Hard to describe this problem, thoughts?

[devinejay]

Firstly I'd like to say that I'm glad to be joining the site, you guys seem to be doing great job here!

Like I said, it's tricky to explain this properly, but I'll try anyway. Windows won't let me interact with different windows properly. Once a window is minimized it's next to impossible to access it again without using taskmanager - switch to. If I click on the window from the taskbar (if it had been minimized of I was viewing another window) it come up fullscreen as usual, but then I can't click on anything on the window, it's as if I'm clicking "behind" the window, no matter what I try.
Maybe a clearer way of describing it is that the only way I can change the active window is with task manager, items in the task bar can be switched in and out of view but not activated.
Also occasionally icons on the desktop are unresponsive. And I also forgot to say that sometimes the task bar is sometimes completely unresponsive.

Anyone have any ideas? If you have any questions it might help for me to describe it, as I don't really know what you're looking for in terms of figuring out the problem. I'd love to get this sorted as it's incredibly frustrating!

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Did it every work? Did you install something and it caused your issue? How long has it been going on?

 

[devinejay]

It only surfaced in the last two or three days. I can't think of anything that may have caused the problem, but I'll have a look at what's changed since then and get back to yo.

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Backup your data. Do a system restore to a point before it.

 

[devinejay]

System restore yielded no results!! It's hardly a malware issue is it? I've ran a few full scans and it hasn't turned up anything, nor am I noticing any other unusual behavior/excess processor usage.

 

[H2SO4]

Does it happen if you boot to safe mode (press F8 at startup)?

Are all windows and all apps similarly affected?

Are you running the latest driver for your video card?

Have you installed any 3rd-party desktop "enhancement" software recently?

Do you use registry "cleaners" or other system "optimisers" of any sort?


What you're describing seems to be a window focus issue - the act of clicking on a window no longer gives it focus. I doubt that's malware, or if it is it's very ineptly written malware. More likely to be a problem with some add-on that attempts to interfere with the window focus functions. It'll be most interesting to see what happens in safe mode.

 

[devinejay]

I'll try safe mode now.

All windows are similarly effected, although task manager works fine when accessed through CTRL+ALT+DEL and the problem generally fixes itself for a short period after soing this., I don't think the video card driver,is out of date but I'll check. No "Desktop enhancement" software or "cleaners" etc installed either.

Browsing the event logs turns up this message every now and then;
"The Desktop Window Manager has exited with code (0x40010004)"

which may be related.

 

[devinejay]

No problems in safe mode, everything works fine.

If it's a problem with the window focus, would that effect the task bar also? The quick launch icons and start menu included as they are sometimes unresponsive.

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

What did you install before the problem started. Try uninstalling it.

 

[archie123]

so you could try a clean boot , see if any startup items are causing you hassle

How to perform a clean boot procedure to determine whether background programs are interfering with a game or a program that you currently use

if it fixes it turn everything back on 1 by 1 booting each time till the problem comes back

 

[devinejay]

so you could try a clean boot , see if any startup items are causing you hassle

How to perform a clean boot procedure to determine whether background programs are interfering with a game or a program that you currently use

if it fixes it turn everything back on 1 by 1 booting each time till the problem comes back

The clean boot seems to have worked although I'm not satisfied that it won't come back yet. I've got to head to work now so I don't have time to narrow down the one that was causing the problem. I'll post when I do.

Thanks for all your help guys.

 

[archie123]

yeah if you turn it all back on 1 by one and boot between , when the problem comes back you'll have your culprit :D

 

[H2SO4]

What archie123 said (have some rep Archie!).

Devinejay: you can use MSCONFIG to perform "selective startups" to try to find the culprit which is loading in normal mode (but not safe mode). "Autoruns" from sysinternals.com does something similar and its more powerful.

 

[devinejay]

Just to give an update, problem appears to be solved, but not as expected!

The clean boot turned out not to fix it after all, so I went snooping around myself. There was some remnant of a Sony Ericsson PC Suite install that never came close to working that I properly removed, although I'm not sure what would cause that to suddenly manifest itself and start acting up for no reason when it's been months since I went near it. Then I noticed something unusual which may have caused the problem. There's two extra buttons on my mouse, browser page forward and back (non-programmable, ugh!). The forward button, which I almost never use, was jammed on. It seems to me that this constant holding of the forward button was what caused the problem, or am I completely off the ball? It's tricky to nail down what the solution to your issue is when you're trying everything to fix it and it not clear the instant it's fixed, but yeah, I think it was the mouse.

Thanks again!!

 

[H2SO4]

It sounds plausible. Glad to hear it's working for you now.