Minimizing

[tyridragonite]

:sa::sa:

I programs, mainly my games, my full screen games, keep minimizing at random. Espically the sims 2. It hasn't ever happened before. I would start the game then the title front page would come up then it would disappear but my machine would still run as if it were there. It would never come up. My online mmorpg will continously minimize. I will click on them but they only maximize for a few seconds before minimizing again. I've tried everything i know: Running full scans on my computer with nothing showing up, getting rid of mulitiple virus protections. Ending some start up programs. Udating various thing. It's not a virus and it's not malware. I just don't know what it is anymore. I've tried googling the problem and seeing if i could find an answer that would help, it didn't. I have tried a tool made by microsoft to see if it could find the problem, it found nothing at all wrong with it. I don't know what else to do. It's never done it before. I heard that an eariler version of AVG (my virus protection) could cause it, but i uninstalled and reinstalled the latest version.

Please and Thank you for looking at my post

 

[osholt]

It seams the culprit for this almost certainly still IS AVG antivirus. The easiest solution would be to download Microsoft Security Essentials from http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ and totally remove AVG using the uninstaller found at http://www.avg.com/ww-en/download-tools; not just via Control Panel.

MS Security Essentials is a free antivirus program offered by Microsoft and is generally considered to be very good.

Hope this helps.

Oli

 

[Gil777t]

:sa::sa:

I programs, mainly my games, my full screen games, keep minimizing at random. Espically the sims 2. It hasn't ever happened before. I would start the game then the title front page would come up then it would disappear but my machine would still run as if it were there. It would never come up. My online mmorpg will continously minimize. I will click on them but they only maximize for a few seconds before minimizing again. I've tried everything i know: Running full scans on my computer with nothing showing up, getting rid of mulitiple virus protections. Ending some start up programs. Udating various thing. It's not a virus and it's not malware. I just don't know what it is anymore. I've tried googling the problem and seeing if i could find an answer that would help, it didn't. I have tried a tool made by microsoft to see if it could find the problem, it found nothing at all wrong with it. I don't know what else to do. It's never done it before. I heard that an eariler version of AVG (my virus protection) could cause it, but i uninstalled and reinstalled the latest version.

Please and Thank you for looking at my post

Here is a link that you should read. It is as though it was written for you games keep minimizing. Read responses 3 and 4.
Regards,
Gil777t

 

[tyridragonite]

I cleaned by keyboard but that didn't help at all and i tried the method for finding altjabber, but after my search i didn't find it so I'm guessing it's not there. I'm iffy about uninstalling AVG because it never did it before while AVG was installed and AVG has been on my computer for a while now and so has the game.

 

[osholt]

May I ask what version of AVG you are using?

Oli

 

[tyridragonite]

version: 9.0.791

 

[osholt]

OK, try this and see if it solves the problem.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del;
Select Task Manager;
Go into the processes tab;
Stop all processes related to AVG antivirus (temporarily) (If in doubt check the description of the process, anything which has AVG in the title definitely needs killing).
Now see if games etc. keep minimizing randomly.

Oli

 

[tyridragonite]

The same thing still happens. The game will flash to its title page then just disappear.

 

[osholt]

The only other thing (bar uninstalling AVG) I will ask you to try is to start up your PC in safe mode and see what happens then.
Please report back with the results.
Some other things that you should do occasionally regardless of whether you have a problem or not are to:
check for registry errors (this doesn't have to very frequent maybe a once or twice a year if you have no problems),
make sure your antivirus is up to date,
make sure Windows is up to date and
empty the recycle bin on a regular basis (especially if you have a smaller hard drive).

Oli

 

[tyridragonite]

I tried the games that have given me problems in safe mode. The sims 2 will still flash to the title page and then disappear not to ever come up. The other game will make like 3 copies of itself and flash to a white screen and will just stay there. I've already cleaned my registry of errors and i'm pretty regular about keeping things up to date and i usually always keep my recycle bin empty.

 

[osholt]

Do you have a subscription to AVG antivirus or is it a free copy? Sorry I forgot to ask .

Oli

 

[tyridragonite]

free copy

 

[osholt]

OK, may I ask why you object to removing AVG temporarily (or at least temporarily if it doesn't work)? If it was a copy you bought then I would understand.

Oh by the way out of all the free antivirus programs available today the one which is considered widely to very good if not the best, not just of free but also paid for antivirus programs, is Microsoft Security Essentials.

I have fixed up a friends PC before and removed his copy of AVG free and replaced it with MS SE. MS SE immediately found quite a nasty little threat that AVG was clueless about.

MS SE also has no track record of causing this sort of problem and according to my own tests (which aren't necessarily scientific) it has a lower base line of CPU usage while running compared to AVG.

I would recommend changing your antivirus because:
a: It may well fix the problem
b: AVG free is not the best of antivirus programs available today
c:You can regain more CPU power to utilize on your gaming.
d: you might actually be able to get the games to run without minimizing

If you don't want to you don't have to but this is just my case for why you should change antivirus programs.

I hope you make a good informed decision,

Oli

 

[Gil777t]

Could the trouble be with the graphics card? Just a shot in the dark.
Regards,
Gil777t

 

[tyridragonite]

I just uninstalled AVG and then used the tools to get rid of it and then installed and updated MS essentials and scaned with it. it found no problems. My game still will not play

 

[tyridragonite]

Although in my device manager there is a yellow exclamtion next to something

 

[osholt]

Have you rebooted?

 

[tyridragonite]

after uninstalling AVG and everything and then i installed MS but i never rebooted after installing MS

 

[osholt]

That may still be worth doing.

 

[tyridragonite]

I have restarted and tried the game again. it still didn't work