XP problems -- tell me there's some hope with these minor glitches! :)

[xfx]

Well folks, I went ahead and installed XP pro and I've got just about everything tuned. Man oh man, I spent a good 2-3 days removing tons of settings from the stock XP OS.. the super mario bros graphics and over-exaggerated anime was really getting to me.

I've been building and repairing PC's for a long time now, but I ran into a couple glitches that I have no clue how to track down. I'll start with the most annoying:

1) When I right click on a file (or files), there's about a 3 second delay before windows brings up the right click menu. As I mentioned above, I have really disabled a LOT of features in XP. The number of applications active makes no difference. I have a very minimal amount of processes open, and on the bottom toolbar there's only maybe 3 icons active (pc speaker/volume, winamp, anti-viral toolkit pro, and popup-killer). BUT, even if I exit the programs.. there's no change in right-click speed. I actually started closing active processes 1-by-1 to try to determine whats slowing down the right click, absolutely no change in speed. So, apparently this isnt dependent on what applications or processes I have open. When in task manager, CPU usage hits maybe 20% when I right click.. and you dont hear any HDD access either. Its just a delay.

FYI, I have a couple ideas.. but not sure. I was thinking maybe its the options I have in the right click menu. Some programs added their own options, such as ACDSee's "browse" option, UltraEdit's "Edit" option, AVP's "scan for viruses" option, WinRar added its own compression options, and I have a windows "copy to, and move to" options that I think I added with Tweak UI. I dont know how to access those to remove them, so I am not sure if thats the issue at hand. Besides, these programs never effected WinME when I used that many moons ago.

2) Along with that, the ONLY other programs that take a bit of time to start are IE6. Mind you, I have it open to about:blank (no homepage). BUT, new instances open immediately (when I shift-click to open a new instance). So only the BLANK explorer windows take time to load, regardless if an explorer window is open or not.

3) Anyone remember the registry option to make my logitech scroller button double click? I would use the Mouseware software but there are several reasons keeping me from using it, so I dont want to bore you all with explanations.

4) Last but not least, I've noticed the system has occasionally incurred an error that is SO bad, that the system just shuts off! Its pretty wicked, I'll be working on the computer and WHAMMO, a blue screen with LOTS of info comes up (DOS resolution text) but in less than 1 second, the system has already rebooted. It says something about "Windows has incurred a serious error..." and the next thing I see is the reboot.

Thats about it folks. Other than the above, the system works flawlessly and I am really enjoying it. So you know the specs:

Asus P4T-E w/ P4-1.6, 1gb Kingston RAM, 120gb IBM 7200rpm HDD, Matrox G550 dualhead (active), SB Audigy MP3, Logitech Marble Cordless, Linksys 8-port Router (not networked, just used to split my static DSL connection).

Hmm.. I cant think of anything else worth while to mention. If anyone has any ideas, please do suggest!

- Mike

 

[Maggotry]

"the super mario bros graphics and over-exaggerated anime"

Huh?

Anyway:

1. Not sure. I know those items are stored in a folder somewhere, but the location escapes me right now. Do a search of the HD. You'll find it. Not sure if it'll help you, though. I know WinRAR has an opt-out to add that stuff to the menu. I suggest booting into diag mode and see if it continues.

2. A new IE window should open immediately if you already have one open. The program is already in memory, but the 1st one you open has to be read from the HD.

3. No idea. I use an MS Explorer. Sorry.

4. Do you have auto-restart disabled? If not, go to My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Start-up and Recovery. Tell it not to restart on error. <--- That path may not be exactly right. I'm not on my XP machine right now. But go to My Comp > Properties. You'll find it.

What mobo driver are you using? Intel or XP's?

Edit: And welcome to AT.

 

[SemperFi]

Look here. For the menu speed issue. That page says for start menu but it seemed to speed up the right click menu also.

I changed the value to 50 instead of the suggested 0.

 

[xfx]

>>the super mario bros graphics and over-exaggerated anime
>Huh?

Hmm I guess not everyone is against the over-colorful XP appearance. I just tend to like a classic windows feel with no menu animation or sounds. ?? To each their own.

With problem #1, yes, when I do go into diagnostic mode I did indeed notice that both problems vanished: explorer opens instantly and files can be moved and deleted instantly. I just cant seem to track down what the slowdown is. SemperFI> I did tinker with that setting, but thats just for menu speed.. I think thats also accessable through Tweak UI. So you know, the hourglas comes up when I right click.. its kinda weird!

2) I know that the computer takes a sec to read explorer's info off of the HDD when starting its first instance. But the wierd thing is, it does this ONLY when I open a new blank window. If I hold shift to click on a link (to open in a new instance), it loads fast as usual. Only when lets say, I double click explorer from the desktop or toolbar shortcut.

As for problem #4, I went ahead and tinkered with the auto-restart features.. thanks for pointing that one out.

Thanks for the tips guys. Yeah yeah I'm new to this forum.. hehe you just HAD to point that out! Its all good, I've been around the BBS scene for ages anyway..

- Mike

 

[xfx]

Well.. I solved all but one of my problems:

Problems #1 and #2 were linked. I had an older version of Anti-Viral Toolkit Pro that wasnt working too well with XP. It worked, but it would slow down the system during those two situations: right click OR when loading explorer. OTHER than that, the system worked fine.

Problem #3 would ONLY happen when: I would disable the AVP monitor, visit the AVP site, download the update, and reload the monitor. Within a couple minutes after loading the AVP monitor, the system would crash. I did rear the blue screen error (especially since it didnt reboot, hehe!) and it had a problem with "FSFILTER.SYS" -- I did a search and I dont even have that file ! I have NO clue why that happened, but I know it was linked to AVP.

So, I uninstalled AVP and now I am looking to setup my new virus program. Thats the news folks. If anyone ever figures out how to set the middle button to double click, please let me know! hehe

take care folks,
- Mike