XP Pro - Programs restart after they are closed?

[PsalmBlaster]

Hi,
My programs, as far as I can tell mainly winamp5, musicmatch and possibly PC-Cillin 2002 keep restarting after I close them, be it with right hand [X] or alt-F4 or ctrl-alt-del. Not sure precisely when it started happening so I can't help on that front, a lot of the time I close an app I stop noticing and if it starts up in the background I assume I didn't close it.
I have scanned using the most up to date PC-Cillin update and also used Ad-Aware to remove anything unsightly. Nothing seems to work. Also, PC-CIllins processes stay in my process list after I turn it off. This could be another symptom. If anyone know what I'm suffering from then I'd appreciate a hand

Martin


Win XP Pro (SP1)
Athlon XP2700+
MSI KT4 Ultra FISR
2x 512 PC2700 DDR RAM
1x 80Gb IDE
1x 160Gb SATA
GeForce4 Ti4200 (32m)
Audigy 2
No recent Driver or windows updates

 

[linney]

To get further information about any possible problems or errors look in your Event viewer.

Look in the System or Application folder. You can get to the Event Viewer via right click My Computer icon and select Manage.

Any errors logged in the Event Viewer can be expanded by double clicking on the error line.

Take any event error I.D. number and search for it on these sites.
.

http://www.eventid.net/events.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr.../prodtechnol/winxppro/support/EE_winxppro.asp

If there are no clues there. Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

 

[bcastner]

Start, Run, msconfig

Use the Startup tab and remove what you do not want to run, and reboot.

 

[PsalmBlaster]

I'm afraid there is no mention of the activity in any of the logs and I've turned off everything that I don't know I've installed (has free up more memory for games, thanks, never knew about that utility, better than ini-fiddling) but nothing has changed with the restarting programs. None of the major Anti-virus vendors recognise the symptoms, but it's not confined to one program.
Starting to look like something I may have done? But for the life of me I can't imagine what it is. Thanks for the pointers though, urls and msconfig have been noted, handy to know

 

[linney]

Try running in Safe Mode and see if you have the same problems. Also try running as a different user and see if it happens under that profile too.

Removing adware & spyware
Before Posting a Hijack log file - Best Practices
faq608-4650

Did you try the System File Checker?

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

If they don't work you could try repairing windows itself by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp