues that you have yet to stumble upon.

Incidentally, to insure maximum probability of success, I suggest you provide burnt offerings to the computer gods. Sacrificing an old 286 or 386 motherboard on the hibbacci has been known fix many strange problems.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

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I was always under the impression that chkdsk would fix errors on disk allocations that could not be read anyway - so no additional harm done.

What evidence do you have that chkdsk/f actually makes things worse? At best, my understanding is that it won't make things ANY worse, though it may not help either.

-mpm

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Could this also be related to page file size? Are you running low on hard drive space? If so, there may not be enough room (virtual memory vis-a-vis pagefile) to handle the operation, so it's disabled. (?) Later, after Windows does its periodic housekeeping, there might be enough free memory so Explorer behaves normally again.

A guess, but seems reasonable. However, I would have expected other problems running programs if the above were the case.

-mpm

Get a better scanner then! I am not kidding. Try two or three of the reputable ones - some of them now are pretty good at disabling the resident installed AV product if they get there before the update.

Regards, Martin Brown

** Posted from **

I know from sad experience that chkdsk will make things worse some times.

The /f doesn't just try to recover lost file sections by making files from sectors that are not in any file but also not free. It also attempts to fix cross-linked files and logical errors in the directory structure. These are the places where it can make things seriously worse. It can make a system that limped along fail to boot at all.

Twice, on seriously hosed file systems, i have tried chkdsk /f and made matters worse. It usually seems to fail the worst on cases where there are crosslinked executables. If you have those save your data and hard reformat & reinstall.

It had been a while. I had a temp file hell, there was over 70,000 files in one directory. At first i could only delete them about a dozen at a time, then by screenfulls (about 100), then by larger chunks until i could delete by first character*, finally i deleted about 20000 at once for the final delete. Almost 5:1 system speedup as a result and much more stable.