Help Requested

[[BTF]Gator]

Since the last windows XP update, my computer has been acting odd.

1.  The main culprit, is at some seemingly consistent time period, rather short, around once a minute or so, the computer seems to "do" something.  The screen will flash, like it is doing something, but the problem is, whatever i am doing, say typing in this web browser or typing in irc, well it is placed as secondary.  If you know what i mean.  Some action is being done and its importance is being placed over whatever i am doing.  As i understand programs run with a "priority".  And something has had a higher priority placed on it then anything else i am doing.  Normally whatever window you have open and on top is priority.  It would be the same effect of me going down to the toolbar and clicking on another program.  You know, like the top of my windows are blue when they are active, and when i click to something else outside of the window, the top of the window goes grey, showing it isnt active or priority anymore.  i have to click on the window to use it again.

2. So the big side effect of this is, i'm playing quake2, and it is constantly taking me "out" of the game.  The game doesnt stop, i stay connected and everything, but i am suddenly looking at my desktop and quake2 is down in my toolbar running there.  i can click there and go right back into the game just fine, but im usually dead.   i have the final round match with digency coming up, and this certainly isnt going to benefit me. lols.

3. i am certain this has something to do with the windows upgrade.  the last upgrade installed eight updates.  And this problem started the second i rebooted.  i have rebooted many times since trying to understand what is going on.  No change.

4. Is there a way i can set my computer back to the way it was set BEFORE the updates.  Or figure out what the updates were and remove them?  Or where do i start to hunt down this problem?

5.  i have done all of my spybot and adware removal.

Any ideas?  Whatever it is doing, it did it five times in the time it took to write this out.

[[BTF]adam]

I have no geniune windows so I cant get sp2 lol, but would not a system restore to before when you installed the updates take you back to before the updates? or does windows keep the updates..

[M^tster]

All your updates should be in your add/remove programs utility...just be sure you know which one you want to take out.... 

[Art]

Wow, that's a nasty problem you have there Gator. I'm not familiar at all with XP (thank goodness), but I'd get a task manager program up and look what apps and processes are running. Watch the cpu usages, etc. You might also do a safemode boot and see if that makes a difference. Check to see what starts on bootup and disable everything that isn't essential.

Might give you a clue as to what's doing it.

[ĄƦçɧąɳɠҾԼ]

Odd problem you got.  I got those updates and didn't have any problems.  Your "Accessibility Options" didn't get activated somehow did they? you know the settings for handicap users, sometimes I have problems like that if I forget to disable them after a fresh install.

Goto Control Panel and open the Accessibility options, click the options for each and uncheck "Use Shortcut", also make sure that each one is unchecked where it says "Use <name of option>".  I know these things will make you go to the desktop during a game, especially if you hold the shift key for 8 seconds or press it 5 times.

One thing I didn't like about XP, you can't just uninstall them like you could on Win9x.

[[BTF]Defiant!]

I don't know, but have some suggestions toward figuring it out.  I do think the accessibility options mentioned above is quite possible.

To get more information on the problem, try some of the free tools from http://www.sysinternals.com/ProcessesAndThreadsUtilities.html.  Specifically, Autoruns shows you all of the programs on your computer set to run at boot time this list is considerably bigger than just what is shown in startup or the regual Run key in the registry.  Also Handle shows which processes have which file sopen and Filemon shows you disk activity.

Random ideas toward solving your problem.

• kill processes and see if the problem continues (CTRL-ALT-DELETE to get task manager then right mouse click on processes and select kill)
• defrag
• turn off your virus scanner
• adaware with latest updates
• check for your accessibility options being on
• I had a problem once with intermittent client-side lag in games which was due to directx sound settings (fixed via %windir%\system32\dxdiag.exe)  but if the problem occurs outside of games, ignore.
• check for scheduled tasks
• make sure windows disk compression isn't on
• sometimes windows boxes hang if there is a network problem, such as a mapped drive or printer which isn't reachable

Def

[X'tyfe]

if all else fails, FORMAT!!
sure you will loose your stuff, but there is nothing like starting fresh
fixes 99% of all problems for me

[ĄƦçɧąɳɠҾԼ]

if all else fails, FORMAT!!
sure you will loose your stuff, but there is nothing like starting fresh
fixes 99% of all problems for me

I find it best to use some sort of boot disc and delete all system folders and files, that way I don't lose my stuff.

[[BTF]Gator]

i still havent found an answer to this.  i have followed the advice given, which i appreciate.  however it wasnt any of those things.  in my mind, what ever is causing it should show up in the tast manager, but im not seeing it there.

Basically a little white box flashes in the toolbar, and whenever it does that, my q2 minimizes, or whatever i am working on becomes a nonactive window.

most annoying.  if i figure out what it is, i'll post.

at this point im sticking to ffa until i get it figured out.

[console]

Basically a little white box flashes in the toolbar, and whenever it does that, my q2 minimizes, or whatever i am working on becomes a nonactive window.

Hi Gator...

Hmm - you might want to check out some tools from sysinternals, such as FileMon and RegMon.
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Filemon.html
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Regmon.html

These will show you every file that is being accessed on the system, and every registry key that is being accessed, and by what process.

Others that might be handy, that I haven't tried yet, could be Autoruns, PMon, and Process Explorer.

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PMon.html
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

I'm pretty sure with one or more of these tools, it would be possible to catch the bastard in the act, and determine the filename of the process responsible.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

[Bleach]

I can vouch for ProcessExplorer being quite helpful, I got the link off MajorGeeks and have been pleased thus-far.

(Thanks for the link to that website console, I just downloaded that RegMon )

[[BTF]Gator]

Well, i seem to have the problem licked at this point.

i downloaded taskmanager16 and it showed a few more processes not showing up in the windows task manager, i just shut off everything not necessary, and one of them did the trick.  i dont know which one was the culprit yet, and will probably have to go through this at every reboot until i figure it out.

i truly appreciate everyone's help with this.   i will look at teh programs suggested also to toy around with things.

[plastik]

i get the same problem with my firewall when im playing, it alerts me and minimizes q2.  something is obviously alerting you of something...like you said, a white thing appears in the taskbar.  what updates did you install?