Joseph King
Thread Starter
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2001
- Messages
- 305
Running W98SE on P-III/500. IDE HD, Plextor 40x burner, and standard floppy. Was very stable system until a few months ago, after I had run a Repair on IE6 SP1, installed a few Windows Critical Updates, and a few innocuous apps (WS_FTP Pro, SnagIt, PhotoShop Elements). Also installed WinAmp, which gave some problems until a few wipes and reinstalls (which was on 10/4/02).
Misbehavior began a number of months ago with intermittent problems in Word 2000. I use Outline view a lot and have macro keys set to control indents, etc, simulating simple keystrokes. On occasion, though, Word acts up: macros don't work, hotlinks don't work (web and email doesn't click through), and small icons at lower left screen to select page views don't work (but View menu still does). Also, selecting a command like Find sometimes results in the whole program -- Title Bar, program icon in Task Bar, etc -- blinking on and off (normal to dim to normal to dim) and no mouse or keystrokes work until I switch to another app and then back to Word, which always gets rid of the blinking and restores basic functionality but doesn't bring back the macros, hotlinks, and view icons (though those sometimes work just fine).
A few months ago, my Nero 5.5 also started acting up, after having worked like a charm form many months. It started to intermittently freeze on launch, always at the "Scanning SCZI/IDE bus" status. End Task would close it and all other apps would work fine, but a system Shutdown after Nero froze always hangs. Once, when I attempted a Shutdown after Nero froze, I got a "Not Responding" window entitled "DDE Serve Window", and when I went into the Task List it shows WS_FTP Pro is Not Responding, which is very weird since I had had it open but it worked fine and closed fine.
Another time when Shutdown hung after the Nero launch freeze the Task List showed only one item in it: RunDLL32, and an attempted End Task on it popped up a Not Responding window on it (though I suspect that's too generic of a message to tell us anything).
On rare occasions, my Cool Edit audio editing program misbehaves, too. It won't record, or won't play back ("not enough memory" message, which is not accurate).
What I'm assuming is that a DDE-related file (DLL or something) that is not basic to Windows but was installed by and is shared by a number of apps (Nero, Word, WS_FTP Pro, "etc") is corrupt or a file version is incompatible with others.
I did a Find Files for filenames with DDE in them and the only ones that jumped out at me as having been installed in the past few months were in the Real Player program folder, and were dated 10/4/02. I searched the Windows folder for all files of that date and noticed WinAmp was installed on that date, which gave me a lot of problems when I was installing it.
I also see Mplayer2.lgc dated 10/4/02. Im guessing this is the date the problem occurred.
To clarify: Nero freezes on launch only sometimes, and apparently only after Word or another program that shares the problem file has been open (even if I then close it). No other programs are hanging, or causing Shutdown problems only Nero. Every single time Nero freezes on launch, its at the Scanning SCZI/IDE bus status, and every single time that happens, I can End Task on it and go back to work, but 100% of the time a subsequent system Shutdown will hang (it starts the process, spins the floppy drive a moment like normal, and then hangs with an empty green screen Desktop with nothing on it). Nero had been working fine for months after first being installed.
I've already tried, wiping Nero including having their tech support show me how to clean the registry, and then going to the latest version; doing the same with the ATI video driver (Nero's web site hinted they might be related); keeping a CD in the drive on launching Nero; disabling everything logical in MSCONFIG Startup; and a Repair on Office 2000. Nero's U.S.-based tech support is now suggesting I unplug the CD drive and see if it's hardware, which tells me their lost. Once Nero launches, I can burn and play back all day long without a glitch; I seriously doubt it's hardware.
Ideally, I'd like to find a way to "see" what Nero is hanging on when I try to launch it, or else what its leaving "open" that prevents a system Shutdown each time it hangs on launch. I don't know how to see that, though.
I'm thinking my best bet is to "pick" a program to uninstall that is a suspect or, rather, that seems to share the problem file. I'll have to then do one of two things when it says it wants to delete a file that may be shared: either say Yes and then reinstall the program from CD and hope it replaces the questionable file, or say No and list each shared file and then manually replace them all (unless one or two jump out as being highly suspect).
Any advice, comments, thoughts, intuitions, or psychic insights, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Misbehavior began a number of months ago with intermittent problems in Word 2000. I use Outline view a lot and have macro keys set to control indents, etc, simulating simple keystrokes. On occasion, though, Word acts up: macros don't work, hotlinks don't work (web and email doesn't click through), and small icons at lower left screen to select page views don't work (but View menu still does). Also, selecting a command like Find sometimes results in the whole program -- Title Bar, program icon in Task Bar, etc -- blinking on and off (normal to dim to normal to dim) and no mouse or keystrokes work until I switch to another app and then back to Word, which always gets rid of the blinking and restores basic functionality but doesn't bring back the macros, hotlinks, and view icons (though those sometimes work just fine).
A few months ago, my Nero 5.5 also started acting up, after having worked like a charm form many months. It started to intermittently freeze on launch, always at the "Scanning SCZI/IDE bus" status. End Task would close it and all other apps would work fine, but a system Shutdown after Nero froze always hangs. Once, when I attempted a Shutdown after Nero froze, I got a "Not Responding" window entitled "DDE Serve Window", and when I went into the Task List it shows WS_FTP Pro is Not Responding, which is very weird since I had had it open but it worked fine and closed fine.
Another time when Shutdown hung after the Nero launch freeze the Task List showed only one item in it: RunDLL32, and an attempted End Task on it popped up a Not Responding window on it (though I suspect that's too generic of a message to tell us anything).
On rare occasions, my Cool Edit audio editing program misbehaves, too. It won't record, or won't play back ("not enough memory" message, which is not accurate).
What I'm assuming is that a DDE-related file (DLL or something) that is not basic to Windows but was installed by and is shared by a number of apps (Nero, Word, WS_FTP Pro, "etc") is corrupt or a file version is incompatible with others.
I did a Find Files for filenames with DDE in them and the only ones that jumped out at me as having been installed in the past few months were in the Real Player program folder, and were dated 10/4/02. I searched the Windows folder for all files of that date and noticed WinAmp was installed on that date, which gave me a lot of problems when I was installing it.
I also see Mplayer2.lgc dated 10/4/02. Im guessing this is the date the problem occurred.
To clarify: Nero freezes on launch only sometimes, and apparently only after Word or another program that shares the problem file has been open (even if I then close it). No other programs are hanging, or causing Shutdown problems only Nero. Every single time Nero freezes on launch, its at the Scanning SCZI/IDE bus status, and every single time that happens, I can End Task on it and go back to work, but 100% of the time a subsequent system Shutdown will hang (it starts the process, spins the floppy drive a moment like normal, and then hangs with an empty green screen Desktop with nothing on it). Nero had been working fine for months after first being installed.
I've already tried, wiping Nero including having their tech support show me how to clean the registry, and then going to the latest version; doing the same with the ATI video driver (Nero's web site hinted they might be related); keeping a CD in the drive on launching Nero; disabling everything logical in MSCONFIG Startup; and a Repair on Office 2000. Nero's U.S.-based tech support is now suggesting I unplug the CD drive and see if it's hardware, which tells me their lost. Once Nero launches, I can burn and play back all day long without a glitch; I seriously doubt it's hardware.
Ideally, I'd like to find a way to "see" what Nero is hanging on when I try to launch it, or else what its leaving "open" that prevents a system Shutdown each time it hangs on launch. I don't know how to see that, though.
I'm thinking my best bet is to "pick" a program to uninstall that is a suspect or, rather, that seems to share the problem file. I'll have to then do one of two things when it says it wants to delete a file that may be shared: either say Yes and then reinstall the program from CD and hope it replaces the questionable file, or say No and list each shared file and then manually replace them all (unless one or two jump out as being highly suspect).
Any advice, comments, thoughts, intuitions, or psychic insights, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
