Programs won't start in XP

[corey]

OK, nobody is probably going to be able to help with
this, but in the last week or so, occasionally when I try
to open a new program (email program, Word, whatever) the
cursor goes to the 'hourglass' for a few seconds and then
nothing, the program won't open. Whenever this happens, I
can't open any programs not already running, although the
programs already running continue to function properly.
When this happens my first reaction is to reboot, but
WinXP won't even do this, the same thing happens (i.e.
nothing) when I try to restart from the Start menu, and I
have to 'power off' to get the machine to shut down. It
seems that if I wait long enough (3-5 minutes), then all
the programs I attempted to start all pop up at once.

This seems to me to be surely an OS problem, as it
doesn't seem to matter what programs are running or what
I am trying to run when the problem occurs. I am running
Windows XP Home (fully updated), clean install, on a Sony
PCG-R505TL laptop, with 192 MB RAM and a 15 Gig HD.

[R. C. White]

Hi, Corey.

Those are weird symptoms! At least, I haven't heard of them before. But
the fix might be fairly easy.

Have you run the System File Checker? At the Run prompt, type: sfc
/scannow

SFC will compare each of the WinXP operating system files with the "known
good" copy held in your on-disk cache and replace any missing or damaged
ones. Have your WinXP CD-ROM handy; SFC will probably want to see that.

This should clear up the problem. If it does not, post back. You may need
to run what MS calls an "in-place upgrade", as described in KB article
315341. But sometimes that gets tricky for a proprietary laptop.

While 192 MB RAM should be enough to run WinXP, more would be better.
Especially since you said that, "if I wait long enough (3-5 minutes), then
all the programs I attempted to start all pop up at once." It could be that
WinXP is taking that long to shuffle stuff to and from the paging file to
get ready to start those programs.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"corey" > wrote in message
...
> OK, nobody is probably going to be able to help with
> this, but in the last week or so, occasionally when I try
> to open a new program (email program, Word, whatever) the
> cursor goes to the 'hourglass' for a few seconds and then
> nothing, the program won't open. Whenever this happens, I
> can't open any programs not already running, although the
> programs already running continue to function properly.
> When this happens my first reaction is to reboot, but
> WinXP won't even do this, the same thing happens (i.e.
> nothing) when I try to restart from the Start menu, and I
> have to 'power off' to get the machine to shut down. It
> seems that if I wait long enough (3-5 minutes), then all
> the programs I attempted to start all pop up at once.
>
> This seems to me to be surely an OS problem, as it
> doesn't seem to matter what programs are running or what
> I am trying to run when the problem occurs. I am running
> Windows XP Home (fully updated), clean install, on a Sony
> PCG-R505TL laptop, with 192 MB RAM and a 15 Gig HD.

[Walter Clayton]

What are you running for antivirus and is it fully up to date?

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/default.asp


"corey" > wrote in message
...
> OK, nobody is probably going to be able to help with
> this, but in the last week or so, occasionally when I try
> to open a new program (email program, Word, whatever) the
> cursor goes to the 'hourglass' for a few seconds and then
> nothing, the program won't open. Whenever this happens, I
> can't open any programs not already running, although the
> programs already running continue to function properly.
> When this happens my first reaction is to reboot, but
> WinXP won't even do this, the same thing happens (i.e.
> nothing) when I try to restart from the Start menu, and I
> have to 'power off' to get the machine to shut down. It
> seems that if I wait long enough (3-5 minutes), then all
> the programs I attempted to start all pop up at once.
>
> This seems to me to be surely an OS problem, as it
> doesn't seem to matter what programs are running or what
> I am trying to run when the problem occurs. I am running
> Windows XP Home (fully updated), clean install, on a Sony
> PCG-R505TL laptop, with 192 MB RAM and a 15 Gig HD.