Windows 10 programs all jumpy
 

Not sure the computer will let me send this, but here goes.

About 2 weeks ago, it started. I first saw it using a little program
called Mail Washer. It started trying to log in to the mail server over
and over, multiple times a second. The "process" button wouldn't
function to let me delete the ones selected.
I quickly discovered it wasn't a mail washer problem. Firefox, windows
explorer, and Thunderbird weren't good either. In a browser, the open
tab flashes back and forth between the circle arrow(reload page) and the
X (stop). Again multiple times a second. Most web pages eventually go
white.
While this is going on, the desktop icons don't function. Double click
does nothing and right click opens up the menu that should come up when
I right click and empty spot on the desktop.
I "fixed it" once by bringing up troubleshooting. Troubleshoot windows
update, it found something and fixed it. Good for over a week.
Last night, it prompted me to install an update by restarting. It's set
to install updates automatically, so I don't see these requests often.
I shut it down overnight. Today I turned it back on. It took maybe half
an hour installing an update. I tried undoing that update but it
couldn't do it. Troubleshooting is no help this time.
Where do I start now?

Windows 10 programs all jumpy
 

Steve wrote:

Not sure the computer will let me send this, but here goes.

About 2 weeks ago, it started. I first saw it using a little program
called Mail Washer. It started trying to log in to the mail server over
and over, multiple times a second. The "process" button wouldn't
function to let me delete the ones selected.
I quickly discovered it wasn't a mail washer problem. Firefox, windows
explorer, and Thunderbird weren't good either. In a browser, the open
tab flashes back and forth between the circle arrow(reload page) and the
X (stop). Again multiple times a second. Most web pages eventually go
white.
While this is going on, the desktop icons don't function. Double click
does nothing and right click opens up the menu that should come up when
I right click and empty spot on the desktop.
I "fixed it" once by bringing up troubleshooting. Troubleshoot windows
update, it found something and fixed it. Good for over a week.

Come back after you perform the basic troubleshooting step of starting
Windows in its safe mode (which eliminates startup programs and
non-critical services).

Last night, it prompted me to install an update by restarting. It's set
to install updates automatically, so I don't see these requests often.
I shut it down overnight. Today I turned it back on. It took maybe half
an hour installing an update. I tried undoing that update but it
couldn't do it. Troubleshooting is no help this time.
Where do I start now?

Use your image backups to restore the disk back to a prior known state
that does not exhibit the problem(s).

Windows 10 programs all jumpy
 

On Thu, 17 May 2018 23:46:58 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

Steve wrote:

Not sure the computer will let me send this, but here goes.

About 2 weeks ago, it started. I first saw it using a little program
called Mail Washer. It started trying to log in to the mail server over
and over, multiple times a second. The "process" button wouldn't
function to let me delete the ones selected.
I quickly discovered it wasn't a mail washer problem. Firefox, windows
explorer, and Thunderbird weren't good either. In a browser, the open
tab flashes back and forth between the circle arrow(reload page) and
the X (stop). Again multiple times a second. Most web pages eventually
go white.
While this is going on, the desktop icons don't function. Double click
does nothing and right click opens up the menu that should come up when
I right click and empty spot on the desktop.
I "fixed it" once by bringing up troubleshooting. Troubleshoot windows
update, it found something and fixed it. Good for over a week.

Come back after you perform the basic troubleshooting step of starting
Windows in its safe mode (which eliminates startup programs and
non-critical services).

Last night, it prompted me to install an update by restarting. It's set
to install updates automatically, so I don't see these requests often.
I shut it down overnight. Today I turned it back on. It took maybe half
an hour installing an update. I tried undoing that update but it
couldn't do it. Troubleshooting is no help this time.
Where do I start now?

Use your image backups to restore the disk back to a prior known state
that does not exhibit the problem(s).

That assumes he has an image backup. Trouble with that solution is if his
problem is due to an update, the problem will return.
Although I didn't have his problem, I had others. Solution was to revert
to windows 7 and only use that on my dual boot system to run macrium
backup, my working system is Linux Mint. I realize some people are tied
to windows for various reasons but I find Linux a much nicer system. If
you have valid install media, running windows in a virtual box will solve
the problem of those must have programs. Clonezilla is a decent multi
platform image solution.

Windows 10 programs all jumpy
 

On 5/18/2018 12:28 AM, Steve wrote:
Not sure the computer will let me send this, but here goes.

About 2 weeks ago, it started. I first saw it using a little program
called Mail Washer. It started trying to log in to the mail server over
and over, multiple times a second. The "process" button wouldn't
function to let me delete the ones selected.
I quickly discovered it wasn't a mail washer problem. Firefox, windows
explorer, and Thunderbird weren't good either. In a browser, the open
tab flashes back and forth between the circle arrow(reload page) and the
X (stop). Again multiple times a second. Most web pages eventually go
white.
While this is going on, the desktop icons don't function. Double click
does nothing and right click opens up the menu that should come up when
I right click and empty spot on the desktop.
I "fixed it" once by bringing up troubleshooting. Troubleshoot windows
update, it found something and fixed it. Good for over a week.
Last night, it prompted me to install an update by restarting. It's set
to install updates automatically, so I don't see these requests often. I
shut it down overnight. Today I turned it back on. It took maybe half an
hour installing an update. I tried undoing that update but it couldn't
do it. Troubleshooting is no help this time.
Where do I start now?

Well, after I wrote all the above last night, I maximized Firefox which
had been opened the whole time, but minimized. Everything was normal
again. I checked the mail washer program and it was all normal too. It
was bed time and I decided to shut the computer off over night. Today
everything is normal so far. I feel like it's working a little slow, but
I'm not even sure.

Windows 10 programs all jumpy
 

Steve wrote:

On 5/18/2018 12:28 AM, Steve wrote:
Not sure the computer will let me send this, but here goes.

About 2 weeks ago, it started. I first saw it using a little program
called Mail Washer. It started trying to log in to the mail server over
and over, multiple times a second. The "process" button wouldn't
function to let me delete the ones selected.
I quickly discovered it wasn't a mail washer problem. Firefox, windows
explorer, and Thunderbird weren't good either. In a browser, the open
tab flashes back and forth between the circle arrow(reload page) and the
X (stop). Again multiple times a second. Most web pages eventually go
white.
While this is going on, the desktop icons don't function. Double click
does nothing and right click opens up the menu that should come up when
I right click and empty spot on the desktop.
I "fixed it" once by bringing up troubleshooting. Troubleshoot windows
update, it found something and fixed it. Good for over a week.
Last night, it prompted me to install an update by restarting. It's set
to install updates automatically, so I don't see these requests often. I
shut it down overnight. Today I turned it back on. It took maybe half an
hour installing an update. I tried undoing that update but it couldn't
do it. Troubleshooting is no help this time.
Where do I start now?

Well, after I wrote all the above last night, I maximized Firefox which
had been opened the whole time, but minimized. Everything was normal
again. I checked the mail washer program and it was all normal too. It
was bed time and I decided to shut the computer off over night. Today
everything is normal so far. I feel like it's working a little slow, but
I'm not even sure.

Sounds like your mouse ball and pad are dirty.

Windows 10 programs all jumpy
 

On 5/18/2018 11:48 AM, Alexander Shofner-Geidt wrote:
Steve wrote:

On 5/18/2018 12:28 AM, Steve wrote:
Not sure the computer will let me send this, but here goes.

About 2 weeks ago, it started. I first saw it using a little program
called Mail Washer. It started trying to log in to the mail server over
and over, multiple times a second. The "process" button wouldn't
function to let me delete the ones selected.
I quickly discovered it wasn't a mail washer problem. Firefox, windows
explorer, and Thunderbird weren't good either. In a browser, the open
tab flashes back and forth between the circle arrow(reload page) and the
X (stop). Again multiple times a second. Most web pages eventually go
white.
While this is going on, the desktop icons don't function. Double click
does nothing and right click opens up the menu that should come up when
I right click and empty spot on the desktop.
I "fixed it" once by bringing up troubleshooting. Troubleshoot windows
update, it found something and fixed it. Good for over a week.
Last night, it prompted me to install an update by restarting. It's set
to install updates automatically, so I don't see these requests often. I
shut it down overnight. Today I turned it back on. It took maybe half an
hour installing an update. I tried undoing that update but it couldn't
do it. Troubleshooting is no help this time.
Where do I start now?

Well, after I wrote all the above last night, I maximized Firefox which
had been opened the whole time, but minimized. Everything was normal
again. I checked the mail washer program and it was all normal too. It
was bed time and I decided to shut the computer off over night. Today
everything is normal so far. I feel like it's working a little slow, but
I'm not even sure.

Sounds like your mouse ball and pad are dirty.

:-(

Windows 10 programs all jumpy
 

Steve wrote:
On 5/18/2018 12:28 AM, Steve wrote:
Not sure the computer will let me send this, but here goes.

About 2 weeks ago, it started. I first saw it using a little program
called Mail Washer. It started trying to log in to the mail server
over and over, multiple times a second. The "process" button wouldn't
function to let me delete the ones selected.
I quickly discovered it wasn't a mail washer problem. Firefox, windows
explorer, and Thunderbird weren't good either. In a browser, the open
tab flashes back and forth between the circle arrow(reload page) and
the X (stop). Again multiple times a second. Most web pages eventually
go white.
While this is going on, the desktop icons don't function. Double click
does nothing and right click opens up the menu that should come up
when I right click and empty spot on the desktop.
I "fixed it" once by bringing up troubleshooting. Troubleshoot windows
update, it found something and fixed it. Good for over a week.
Last night, it prompted me to install an update by restarting. It's
set to install updates automatically, so I don't see these requests
often. I shut it down overnight. Today I turned it back on. It took
maybe half an hour installing an update. I tried undoing that update
but it couldn't do it. Troubleshooting is no help this time.
Where do I start now?

Well, after I wrote all the above last night, I maximized Firefox which
had been opened the whole time, but minimized. Everything was normal
again. I checked the mail washer program and it was all normal too. It
was bed time and I decided to shut the computer off over night. Today
everything is normal so far. I feel like it's working a little slow, but
I'm not even sure.

Next time, try Task Manager and have a look at what programs
are using cycles when the behavior begins. See if all networked
applications become "jumpy" in Task Manager at the same time.

We wouldn't want Firefox to get a bad name because of this.

If you thought the angle was graphics related, you could
try disabling hardware acceleration in Firefox.

I'm having trouble imagining how one application can have
such an effect on the networking of others, but then I lack
a vivid enough imagination. I would expect spraying 127.0.0.1:portnum
randomly with packets would make lots of stuff jump. And as
a bonus, be hard to trace.

You can use Sysinternals tcpview.exe to look for network connections.
But that's only going to work, if actual connections are set up.

And Sysinternals Process Explorer (procexp.exe), when run as
Administrator, can be used to look inside SVCHOST tasks and
see what services are in an instance with a particular PID.
That's if a SVCHOST is railed or twitching.

Paul

Windows 10 programs all jumpy
 

Steve wrote:

Well, after I wrote all the above last night, I maximized Firefox which
had been opened the whole time, but minimized. Everything was normal
again. I checked the mail washer program and it was all normal too. It
was bed time and I decided to shut the computer off over night. Today
everything is normal so far. I feel like it's working a little slow, but
I'm not even sure.

Many web pages are now dynamic. They use scripts to decide what content
to deliver and may change the content. Meanwhile your web browser keeps
caching up all that content. The result is the memory footprint for the
web browser keeps growing. You should not leave the web browser loaded
when you are not using it. Also don't leave more tabs open than you
actually need. When memory gets low, all processes have to fight over
what is left. Sometimes even Windows will alert you when memory gets
too low.

Next time this happens, look in Task Manager to see how much free memory
is available. Free memory is wasted memory; however, without any free
memory then processes have troubles getting any more. The result is
having to use the pagefile but that is on the slow [hard] disk and you
could still run out of that, too. Hopefully you were not misled by
those saying you could reduce the pagefile to zero because you have gobs
of RAM. Some apps will preload their data into the pagefile so it is
ready when called but not wasting the much more valuable RAM. If they
cannot get the minimum pagefile space they require, they can error or
even crash.

Also use Task Manager, as Paul mentioned, to check which process(es) are
consuming the most CPU time. For example, scripts running in a web page
loaded in a web browser can run afoul of loops or other conditions that
severely increase the CPU usage by the web browser. Although you
mentioned networking was an issue, the CPU is still involved in handling
all the protocol processing. The CPU may not be involved with packet
buffers that are DMA'ed to system memory but the CPU is still involved
in managing the protocol requests. A low-powered or excessively busy
CPU will have less time to process networking requests.

You want to use the pagefile as little as possible. You don't want your
CPU crushed by some excessively high resource. Time to start reviewing
what processes you have running most of the time, how they suck up
memory and CPU cycles, and whether you really need them running in the
background when you're not using them. Check your startup programs. If
you're not using a program, unload it.

https://www.apicasystems.com/blog/5-...e-bottlenecks/

? Windows 10 programs all jumpy ?
 

On Fri, 18 May 2018 18:23:21 +0100, Good Guy
wrote:

On 18/05/2018 14:42, Steve wrote:

Well, after I wrote all the above last night, I maximized Firefox
which had been opened the whole time, but minimized. Everything was
normal again. I checked the mail washer program and it was all normal
too. It was bed time and I decided to shut the computer off over
night. Today everything is normal so far. I feel like it's working a
little slow, but I'm not even sure.



Now the first thing you should do is to get rid of that crap called Mail
Washer. It might be the one that is making your system unstable.

There are really good mail clients like "Microsoft Outlook",
"Thunderbird" and "Windows 10 Mail App". They all can block spam.

Mail Washer Pro is an A+ app, it wouldn't be the cause.

?? Windows 10 programs all jumpy ??
 

You do not know what you are talking about. I started using Mail Washer
when it first came as donation ware. I am still using version 6.5.4 without
any problems. This version is not subscription based. Mail Washer allows
you to preview a list of the messages and decide which ones you want to
delete or you can set it up to do it automatically. It provides many more
options to handle spam than any mail client offers.
--
Bill

Brought to you from Anchorage, Alaska

Good Guy wrote:
On 18/05/2018 14:42, Steve wrote:

Well, after I wrote all the above last night, I maximized Firefox
which had been opened the whole time, but minimized. Everything was
normal again. I checked the mail washer program and it was all normal
too. It was bed time and I decided to shut the computer off over
night. Today everything is normal so far. I feel like it's working a
little slow, but I'm not even sure.



Now the first thing you should do is to get rid of that crap called
Mail Washer. It might be the one that is making your system unstable.

There are really good mail clients like "Microsoft Outlook",
"Thunderbird" and "Windows 10 Mail App". They all can block spam.

� Windows 10 programs all jumpy �
 

On 5/18/2018 1:23 PM, Good Guy wrote:
Now the first thing you should do is to get rid of that crap called Mail
Washer.Â* It might be the one that is making your system unstable.

There are really good mail clients like "Microsoft Outlook",
"Thunderbird" and "Windows 10 Mail App".Â* They all can block spam.

I use Thunderbird. Mail washer is just a prescreener that I use for 2 of
my addresses. It supposedly lets me delete unwanted mail before anything
actually reaches my computer. It also lets me "bounce" mail. It's
supposed to make it look like there is no such address, but even the
Mail washer people admit it doesn't fool most spammers.

Windows 10 programs all jumpy
 

On 5/18/2018 2:14 PM, Paul wrote:
Steve wrote:
On 5/18/2018 12:28 AM, Steve wrote:
Not sure the computer will let me send this, but here goes.

About 2 weeks ago, it started. I first saw it using a little program
called Mail Washer. It started trying to log in to the mail server
over and over, multiple times a second. The "process" button wouldn't
function to let me delete the ones selected.
I quickly discovered it wasn't a mail washer problem. Firefox,
windows explorer, and Thunderbird weren't good either. In a browser,
the open tab flashes back and forth between the circle arrow(reload
page) and the X (stop). Again multiple times a second. Most web pages
eventually go white.
While this is going on, the desktop icons don't function. Double
click does nothing and right click opens up the menu that should come
up when I right click and empty spot on the desktop.
I "fixed it" once by bringing up troubleshooting. Troubleshoot
windows update, it found something and fixed it. Good for over a week.
Last night, it prompted me to install an update by restarting. It's
set to install updates automatically, so I don't see these requests
often. I shut it down overnight. Today I turned it back on. It took
maybe half an hour installing an update. I tried undoing that update
but it couldn't do it. Troubleshooting is no help this time.
Where do I start now?

Well, after I wrote all the above last night, I maximized Firefox
which had been opened the whole time, but minimized. Everything was
normal again. I checked the mail washer program and it was all normal
too. It was bed time and I decided to shut the computer off over
night. Today everything is normal so far. I feel like it's working a
little slow, but I'm not even sure.

Next time, try Task Manager and have a look at what programs
are using cycles when the behavior begins. See if all networked
applications become "jumpy" in Task Manager at the same time.

We wouldn't want Firefox to get a bad name because of this.

If you thought the angle was graphics related, you could
try disabling hardware acceleration in Firefox.

I'm having trouble imagining how one application can have
such an effect on the networking of others, but then I lack
a vivid enough imagination. I would expect spraying 127.0.0.1:portnum
randomly with packets would make lots of stuff jump. And as
a bonus, be hard to trace.

You can use Sysinternals tcpview.exe to look for network connections.
But that's only going to work, if actual connections are set up.

And Sysinternals Process Explorer (procexp.exe), when run as
Administrator, can be used to look inside SVCHOST tasks and
see what services are in an instance with a particular PID.
That's if a SVCHOST is railed or twitching.

Â*Â* Paul

Both times this happened, Checking Task Manager was the first thing I
tried. I didn't see anything wrong, though I can't rule out the
possibility that someone with more experience might have spotted
something that looked OK to me.
I really don't feel like any one program is at fault. When it happened,
everything I opened was acting up one way or another. Even Task Manager
was kind of jumpy but still usable.
All day today, the computer has continued to be completely normal.
Steve

Windows 10 programs all jumpy
 

On 5/18/2018 2:43 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
Steve wrote:

Well, after I wrote all the above last night, I maximized Firefox which
had been opened the whole time, but minimized. Everything was normal
again. I checked the mail washer program and it was all normal too. It
was bed time and I decided to shut the computer off over night. Today
everything is normal so far. I feel like it's working a little slow, but
I'm not even sure.

Many web pages are now dynamic. They use scripts to decide what content
to deliver and may change the content. Meanwhile your web browser keeps
caching up all that content. The result is the memory footprint for the
web browser keeps growing. You should not leave the web browser loaded
when you are not using it. Also don't leave more tabs open than you
actually need. When memory gets low, all processes have to fight over
what is left. Sometimes even Windows will alert you when memory gets
too low.

Next time this happens, look in Task Manager to see how much free memory
is available. Free memory is wasted memory; however, without any free
memory then processes have troubles getting any more. The result is
having to use the pagefile but that is on the slow [hard] disk and you
could still run out of that, too. Hopefully you were not misled by
those saying you could reduce the pagefile to zero because you have gobs
of RAM. Some apps will preload their data into the pagefile so it is
ready when called but not wasting the much more valuable RAM. If they
cannot get the minimum pagefile space they require, they can error or
even crash.

Also use Task Manager, as Paul mentioned, to check which process(es) are
consuming the most CPU time. For example, scripts running in a web page
loaded in a web browser can run afoul of loops or other conditions that
severely increase the CPU usage by the web browser. Although you
mentioned networking was an issue, the CPU is still involved in handling
all the protocol processing. The CPU may not be involved with packet
buffers that are DMA'ed to system memory but the CPU is still involved
in managing the protocol requests. A low-powered or excessively busy
CPU will have less time to process networking requests.

You want to use the pagefile as little as possible. You don't want your
CPU crushed by some excessively high resource. Time to start reviewing
what processes you have running most of the time, how they suck up
memory and CPU cycles, and whether you really need them running in the
background when you're not using them. Check your startup programs. If
you're not using a program, unload it.

https://www.apicasystems.com/blog/5-...e-bottlenecks/


Task Manager showed memory usage at over 50 % but not way over.
Also, I could have no browsers open. Close everything, then open Mail
Washer alone of Thunderbird alone and all the problems remained the same.

? Windows 10 programs all jumpy ?
 

On Sat, 19 May 2018 22:39:27 -0400, Steve wrote:

On 5/18/2018 1:23 PM, Good Guy wrote:
Now the first thing you should do is to get rid of that crap called Mail
Washer.* It might be the one that is making your system unstable.

There are really good mail clients like "Microsoft Outlook",
"Thunderbird" and "Windows 10 Mail App".* They all can block spam.

I use Thunderbird. Mail washer is just a prescreener that I use for 2 of
my addresses. It supposedly lets me delete unwanted mail before anything
actually reaches my computer.

That's why I stopped using it after giving it a try 10+ years ago. It
required me to look at and make a decision for every single email, but
it forced me to do so within its interface rather than in a proper email
client where it's much easier to ignore and/or delete the stuff that I
don't care about. With MailWasher, I saw only cons, no pros.

It also lets me "bounce" mail. It's
supposed to make it look like there is no such address, but even the
Mail washer people admit it doesn't fool most spammers.

Hopefully, you never use the bounce feature. Spammers don't send email
from their own domain, so when you bounce what you think is spam, it
goes back to some other domain where the folks there have to deal with
it. That's not cool.

Windows 10 programs all jumpy
 

On 5/18/2018 9:42 AM, Steve wrote:
On 5/18/2018 12:28 AM, Steve wrote:
Not sure the computer will let me send this, but here goes.

About 2 weeks ago, it started. I first saw it using a little program
called Mail Washer. It started trying to log in to the mail server
over and over, multiple times a second. The "process" button wouldn't
function to let me delete the ones selected.
I quickly discovered it wasn't a mail washer problem. Firefox, windows
explorer, and Thunderbird weren't good either. In a browser, the open
tab flashes back and forth between the circle arrow(reload page) and
the X (stop). Again multiple times a second. Most web pages eventually
go white.
While this is going on, the desktop icons don't function. Double click
does nothing and right click opens up the menu that should come up
when I right click and empty spot on the desktop.
I "fixed it" once by bringing up troubleshooting. Troubleshoot windows
update, it found something and fixed it. Good for over a week.
Last night, it prompted me to install an update by restarting. It's
set to install updates automatically, so I don't see these requests
often. I shut it down overnight. Today I turned it back on. It took
maybe half an hour installing an update. I tried undoing that update
but it couldn't do it. Troubleshooting is no help this time.
Where do I start now?

Well, after I wrote all the above last night, I maximized Firefox which
had been opened the whole time, but minimized. Everything was normal
again. I checked the mail washer program and it was all normal too. It
was bed time and I decided to shut the computer off over night. Today
everything is normal so far. I feel like it's working a little slow, but
I'm not even sure.


Still mostly good, but... Today I was on Facebook and the page would
refresh itself for no reason. Could be a Facebook problem, but...
Tonight I was on Facebook and trying to write a long answer to something
on a group and it would refresh, making my writing disappear. I had to
open notepad and type it there. Even notepad would jump, blink out and
come back. When it did this, it would insert the date into what I was
typing. I got it done and I copied it into Facebook.
As I'm typing this, here with Thunderbird, everything is normal. While I
was fighting with Facebook, a message popped up saying a "security and
stability" update had been downloaded and I needed to restart. I'll now
shut off the computer and go to bed. Tomorrow, I'll start it up and it
will finish the install. Now I'll wait to see if my computer becomes a
mess again, or, do I dare to hope it will fix things this time? I'll let
you know.