Can't identify program open/close on it's own.

Noticed this a couple of days ago, so am thinking it may have something to do with an "update" on a program (I suspect it may have something to do with my HP printer???) But I can't be certain (and I'm too computer illiterate to know how to check?)

But noticed it because my screensaver would intermittently shut off and then resume back to normal. I had tried adjusting the time to activate the screensaver and that didn't have any effect.

I do notice, however, when I am on the internet that there is a "window" that shows up in the task bar(?) but it opens/closes so quickly that I can't click on it to see what it might be! (there is nothing that shows what it is, just a blank white square!)

Is there some way I can find out what is doing this? (I suspect may a program checking for updates or something??) I have also run Spybot, Ad-aware & NAV and none of them report anything.

(I am using WinXP (pro), MSN Explorer v9.2, Outlook Express 6.0)

Appreciate any assistance on how to stop whatever is doing this!

Thanks!
Vicki

 

Hello Viki,

It might be, but the duration sounds too short for an update. It sounds very much like an error report being sent. And it might well be the HP printer software. The only way to find that out is to disable the printer software. Disable the HP processes using Task Manager:

To bring up TM, simultaneously hit the ctrl - alt - delete keys.
In TM, click the Proccess tab.
Click on the name column, that will put the processes in name sequence.
Right click on each HP process and click on end process.



Other possibilitiies and places to look:

The Event Viewer:
Go into the Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance (if XP view) > Admin Tasks > Event viewer.

Look at the System and Apllication logs for the time at which this event happens.

Firewall Log:
If not a 3rd party firewall, and you're using XP's, logging has to be enabled:

Control Panel > Security Center > Windows Firewall > Advanced tab > Security Logging > Settings > in the log settings dialog box: check "Log dropped Packets" and click the save as bar: \WINDOWS\pfirewall.log. That log is accessible with Notepad.


I notice that you use MSN, and MSN will send error reports of very short duration.

If you can, then use IE instead of MSN Explorer:

In the main MSN window, right click on the butterfly and close. A window will open giving you the choice to disconnect, or the 2nd choice, close the MSN Window and stay connected. Do that and use IE. See if this behavior stops.

BTW, this is always the way I operate - don't like MSN Explorer.


If none of this works, there will be other suggestions and maybe programs that I or others will post to try to find what this is.

Regards - Charles

 

Thank you, Charlesvar, for your assistance with this issue. I did do the ctrl-alt-del method you suggested to end programs related to HP and that seemed to do the trick (never noticed the opening/closing window and my screensaver stayed activated as it was prior). But of course upon doing a re-boot, they reappeared.

So I did some researching on some of the HP exe files and think the culprit was the "hpcmpmgr.exe" file? (Something to do with checking for updates I think??) I went to msconfig/start-up and disabled it from start-up, so am hoping that this will clear up that problem for now? (At least I hope it does!)

I think I could maybe reinstall the software and not let it do any updates so this wouldn't happen again, but hate the thought of reinstalling....I never have had much luck with doing that (but that was on my old Win98 computer and this one--WinXP is too new for me to totally comprehend! )

Never had any problems running my printer before the updates (which may have been driver updates???) and do not notice any difference after it was done (if that's actually what did happen!)

Thanks for your help, but will try any other corrective steps that I maybe should have used instead (in case what I've done isn't a proper procedure?)

Vicki

 

Hi Vicki,

Don't re install, the software is doing its job, however annoying it is, which wouldn't change with a re install.

Sometimes software like this doesn't want stay disabled by msconfig. So if it reappears, then use Autoruns, more effective:

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

Regards - Charles