"End Task" freezes my computer...

[Lothmor]

hi there,

When I hit "Ctrl Alt Del" to call up the End Task dialog
all goes well until the form "Closing" appears and freezes my computer.
Has someone an idea how to resolve this.
My win98se is otherwise quite stable.

greetings
Raymond

 

[ski]

See if this helps:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=222131

 

[Lothmor]

Thanks Ski,
But that "solution" seems to me a little too risky. As MS points out that if it is not a too great inconvenience, its better not to fix it with that patch. Besides the description given there is not exactly what I'm experiencing and I'm not using a USB mouse. Anyway I will check out the USB configuration on my pc.
Greetings
Raymond

 

[pddxr]

This and other types of weird things happen when resources are too low or when a system loads a lot of programs at startup. Do you have a lot of programs starting with Windows? Have you did and MSCONFIG yet?

Here's how if you're not sure... It's safe.

First thing I'd do is reboot the system, right click My Computer, click properties, click the performance tab and check your resources.

**If it boots with less then 80% free then your system is starting with a good chance of acting weird before you shut it off again. With just a virus scanner (which is all I have running at startup at the most) you should be in the nineties or upper eighties.

close the properties dialog box. Click start, click run, type MSCONFIG, click ok, click the startup tab, uncheck everything, click ok, click yes to reboot, see if you still have the problem.

Your system will boot fine with nothing checked. You can go back and check any box next to things you want to start when windows starts after you've tested.

 

[drcard]

Hi Raymond,

Is this a recent thing? Does the PC shutdown OK or does that hang too? Do you get a not responding message? These shutdown problems (all programs or just one) are usually software or hardware related. If this started to occur and didn't before then think what was added/upgraded to that PC at that time.

Not to start a dispute, but the statement that "**If it boots with less then 80% free then your system is starting with a good chance of acting weird before you shut it off again." is wrong. Windows works well until about the 10% resources left phase and then it will slow down and not allow other programs to start. My company runs dozens of PCs with only 32MB RAM (Win98SE) and nearly all have only 50-60% resources left after booting and none have any programs hanging on closing or shutdown problems. Disabling all programs in msconfig will work....there's nothing to close and no amount of resources can resolve a bad TSR command, spyware that won't let go, or a corrupt dll (which are known causes of this problem).

The MSKB article at the following link will cover the topics of shutdown problems, but many of the topics covered apply to the closing of a program too.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;238096

HTH, Dana)

 

[pddxr]

"**If it boots with less then 80% free then your system is starting with a good chance of acting weird before you shut it off again." is wrong.

I made this statement based on my experience that I've seen many internet dropoff and other problems start to occur as systems loose resources due to memmory leaks over time or the program combinations starting at startup. Back when I was working in a shop, HP came out with a series of computers that could not access the internet straight out of the box and were only showing 54% resources available. I have resolved many other issues since then by disabling unneeded startup applications.

True a system can run and shutdown properly with 50-60% resources free but I wouldn't have wrote post that if it wasn't a possibilty.

 

[pddxr]

No hard fealings drcard... just wanted to clarify where I was coming from =)

 

[Lothmor]

Sorry for being away a little while but I managed to check out all suggestions you all made. None could remedy the ennoying situation.
And Dana, I had this problem from the beginning of use of Win98se. Perhaps something went wrong during install. But like I said, only when I have to close a program that stopped responding I get confronted with this problem. This occurs once or twice a year (but it is reproducible every time I want to use the "End Tast" to test it). As for the rest of the stability of my computer I regard myself as a very lucky one when I hear the troubles others have.
Never had a glitch. Still not, except for that one...
My next install of Win98se (I will not be upgrading) will be soon on a new machine. Therefor I don't mind this problem too much and was just curious about its origin and a possible remedy.
Anyway I will examine every non destructive suggestion.
Meanwhile I thank you all for the attention you gave me.
Kind regards
Raymond