Strange XP problem

[skudmunky]

I've been having a strange problem with Windows XP SP3. Basically, whenever my RAM usage hits 50%, no new programs will open. Explorer windows wont work, audacity will give me a "cant create window error", new firefox windows will just display black. Also, when I unlock my computer after it's been idle for a while, the taskbar won't come back until I've futzed around in explorer windows for a few minutes. Also, if I'm in a program like foobar and I click on one of the music files and select "open folder" or "view folder", the program will completely freeze for ~2 minutes, and won't work again till the explorer window comes up 2 minutes later.

I've run memtest for 8 hours with no errors, my tempuratures are fine, all my hard drives are fine, i've defragged. I've reinstalled windows a few times, running Killdisk on the 2 raptors I install windows on in between installs.

I just can't figure out how to fix this. As far as I can tell all my hardware works fine. Games run fine too, don't get any random crashes. Newly opened programs just won't work at all if my RAM usages is over 50%.

Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated. I've googled around to no avail, thought I'd see what your collective wisdom can come up with.

 

[Zepher]

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago and never resolved it.
What I would do is open task manager (which that usually always popped up for me) then end the Explorer.exe and then run it again and all would be fine for a day or so, then do it again when windows became unresponsive.

 

[Nenu]

Reset your CMOS in case something is corrupt.
Theres a lot of low level hardware control programming in the BIOS settings and other things you cant set.

 

[skudmunky]

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago and never resolved it.
What I would do is open task manager (which that usually always popped up for me) then end the Explorer.exe and then run it again and all would be fine for a day or so, then do it again when windows became unresponsive.

I've been doing that a lot, but when the problem occurs, task manager won't start either, unless I close some programs. It's really annoying.

Reset your CMOS in case something is corrupt.
Theres a lot of low level hardware control programming in the BIOS settings and other things you cant set.

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

 

[skudmunky]

Well, resetting the CMOS didn't help, and it seems like having more than 6 explorer windows open also triggers the problems...

 

[Zepher]

I guess you can try a repair or just do a re-install.

Did this first start happening with SP3?

 

[skudmunky]

I first noticed it with SP3 a month or so ago. I've reinstalled 3 times, with and without RAID, and I've run killdisk one pass zero writes on both disks.

 

[undermined]

test the ram first just to be sure it is fine, then make a now user and see if the problem is still present. also you can use process explorer for systeminternals to find process eating ram.

Its worth it to stress test the processof to verify you aren't getting errors from that.

 

[Zepher]

I first noticed it with SP3 a month or so ago. I've reinstalled 3 times, with and without RAID, and I've run killdisk one pass zero writes on both disks.

Are you saying that you re-installed Windows 3 times or SP3 3 times?

If you re-installed windows 3 times and it still happens, it might be the hardware, a driver, or a program that you installed.

 

[skudmunky]

Are you saying that you re-installed Windows 3 times or SP3 3 times?

If you re-installed windows 3 times and it still happens, it might be the hardware, a driver, or a program that you installed.

I've reinstalled windows 3 seperate times over the last month or so, because I've had Raptors die on me. Hence the raid 1. This last time I ran killdisk in between installs to make sure the drives got completely wiped, but that hasn't helped. I've also installed from both my MSDNAA copy of XP and my other copy of XP.

Like I said, I've run memtest overnight for 8 hours error free. I just ran JkDefrag again, so I'll see if that helps any. Stress testing the CPU seems like a good idea too. I'm not installing any strange programs, and I don't use any cracks or anything. This problem exists right after a fresh install.

Unless the latest nVidia drivers are causing this, I don't think its a driver problem, since all my other drivers have been the same for the last year.

 

[Nenu]

Unless the latest nVidia drivers are causing this, I don't think its a driver problem, since all my other drivers have been the same for the last year.

Unless one of the drivers you have used for the last year is not so compatible with SP3.

 

[Ascii2]

I've been having a strange problem with Windows XP SP3. Basically, whenever my RAM usage hits 50%, no new programs will open. Explorer windows wont work, audacity will give me a "cant create window error", new firefox windows will just display black. Also, when I unlock my computer after it's been idle for a while, the taskbar won't come back until I've futzed around in explorer windows for a few minutes. Also, if I'm in a program like foobar and I click on one of the music files and select "open folder" or "view folder", the program will completely freeze for ~2 minutes, and won't work again till the explorer window comes up 2 minutes later.

Try replacing the explorer shell components with different versions (use hotfixes, security updates, or service packs to do this). This may also require using an older version of a Cumcumulative Update patch for Internet Explorer 6 with SP2 or Internet Explorer 6 with SP1.

For Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4, I find that Explorer and Internet Explorer 6 with SP1 function with least defect using older versions of the components.

The quality of Microsoft patches are not as good as they once were.

 

[skudmunky]

I have IE7 installed, though I still primarily use firefox.

Problem has gotten even weirder - my ram uses shows 24% right now, which is much lower than it normally is (usually around 38% right after boot.) Programs were crashing and not opening even with my ram usage at 25% today. Couldn't even open a really small .exe with audacity running till I restarted explorer.exe

I think my ram might not be getting enough voltage. I'm gunna go check that out now.

:edit: while shutting down my PC it BSOD'd with an IRQL not less or equal error. Pumped my OCZ ram back up to 2.1 volts, we'll see how it runs now.

 

[jellyhead]

Good call on the RAM - I experienced strange issues until I did that with my build (my Intel MB set my ram to 1.8v initially). Now running tip-top @ 2.1v

Hope you get it sorted.

 

[skudmunky]

Putting the ram back up to the previous 2.1 volts stopped the BSOD but explorer still gives me the same errors.

 

[Nenu]

Its possible Windows has corrupted.
Its worth trying a new install of windows on a spare hard drive to see if the problems have gone away.

 

[skudmunky]

Its possible Windows has corrupted.
Its worth trying a new install of windows on a spare hard drive to see if the problems have gone away.

I've reinstalled windows 3 different times on 3 different hard drives with the same result.

 

[Nenu]

I've reinstalled windows 3 different times on 3 different hard drives with the same result.

No you havent.
I read in your previous post that you have just changed the ram voltage and the BSODs dont happen any more.
I didnt read anything about your installing Windows 3 more times since then.

 

[skudmunky]

No you havent.
I read in your previous post that you have just changed the ram voltage and the BSODs dont happen any more.
I didnt read anything about your installing Windows 3 more times since then.

Sorry, misunderstood your post.


Well, actually, I just shut my PC down and got the same IRQL error BSOD. Disabled my onboard sound card in the bios, that's the only other thing that has changed since the CMOS reset. I'm gunna shut down again and see what happens.

:edit: After disabling the onboard audio, IRQL bsods on shutdown have stopped. I think the onboard soundcard was conflicting with my X-fi.

I'm kinda ready to just install vista business (get it through msdnaa) and windows 7, but I just finished installing XP a week ago and I'm kinda sick of installing things.