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pacummingFlag for United States of America

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Windows acting wonky. Text buttons missing, test in IE flashes or is missing, not a valid win32 application

Okay, this is a tough one I believe. Am fairly knowledgeable but there are always tricks and tips.

Have had same PC for quite a while. No hardware has been changed, no software has been added. Lojack is running on PC and has been for a while. Will ask vendor about this.
Windows XP Home, 3gb Ram, 2.4ghx Dual Core E6600 CPU with great cooling, paging file is system managed, also tried custom size, 3 partitions, single boot to XP, one user, 100gb free.
I have not changed my use or habits on this  machine. I see no pattern.
Have all patches from MSFT

Problem: A few times a week while surfing in IE with a few windows open as always, I will get text on a web page that disappears. If I move my mouse it will appear. Closing down IE and restarting does not help issue. Using Firefox does not help issue. Closing all windows and restarting IE does not help.
If I then click on Word, Excel, Event Viewer, Task Manager or other program I will get an error: Not a valid Win32 application. Or I might get: Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. Or I will get: Insufficient System Resources exist to complete the requested service.
Very strange indeed.

If I reboot all is fine and worked again.


WHAT HAVE I DONE TO TRY TO RESOLVE ISSUE:
sfc/scannow
hijack this-clean
combofix-clean
vundofix-clean
Malwarebytes Antimalware,Superantispyware, Avira-Clean
Rootkit search-clean
Clean Registry
Uninstall and reinstall Avira antivirus
Updated all drivers available including video
Backed off Video acceleration on Geforce 8600 GT card
Defrag of C drive
scandisk /f in safe mode (clean)
Reset all services to Defaults per Black Viper web site
Uninstalled IE8 and reinstalled IE8
Reset IE to all defaults
Ran a script that set all system policies/permissions to defaults
Uninstalled MSFT Installer and re-installed with new 4.x version
Tried System restore (early on) no change
Killed all restore points.
Ran Memory Check boot CD memtest86 for 4 hours-no errors



Other than re-installing Windows (an overwrite-recovery) and then install msft updates, I am at a loss.


Thanks
PC
Avatar of dbrunton
dbrunton
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Only suggestions.

Test hard disk with manufacturer's util.
Remove any addons in Internet Explorer.
might re-reg the msiexec.exe

At the command prompt, type msiexec.exe /unregister
then, msiexec /regserver

sounds like some cascading errors, perhaps stack overflows triggering the mem errors, etc..from apps trying to shutdown.

do a plain chkdsk /r from recovery console too if that has no effect

: )
Can also try sfc /scannow from a command prompt.
Avatar of pacumming

ASKER

Did sfc/ scannow as mentioned above
Reseated memory
Reseated video card and cleaned contacts and slot
Uninstalled video drivers, cleaned registry of said divers and references, reinstalled drivers

Cleaned case which was clean already.

There was a molex power connector missing from motherboard (4 pin molex large)  which I just plugged in. But it was never plugged in. Of course the 4-6 pin mobo connector was always plugged in.

Did chddsk from recovery console-okay
MSIExec was unregistered and re-registered.

Peter
"Insufficient System Resources exist to complete the requested service."

This is of most curious to me out of them.....I see you have 3gb RAM, whats the Page File set to?

Might disable it altogether, reboot, and reset it to System Managed. Maybe corruption there?

Alternatively, might have a driver causing Pool corruption . That could also give you the error (in similar verbage at least)..... I wouold disable any unused devices (if possible),like COM Ports, LPT1, Fingerprint scanners etc and run with it to see if the problem resurfaces....
Sorry, didn't see that up there.
Thanks all,
I will do the following:


1. Page file is system managed. I even set it to zero and had it re-created. Will set it to a fixed size this time.
2. Also will run a hard disk utility to check for corruption (other than Chkdsk)
3. I can run IE with no add-ons and see if this re-occurs.
Then will see if this occurs this week.
If it does, then I will
4. Try a regular PCI video card. The mobo doe snot have VGA on nit so I cannot just pull the card.

5. Take memory out of the 2 slots and see of 2gb makes a diff instead of 3 even though I reran memtest86 for 2.5 hours and there were no errors at all. And this was from a boot iso cd.

Not sure what else to disable or enable. This is a desktop. There is no fingerprint scanner.
I can post a log of services but not sure it will help. I have run this machine for about 4+ years with no prob, same OS and same video card and memory. All was fine till a few weeks ago. No change in ISP, PC has not been moved. Plenty of cooling. Have LCD in front showing temps. All okay.

Will keep you posted.

Thanks
Peter

So this i
"2gb makes a diff instead of 3"

An y chance the memory is mismatched in speed? What kind of RAM is it? Speed actually.....

And isnt it possible for the RAM to be running less efficiently if it is not in matched pairs (Dual channel)?
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pacumming
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