programs not opening.

hi everyone,
I'm having a problem occasionally, that is when i try to open a program nothing happens - the cursor changes to the hourglass for a second so it looks like something is happening, but no window comes up and it doesn't show up in task manager. I can open up the window of something that is already running, for example msn messenger window from the system tray.
I am pretty sure this problem only happens when I am connected to the internet, if I am remembering correctly.
When this happens I cannot log-off or restart so i end up having to switch the computer off at the wall and turn it back on to fix it, which is rather annoying.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

Sounds to me a lot like adware/malware/spyware or a virus has infected your system.

I have seen some adware use so much CPU and memory that it wont let anything new open. Things already open though, including those in the taskbar near the clock, will already have memory set aside for themselves so they will work.

Last time i saw this problem it was actually a program called Kazaa which hogged so many system resources that it stopped programs launching. Kazaa is a P2P file sharing app like WinMX and Morpheus. Part of the reason these programs can choke your PC is they are adware magnets.

Try these things first:

Make sure your antivirus is fully up to date and scan your whole hard disk. If you have no antivirus, go to your kitchen, take out a wooden spoon and spank yourself until it hurts. See below for free antivirus u can download now.

Then get some adware scanners/removers and scan with those also. Below i list some FREE programs that should do these things for you, that are good.

Free Antivirus Programs

AVG antivirus (Full time antivirus shield and scanner/remover)

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

MCAfee Stinger (Stand alone virus scanner, only scans on request and no shield, but good remover).

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

Free Adware removers

Spybot Search and Destroy (Best adware scanner and remover i know of, and will block adware it recognises from returning-be sure you use "immunise" option after each update and update beofre each use using the programs update feature)

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

HijackThis (Internet Explorer BHO revealer and remover, requires some tech knowledge) a BHO is a Browser Helper Object, Like a Search Bar or Home Page Hijacker)

And there are many more, but this will give you a start. Another adware remover worth a mention is called Adaware.

SO try this and if you turn up nothing let us know......

 

Hi got_no_life,
How did your virus scans and adware/malware cleanup go? Has your problem gotten any better. It's been a while so I thought I check in here to see if your still breathing. In addition, I'd like to throw a few more ideas at you as follows:

Exactly how long do you wait before this apparent hang to end? Sometimes a nonresponsive application can take a while before an endtask or not responding message will occur.

Reduce your number of startup applications or those programs that load up at startup and sit your systray.

Become familiar with taskmanagers lists of processes. The ones that you would ordinarily see on a day to day basis while doing the regular things you do. Next time this happens and you bring up taskmanagers list of processes, this may help you to determine if something is running that ordinarily shouldn't or vis-versa. This will all so help in determining which tasks you can kill or "Endtask" while trying to determine if it's one of these processes that's a trouble maker. Look for ordinarily high cpu usage or something that is hogging such, other than system idle, of course. Check out the networking tab see if and make sure the levels are within norm. Did you know that you can shutdown or restart via taskmanagers toolbar "shutdown ". It will kill or end task on nonresponsive processes and do so. this may be a better alternative as opposed to pulling the plug.

Check your event viewer via the administrators tools or the startmenu>run line and a typed command of eventvwr.msc. Sometimes errors and service glitches will be logged in here that you may have missed.

A stretch but possible is, mouse malfunction such as a click not detected as a click or detected as an accidental double click. This would be a tweak or adjustment needed in the mouse settings/options via the control panel. Mouse happy finger and you have managed to click an icon to many times. This can result in two of the same executables trying to open and run. This will hang or lock up OS (done this one myself).

Be aware that an older or nonupdated or update_gone_bad, misbehaving virus scanner actively scanning files on access can produce many undesirable behaviors. Since this seems to be random, I doubt that is the issue but I threw it in as something to keep in mind. I don't what your going to do with it as disabling a virus program will have much worse consequences then a shortcut link that misbehaves on occasion. If this was consistent and reproducible, temporarily disabling active scanning would be an option but it's not so this paragraph was me exercising my typing fingers....

While I tend to think I may be off base here as you seem not have trouble running shelled systray icons and the programs within but are having the problem with what I assume are desktop shelled shortcuts, you never know, you may luck onto to something that pans out and leads to a bigger clue as to what is going on. I tend to solve my own problems by becoming familiar with how my computer operates when normal. When it misbehaves I can more easily spot what shouldn't or wouldn't ordinarily be there.

Keeping track of anything newly installed, uninstalled or updated is also sound advice. Be aware that an error prior to this that may have resulted in something closing or stopping, may seem unrelated. These can snowball or cascade and cause other glitches further down the road. A reboot should have been done to stabilize the system once again. Often trouble follows after one of these categories.

How long has it been since you did a scandisk using the thorough switch or option? Bad sectors, lost file fragments, corrupted files etc. can be caused by these bad shutdowns you are having to do. Speaking of which, I hope your keeping an eye on your c:\windows\temp folder. This may also fill up on temp files that fail to get deleted or cleaned properally. Again a secondary result of a bad or forced shutdown.

Defrag? When have you done this last?

I guess it's the "Sherlock" in me who is always flying by the seat of my pants using the tools at hand and common sense. I am neither an IT wiz or gifted with programing knowledge so 6 senses, with an emphasis on that 6th sense, is all I have.