Accessing a frozen desktop

[gbl]

One of our win2k pro users has a &quot;frozen&quot; deskop. A number of applications are open but the mouse and keyboard cannot operate. The mouse position is frozen on screen and when I attempt to access the computer from start run <<unc-name>> from my computer there is a delay and then a message &quot;the network path was not found&quot;. Pinging the computer also gets the reply &quot;request timed out&quot;. I think the problem is a video adapter in his computer but I want to gain access without rebooting the pc if possible. Any suggestions?

 

[wolluf]

why without rebooting? I think you need to reboot to see if machine is dead or not (what do you loose by rebooting). The current session is obviously dead - so as far as I can see you can't access the machine without rebooting.

 

[pbxman]

Check the event log after it restarts. Look for I8042 events and other errors. Could be just it hung up (hey - it's Windows..this stuff happens), or there's a serial problem going on, bad mouse, KB, etc..
Reinstall Intellimouse 4.1 if it's on the PC. Had a bunk install do this to a system a while back. It's worth a shot. pbxman
Systems Administrator

Please let Tek-Tips members know their posts were helpful.

 

[whythis]

Several Options:

1. Reboot. Go into Safe Mode or VGA. Check out Device Mangler (Device Manager). I don't know how much you know: Device Manager is accessed by right-clicking My Computer, choose Properties/Hardware/Device Manager. Therein you can check out devices and mangle or fix them.
2. Turn it off and switch mice and keyboards (if they are USB you can swap them while the system is on). Try again.
3. Install a different video adapter and try again.
4. If the problem began AFTER your last logon, reboot, press F8 to get the boot options menu and choose &quot;Last Known Good Configuration&quot;, which won't work if you've logged on after the problem started.
Good luck. whythisagainwhythisagainwhythisagain