Wierd NT Problem

[vurve]

Hi,

I am facing a wierd problem with NT 4.0 workstation. This problem occurs almost 10-15 minutes after I log in to the system. Here are my observations :

1. The desktop icons are very unstable. When I am not moving the mouse, they are stable and well behaved. But as soon as I move the mouse to click one of the desktop icons, all the icons go crazy, rapidly taking the place of each other (an infinitely annoying attempt to superimpose on top of one another) until I stop moving the mouse. Even when I use "brute force" and do click one of the icons (not caring what it really is at that point of time), nothing happens.

2. I cannot open any new window (eg : control panel etc or display properties)

3. The task manager shows 100% CPU utilization, with explorer.exe taking up the whole cpu. This happens suddenly, after I have been logged in for 10 to 15 minutes, and this is when all the problems mentioned so far start.

4. I get an error thru the even viewer: "ASCTRM service could not be started. Cannot find the file"

5. I have verified virus infection - there is none.

I am planning to re-apply service pack 6 today. Any other suggestions would be most helpful.


__________________
Thanks and have a great day!

Vivek

 

[KeyTech]

have you got this file in the dir C:\WINNT\System32\Drivers\asctrm.sys ?????

any programs installed recently?? Jay~

"I have to think of a funny footer to
put in here!!!???"

~KeyTech

 

[pbxman]

Hmm..I believe ASCTRM is a Realplayer file (or at least Realplayer edits it). Try uninstalling it, and see what happens. Maybe it's a trial version, and not the free one?

Also - I believe the mouse uses asctrm.vxd in c:\winnt\system.

You might want to download new Intellipoint Drivers for the mouse (if using an MS mouse), or update your mouse drivers with a recent package.

This should take care of it..let us know if it doesn't.
Good luck
Pbxman
Systems Administrator

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[TheLad]

I agree with pbxman, update your mouse driver

 

[sunited]

I had a user with the same problem, I don't know about updating mouse drivers, but I switched the mouse with a new one and the problem stopped.