Several Prolems - UI Crash, Sound Failure, ect....

Question

hello,

i'm not sure if this is the correct place but I'll give it a try

Windows XP

Dell Dimension 8300

alright so sunday my computer started to act all stupid. The UI kep crashing. I had a program called windows blinds installed on the computer and thought that might be the cause of it so I uninstalled it. However the UI crashing kept happening. When I mean crash, i mean that the taskbar crash to black and ect..and now the taskbar is crashing back to looking almost like it's Windows 98 then refreshes back to the regular XP Blue. I cannot figure out why this is happening.

Another thing that started happening on the same day is that when I was going to places like youtube or myspace, i was unable to hear sound. Listening via Itunes or through quicktime on video it was fine. So I went to the audio mixer in the notification area, clicked it and i get an error "There are no active Mixers Available". It wont even let me open the thing. Now the interesting thing with this is that the program works affter i reboot, for about a minute after each start-up then it gives me the same error messages and stops playing sound

and now today I am noticing that while using Internet Explorer 7, I am unable to use the "Open Link in New Window" function. Even when I click links that automatically open in a new window, the new window appears then dissapears so quickly almost as if it didn't happen. I can even use the center mouse button on my mouse to open links in new windows like i have all to many times before. All these problems started happening from sunday and until today

i've been in talks with the Windows blinds people to figure the UI problem out but they are no help. I have compeltely removed that program but all this junk is still happening

anyone got an idea on what is causing this?

Message Edited by ckyhew on 02-20-2007 06:45 PM

Vyprman · Answer

Hi, I've experienced similar problems on my own non-Dell system at home. Are the symptoms similar to this? You get an error in SVCHOST referencing a dll file The User interface switches to windows classic Windows system sounds can be heard but media cannot.   If you check in the Services panel of the Windows Management Console, the Windows Audio service has been stopped.   The problem stems from an incorrectly installed update from Microsoft, try running a System restore to a point before the problem manifested as this usually resolves the problem.

Vekkul · Answer

'The problem stems from an incorrectly installed update from Microsoft, try running a System restore to a point before the problem manifested as this usually resolves the problem.' Oh! Yes, I do recall my automatic updates failing, yet for some reason, it didn't say WHY they failed, just that it failed. When I got to Microsoft Update, it gets to the screen where it's checking for latest updates, but never gets to the next screen. Message Edited by Vekkul on 03-16-2007 08:57 PM

Vekkul · Answer

I got this exact same problem. Exactly. I have my sound issue fixed, but sometimes my Startbar randomly reverts to the classic UI. Other times, it tries to fix itself and I get this weird XP/Classic UI hybrid thing going on. Sometimes, my windows have classic UI borders while others don't. I have no idea at all what prompted this to happen. The only thing I've done recently is installed the Combined Community Codec pack, but I highly doubt that's the issue. I uninstalled it and even did a system restore to a point before I had the codecs, and no dice. It just... happened today and I'm truly boggled. I've run full systems scans, CCleaner, and defragmented just for the sake of trying.

Productivity Software

Several Prolems - UI Crash, Sound Failure, ect....

Was this post helpful?