Installing problem after an update

Hello all (Pete, how are you? )

I cant seem to be able to install or exctract heavy weight files (mainly game demos), the programs just stop responding. Modest files have no such problem. Even the fileplanet download manager got massed up, it downloads ok but whenever I try to open its downloads folder- it opens but stop responding and I have to close it through the task manager, when I do it I "lose" my desktop, sometimes it will reappear but once or twice I had to boot the sys. Reinstalling the dl manager doesnt help.

I had no problems downloading and installing everything I wanted till the 4th this month, sometime after that I had a windows update which I think was about installing (as always, I only take a quick glance and trust MS to know what they're doing).
I tried to find the update (Ctrl panel>Add/Remove programs, show updates ticked) but couldnt.
Is there something I can do about it? I really dont wanna do system restore.

 

Since its a 1.5 months old XP install I think the updates are in que so I wont get a zillion update at once, so it might be an older update.

I can download direct and I usually do (not sunscribed to fileplanet), I have the problem with files that looks like completed.


Edit: Update- I did the dl with a reliable dl manager (http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/) so Im sure it has completed the download, and it's still messed up the same way- in the middle of unzipping it gets stuck.

 

Ok, thanks.

 

Hi Jet Boot Jack,

I don't know if the following will help,
but let's see:

1.Make sure that the downloaded file has exactly the same size
as the one on the server.MD5 checksum
If the file size is not listed on the server,you may be able to check it
with a small utility called GetFilesize http://www.browsertools.net/Get-File-Size/
Only for IE based browsers,but I'm sure there is one for Firefox.

I had similar incidents like you described and in my case
it was due to an AV program,which was set to monitor Reading & Writing of a file.
That's fine when the file is not large,but on substantial files it causes a problem.
When you unzip a very large file you usually see a spike
in CPU and memory usage.
Couple that with the scan action of the AV,which by it self can be quite
CPU intensive on a scan and you will see that you're running out of "room ".
Hence the Explorer.exe crash (loss of desktop).

This may not apply to you,but I've seen several instances where this is the case.
Possibly other active anti-malware scanners might cause the same problem.

Pete. (another one )

 

Hi Digger

Disabling the AV seems to work, thanks a bunch.

 

Hi Jet Boot Jack,

You're welcome.Glad it worked.
Diabling AV is obviously temporary

Hi PeteC,
Thanks.The first time I ran into this is several years ago with
Spybot S&D 's Teatimer.After that I had the same with Norton's and others.
After that I viewed these type of programs with suspicion haha

Pete.

 

Hi All,

I was going to add this as a PS,but it may be more useful as a separate post.

To curb/control excessive activity of some programs or processes
and at the same time assign a higher priority to others,
you may try any one of the following apps:

Process Tamer
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/proctamer/

Process Lasso
http://www.bitsum.com/prosuper.asp

Process Controller
http://www.k23productions.com/products/process_controller/

Note:1.Do not install more than one at a time.
2.Before uninstalling,reset all processes to normal or to the state
they were in when you first started the app.
(Keep the setup file in case you want to reinstall)

This may give an alternative to disabling AV or other active anti-malware app.

Pete.