Programs Not Responding In Vista

[raro]

I talked to Reimar already on the phone and he suspects memory problems, i.e. not matching memory modules, but some other board members have some more ideas as to what it could be...over to the experts!

Symptoms: Programs are not responding. Happens mostly with Excel 2007, but also with any other software that I am running.

Here's a picture of the memory modules:

Edited July 26, 2008 by raro

[Cuban]

The Old Vista Magic !

If the symptoms are like my daily troubles....

Start menu will not launch any programs, even Calc or notepad etc.

When a OK-Cancel dialogue box appears, often the OK-Cancel buttons are missing.

Working fix:

Open up Task Manager, and kill explorer.exe within the Processes tab.

As a mouse right click on the launch bar does not work, a keyboard Ctrl-Alt-Del should allow you to get there, Start Task Manager.

Any applications running will not be affected. (Kills desktop, task bar and any "file manager" explorer windows.)

Switch to the Applications tab on the Task Manager.

Click New Task (Bottom right corner.)

In the Open field type the word 'explorer', then click OK.

You should (!) have a functioning computer again.

Another fault I get is failure to open new tabs within IE 7, again go to the Task Manager and kill iexplore.exe (Select the program name - then select End Process bottom right corner again.)

This will kill any active IE windows so save data or important just found URLs before you take this step.

If you are unable to save a URL within favorites etc. Try the kill explorer.exe cure first, or create a draft email within a Hotmail tab - in these situations the mouse's right click options are not functioning so I use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl-C and Shift-Insert to copy 'n' paste URLs etc. I want to keep.

HTH - repsond if my directions are a bit fuzzy.

[ Vista 32 bit - pre service pack. ]

[raro]

The Old Vista Magic !

If the symptoms are like my daily troubles....

Start menu will not launch any programs, even Calc or notepad etc.

When a OK-Cancel dialogue box appears, often the OK-Cancel buttons are missing.

as you mention it....right click not working I also had. Tried coincidentally the same fix as you - killing explorer task but without creating the new explorer task and it worked.

Also sometimes windows just freeze for a minute or two and you cannot access them with the mouse whatsoever.

[Guest Reimar]

Now seeing the pic from your memory one thing springs in my eye: Bank one (TRANSCEND): 16 Chips

and Bank two (Samsung): 8 Chips.

That will force problems right a way.

The Acer MB's for Laptops are designed for Dual Channel Memory in first line. Using of different Chips and than even different Memory size of the chips in the different Bank, will force compatibility problems.

I had the same on my laptop at beginning and after changing the memory to both the same the problems was gone. Important is to use the exact same memories in all slots.

Cheers.

[Cuban]

Also sometimes windows just freeze for a minute or two and you cannot access them with the mouse whatsoever.

Can you see if there is HDD activity or have Task Manager running and see if there is anything hogging process time ?

Look at the Performance tab, and Processes ordered by CPU time.

Do you have a slow internet connection?

I'm wondering if a helpful application is not trying to check or carry out a background update, I have a HP printer application that does this - although does not adversely affect my PC. Look at AVG, Java updater etc?

If the application can be configured to carry out such upgrades during the night etc.

[PattayaDavid]

Now seeing the pic from your memory one thing springs in my eye: Bank one (TRANSCEND): 16 Chips

and Bank two (Samsung): 8 Chips.

That will force problems right a way.

The Acer MB's for Laptops are designed for Dual Channel Memory in first line. Using of different Chips and than even different Memory size of the chips in the different Bank, will force compatibility problems.

I had the same on my laptop at beginning and after changing the memory to both the same the problems was gone. Important is to use the exact same memories in all slots.

Cheers.

I'm not familiar with the Acers, but on my ThinkPad T61 I have mixed my memory size and experienced no problems.  I have a 1GB Corsair high performance memory card in the primary slot and a 2GB memory card of the same time memory in the second slot.  I think that having the same type memory is more important than the size of the memory in the available slots.  I haven't experienced any problems at all with running Vista SP1 on my laptop.  the only time I can't get the cursor to respond is when Outlook is sending/receiving messages, but that is normal for Outlook on every computer that I have owned whether I'm running Vista or XP.

[Guest Reimar]

Now seeing the pic from your memory one thing springs in my eye: Bank one (TRANSCEND): 16 Chips

and Bank two (Samsung): 8 Chips.

That will force problems right a way.

The Acer MB's for Laptops are designed for Dual Channel Memory in first line. Using of different Chips and than even different Memory size of the chips in the different Bank, will force compatibility problems.

I had the same on my laptop at beginning and after changing the memory to both the same the problems was gone. Important is to use the exact same memories in all slots.

Cheers.

I'm not familiar with the Acers, but on my ThinkPad T61 I have mixed my memory size and experienced no problems. I have a 1GB Corsair high performance memory card in the primary slot and a 2GB memory card of the same time memory in the second slot. I think that having the same type memory is more important than the size of the memory in the available slots. I haven't experienced any problems at all with running Vista SP1 on my laptop. the only time I can't get the cursor to respond is when Outlook is sending/receiving messages, but that is normal for Outlook on every computer that I have owned whether I'm running Vista or XP.

The T61 has an max of 3 GB memory and as far as I know didn't support Dual Channel Memory (i called once a few weeks ago to IBM

Service about exactly that). But the Thinkpad series are not sensitive about memories like Sony, Toshiba and Acer!

Cheers.

[slackula]

Programs Not Responding In Vista, memory problem?

I think I have an inkling where your problem is coming from

[Veazer]

...

Working fix:

Open up Task Manager, and kill explorer.exe within the Processes tab.

...

It's preferable to shutdown explorer gracefully rather than killing the process:

For Vista, click the start button, then hold down ctrl+shift and right click an empty area on the menu or on the power buttons, then choose 'Exit Explorer'.

For XP or if you're using the classic menu in Vista, click the start button > shut down > and on the "Shutdown Windows" popup press ctrl+alt+shift and click Cancel.

[PattayaDavid]

Now seeing the pic from your memory one thing springs in my eye: Bank one (TRANSCEND): 16 Chips

and Bank two (Samsung): 8 Chips.

That will force problems right a way.

The Acer MB's for Laptops are designed for Dual Channel Memory in first line. Using of different Chips and than even different Memory size of the chips in the different Bank, will force compatibility problems.

I had the same on my laptop at beginning and after changing the memory to both the same the problems was gone. Important is to use the exact same memories in all slots.

Cheers.

I'm not familiar with the Acers, but on my ThinkPad T61 I have mixed my memory size and experienced no problems. I have a 1GB Corsair high performance memory card in the primary slot and a 2GB memory card of the same time memory in the second slot. I think that having the same type memory is more important than the size of the memory in the available slots. I haven't experienced any problems at all with running Vista SP1 on my laptop. the only time I can't get the cursor to respond is when Outlook is sending/receiving messages, but that is normal for Outlook on every computer that I have owned whether I'm running Vista or XP.

The T61 has an max of 3 GB memory and as far as I know didn't support Dual Channel Memory (i called once a few weeks ago to IBM

Service about exactly that). But the Thinkpad series are not sensitive about memories like Sony, Toshiba and Acer!

Cheers.

Reimar,

I didn't realize that a maximum of 3GB memory could be used in the T61.  The only reason I used 3GB was due to the Vista 32-bit operating system used.  I guess it wouldn't be of much benefit to run the Vista 64-bit operating system on my ThinkPad, but I'll check into it further.  My ThinkPad came with 2 1GB sticks of Korean made Hynix memory.  The specification indicated on the memory stick is 1GB 2Rx16 PC2-5300S-555-12.  I can't remember what the specification was on my Corsair 2G stick of memory, but I was mistaken, it is not high perfomance memory.  It is Corsair Value Select PC-5300 DDR-2-667MHz.

[Guest Reimar]

Reimar,

I didn't realize that a maximum of 3GB memory could be used in the T61. The only reason I used 3GB was due to the Vista 32-bit operating system used. I guess it wouldn't be of much benefit to run the Vista 64-bit operating system on my ThinkPad, but I'll check into it further. My ThinkPad came with 2 1GB sticks of Korean made Hynix memory. The specification indicated on the memory stick is 1GB 2Rx16 PC2-5300S-555-12. I can't remember what the specification was on my Corsair 2G stick of memory, but I was mistaken, it is not high perfomance memory. It is Corsair Value Select PC-5300 DDR-2-667MHz.

David,

to install the Vista 64 Bit on your Laptop will even down the speed a bit because the 64 Bit Version need much more resources as the 32 Bit Version. So to setup 64 Bit is more than useless!

And about USB Sticks as Memory (extended) forget as well. I tested with high performance SunDisk Sticks, made for ReadyBoost and my system was slow down a bit!

But that's just my own experiences.

Cheers.