Hi --

I have a Windows XP Pro SP3 box that's been giving me a headache for some
time now. Every so often, programs will fail to load and Windows (or an app)
will complain about being out of memory or system resources. Or windows
won't open. Etc., etc.

I've been looking high and low for the reason for this, with little luck.
One thing I have noticed is that when the PC starts to get cantankerous, the
System process has an elevated handle count (18,500 this last time I started
having problems). When I check the System process through Process Explorer,
I see thousands of handles open to what looks like an empty key, and a
lesser but still large number of handles open to what looks like a file with
no name:

--------------------
DETAILS

Basic Information
Name:
Type: Key
Description: A Registry key

References
References: 1
Handles: 1

Quota Charges
Paged: 0
Non-Paged: 0

SECURITY

Unable to display security information.
--------------------
DETAILS

Basic Information
Name:
Type: File
Description: A disk file, communications endpoint, or driver interface.

References
References: 2
Handles: 1

Quota Charges
Paged: 0
Non-Paged: 0

SECURITY

Everyone: Delete, Synchronize, Query State, Modify State, (Special
Permissions)

Advanced:
Permissions: empty
Auditing: empty
Owner: Everyone
--------------------

The Handles list shows all of these empty Key handles with an Access code of
0x000F003F, and the empty File handles with an access code of 0x0012091F.

I have checked just about every other process listed in Process Explorer. No
other process that has handles open to Registry keys has any open to blank
or empty keys. Process Explorer shows valid key names for every other key
every other process has open. No other process that has handles open to
files has any open to files with no name.

Rebooting the PC solves the problem -- temporarily. The System process
returns to a manageable handle count. But even after rebooting, Process
Explorer shows a collection of "empty" keys and "no-name" files open to the
System process. And even with the PC just sitting there at a desktop with no
other windows open, that count steadily increases over time.

At the risk of sounding stupid: This is _not_ normal, right? How do I find
whatever is triggering this, if I don't even know what to look for? Any help
would be appreciated.

Thanks
CL