crashing

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 by thehighlander | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk

i have major problems. itried the free versions of windowblinds in both my pc's before buying object desktop. everything worked fine, so i bought the full version. my windows millenium pc is still humming right along. my windows xp computer is nearly unusable. it freezes constanly and it's getting worse. it fails now on booting up, i can't run my anti-virus unless i turn off every wb feature, and even then, it freezez up most of the time. every windows diagnostic says nothing is wrong., except now i can't defrag or run scandisc. i am not blaming wb, it may be unrelated, but i would like to know if anyone else has had this problem before i reformat the hard drive and start over.
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Tech-Cat
Reply #1 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 2:33 AM
I have never had this kind of problem before with WB on XP. How much RAM and video RAM do you have? I can't think of what went wrong with your defrag or scandisc but if you don't have more than 128MB of RAM and little video memory, then XP's need to have plenty of memory may have something to do with it.

thehighlander
Reply #2 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 4:20 AM
i should have put my specs in. i have 768mb of ram, and i have a nividia gforce2 mx/mx 400 video card. as i said, i don't know that wb is causing any of this. it seemed to get worse after i installed icon packager, but i haven't tried uninstalling it yet. as far as the defrag problem, i don't know if it started before or after object desktop. for the last 2 months, every time i analyzed the drive, windows said it wasn't necessary. now that it is, it can't. by the way, the reason i'm not using the faq, is because on my pc at least, the page is missing any questions to click on.

Fuzzy Logic
Reply #3 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:21 AM
Try running chkdsk /r from a command prompt (Start > Run > cmd). That should sort out any disk errors.

pjpowell
Reply #4 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:23 AM
To be honest by what you're describing it sounds more like a dodgy hard disk than dodgy software. What does defrag do? Completely fail to start or hang immediately? Try doing chkdsk c: /f from a command prompt. This should schedule a disk check for the next reboot. Also when you say it fails on bootup does it give an error message? Does it just hang? What stage does it get to before failing? Have you tried any other accounts?

My old hard disk had a point when it would start to chug and corrupt data. Until it got over 95% full I had no problems but after that point it exhibited similar symptoms to what you describe. After some further checking it then developed a nasty scraping noise and it was obvious it was defective.

I hope it's not hardware related for you. It's quite traumatic to try and backup almost 10GB of data with a nasty scraping in the background and a long pause every few minutes.

Keila
Reply #5 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:27 AM
If it has been a while since you last installed XP I would go ahead a wipe it out. XP has plenty problems of it's own. Do you remember what XP updates you have installed? There is at least one out there that is causing major startup problems.

This does not sound WB or Icon related to me.

Fuzzy Logic
Reply #6 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:29 AM
The /r switch is a more complete check than the /f switch

KarmaGirl
Reply #7 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:31 AM

Wow.....what you are explaining sounds totally unrelated to Stardock products.  However, do you run an anti-virus besides Norton?  There is a nasty worm running around (which I experienced first hand) which will actually take out Norton.  It takes over the auto-update function and keeps the updates from installing.  It also adds itself to exclusion list in Norton so that it won't detect it.  Every time you boot it propagates and makes your system slower.  If you can get into your system, go online and run Mcafee's free virus scan.  If it is that worm, Mcafee will be able to detect it for you.

Is there anything else that you have installed recently?  Have you tried reinstalling XP (not reformat, just reinstall)?  (Which shouldn't wipe your system)

To ease your mind about Stardock products- ME is the worst operating system ever (sorry- I have a real grudge against it after having to use it for too long and having to constantly reboot), so if everything is running smoothly on it, then there is no reason why it wouldn't function *better* on XP (especially with your system specs).

We have not had any other reports like yours, either, so I doubt that it is a Stardock product doing it.  (Especially if you have disabled any or all of them).

I would check for viruses first, then try and reinstall XP.  A reformat would be the last option as it is so much work and usually not needed.

 


MadIce
Reply #8 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:35 AM
You may have software running (maybe in the background and appear in the system tray) that is causing trouble for WB. One (or maybe more) is likely to cause trouble. You can find out if that is the case by disabling them all and then run WB. If the computer is behaving then try to enable them one by one. Each time you should check if verything is working OK. If you find the offending one(s) we maybe able to help you to find some settings or alternatives that solves the problem. And of course it is a good thing to check for virii.
[Message Edited]

Tech-Cat
Reply #9 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:35 AM
It sounds like to me you have fast enough hardware to handle XP plus any Object Desktop component you run on top of that. I have never had problems with OD on my XP system, so I don't know what the cause of your problems could be. It sounds to me like you may need to consider a reinstall, but first at least give some suggestions provided by others on this thread a try.
[Message Edited]

paxx
Reply #10 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:48 AM

Not really related to the question, but just my input concerning the reformat solution.
I have found personnaly that a complete reformat once a year is not a luxury, with any version of Windows including XP. From my experience, Windows slows down to a crawl after a while, and reformating makes wonders. Last time I did that, I couldn't believe how much faster my system suddenly became.


Tech-Cat
Reply #11 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:51 AM
Reinstalling is such a pain. It takes me forever to get all the programs and settings I want back on my hard drive. I really feel for you thehighlander.

Keila
Reply #12 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 6:36 AM
I reinstall at least twice a year but I have 2 drives so it is a breeze for me. Just reload all the programs no problem, just stack those suckers and load one after another.
I like the fuss though.

yrag2
Reply #13 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 6:49 AM
Do you have XP update 811493 installed?????? If you do, un-install it and see if that does the trick



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thehighlander
Reply #14 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 10:42 AM
first, it would take too long to reply to each answer, so i'll just say "thanks" to all of you for the help and ideas. i'll check the update, if i have it ,it's in my records. i'm encouraged that no one believes it's related to stardock products. neither did i. as i said, i tested first. but i wanted to see if anyone else had had similar probs. i am upgrading to a 120gig drive in a couple of weks, that will eliminate another possible culprit. in the meantime, i will checkout the other tips. i'll keep you posted.

thehighlander
Reply #15 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 2:44 PM
Update: good news and bad news. I still can't defrag, but at least I can tell everyone that reads this, that Stardock programs have nothing to do with it. I deleted a corrupted icon file, and my pc has frozen only twice today, not too unusual for windows. To answer earlier questions, there is never an error message. If the pc does freeze, it can happen half-way, or freeze just as the desktop finishes coming up. But that usually happens after I've had to restart so many times. I ran chkdsk/r, it finished successfullly. I had run it from tools a couple of times. I then ran defrag C: as a command prompt. It froze as soon as it started moving data. Same with Speed Disc, it freezes anywhere from 1% to 7%. I reoved the update, no luck. When you do that, by the way, it tells you that OE and every Stardock product might not work. They do. As a final try, I started in safe mode, minimal drivers, no programs running in background, and it still froze as soon as it started moving files. But first it told me I didn't have to!! even though it does in normal mode. At least I have eliminated my favorite programs as a culprit. I can't go back to normal windows after seeing all this beauty. Thanks.

yrag2
Reply #16 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 3:26 PM
this sounds more and more like a graphic card problem...try going into Control Panel/Display/Settings/Advanced/Troubleshooting and move slider a notch to left...keep moving to left until the problem goes away. If it doesn't do anything, at least you'll know it's not the card Also make sure you have the latest drivers for your card or if you just put new drivers in, roll them back to the last drivers installed.



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Jafo
Reply #17 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:30 PM
Most recently I have had catastrophic freezes in XP Pro...caused simply by a harddrive dying slowly.
One sector of the drive has a read/write problem and freezes on accessing that part of the drive.....usually during a defrag or virus scan....[or if I were to be playing USAF, since the damaged sector/s houses files from the game. Generally you are likely to hear 'odd' noises from the drive if that's the case...if so, get that 120gig NOW, not later.....

kona0197
Reply #18 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:40 PM
Why stop at 120 GB? 200 GB are coming down in price real quick like.

paxx
Reply #19 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 7:41 PM
Come on now, what can you do with so much space. I have a 30 Gig hard drive and it's still only half full. Unless of course one has Gigabites worth of MP3's and movies (tut-tut-tut).

kona0197
Reply #20 Wednesday, May 21, 2003 7:45 PM
I like to rip my DVD to my hard drive so I do not have to keep searching for and putting DVDs in my DVD rom. Takes up alot of space.

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