Flickering 'File' toolbar widget

I have a Dell Inspiron 2600 running Win XP SP2 with an external PS/2
mouse.

Here's the problem:

When I do a reboot (cold or warm) and bring up virtually any
program (MS or otherwise), its 'File' toolbar item will
(eventually) start flashing/flickering/blinking
for no apparent reason.

Coincidentally or not, when I run "MS-Notepad",
the "greater-than" ( ) sign won't type out
with the left-shift key, but it *does* work with the
RIGHT-shift key. At first, I thought it was a keyboard problem,
but when I "kill" that window, and then bring-up a new
"Notepad", everything works just fine.
However, none of this happens 100% of the time.

Also, coincidentally or not, when I do a warm reboot,
the computer goes to a black (initial) screen after "shutting
down" (perfectly normal, so far), and then beeps quickly and
randomly, like a crazed Morse code operator,
for no apparent reason until it gets to the first
Windows boot screen.
However, this problem seems to have gone away,
following my attempted fixes (see below)
for the aforementioned problem (I don't know specifically
what I did to make it go away,
except for the possibility that it was the new Synaptic driver
(see below)).

I've noticed that hitting the escape or ALT keys makes the flickering
stop for a random amount of time (sometimes a few seconds,
sometimes minutes), so, at first, I thought it was a problem with the
keyboard. However, there appear to be no conflicts, registry faults,
etc.; I've cleaned the keyboard (not very dirty), removed unnecessary
programs, increased the virtual page memory, run virus and spyware
checks, and disabled programs (pop-ups, spyware, virus progs, etc),
but nothing makes the flickering go away.

The following problem occurred only recently.
I have not downloaded any programs,
although it's possible that the automated Windows update may have done
so without my knowledge.
I have tried Dell's and MicroSquish's automated computer checks to no
avail
(the only item of consequence was MS telling me that the Synaptic
(internal) mouse driver
needed to be updated, which I did, but it didn't make the flickering
problem go away;
it's POSSIBLE that it made the aforementioned "beeping-on-warm-reboot"
problem go away).

It doesn't matter whether I am or am not running any other programs,
so, whatever the flicker problem is, it's most likely due to a
background program or driver,
but I'll be darned if I can figure out what it/they may be.

I am a computer programmer with over 20 years of experience.
My sideline work is fixing other people's computers,
but this has me stumped!

Any ideas would be most appreciated!




-----
Bond . . . James Bond


Do not reply via e-mail.
The address is phony to prevent spam, etc.
Thank you for understanding.

the beeping during bootup could be bios error beeps.
count the beeps carefully and look in the support manuals for what the
number of beeps mean. that could signify some kind of a hardware problem.

also, you may have spyware infected on your computer that is causing
things to perform weirdly. i have seen spyware cause all sorts of
problems. if you want, post a log of every process running in your
background and i'll tell you if something is bad.

James Bond 007 wrote:
I have a Dell Inspiron 2600 running Win XP SP2 with an external PS/2
mouse.

Here's the problem:

When I do a reboot (cold or warm) and bring up virtually any
program (MS or otherwise), its 'File' toolbar item will
(eventually) start flashing/flickering/blinking
for no apparent reason.

Coincidentally or not, when I run "MS-Notepad",
the "greater-than" ( ) sign won't type out
with the left-shift key, but it *does* work with the
RIGHT-shift key. At first, I thought it was a keyboard problem,
but when I "kill" that window, and then bring-up a new
"Notepad", everything works just fine.
However, none of this happens 100% of the time.

Also, coincidentally or not, when I do a warm reboot,
the computer goes to a black (initial) screen after "shutting
down" (perfectly normal, so far), and then beeps quickly and
randomly, like a crazed Morse code operator,
for no apparent reason until it gets to the first
Windows boot screen.
However, this problem seems to have gone away,
following my attempted fixes (see below)
for the aforementioned problem (I don't know specifically
what I did to make it go away,
except for the possibility that it was the new Synaptic driver
(see below)).

I've noticed that hitting the escape or ALT keys makes the flickering
stop for a random amount of time (sometimes a few seconds,
sometimes minutes), so, at first, I thought it was a problem with the
keyboard. However, there appear to be no conflicts, registry faults,
etc.; I've cleaned the keyboard (not very dirty), removed unnecessary
programs, increased the virtual page memory, run virus and spyware
checks, and disabled programs (pop-ups, spyware, virus progs, etc),
but nothing makes the flickering go away.

The following problem occurred only recently.
I have not downloaded any programs,
although it's possible that the automated Windows update may have done
so without my knowledge.
I have tried Dell's and MicroSquish's automated computer checks to no
avail
(the only item of consequence was MS telling me that the Synaptic
(internal) mouse driver
needed to be updated, which I did, but it didn't make the flickering
problem go away;
it's POSSIBLE that it made the aforementioned "beeping-on-warm-reboot"
problem go away).

It doesn't matter whether I am or am not running any other programs,
so, whatever the flicker problem is, it's most likely due to a
background program or driver,
but I'll be darned if I can figure out what it/they may be.

I am a computer programmer with over 20 years of experience.
My sideline work is fixing other people's computers,
but this has me stumped!

Any ideas would be most appreciated!




-----
Bond . . . James Bond


Do not reply via e-mail.
The address is phony to prevent spam, etc.
Thank you for understanding.

"James Bond 007" wrote in message
...
I have a Dell Inspiron 2600 running Win XP SP2 with an external PS/2
mouse.

Here's the problem:

When I do a reboot (cold or warm) and bring up virtually any
program (MS or otherwise), its 'File' toolbar item will
(eventually) start flashing/flickering/blinking
for no apparent reason.

Coincidentally or not, when I run "MS-Notepad",
the "greater-than" ( ) sign won't type out
with the left-shift key, but it *does* work with the
RIGHT-shift key. At first, I thought it was a keyboard problem,
but when I "kill" that window, and then bring-up a new
"Notepad", everything works just fine.
However, none of this happens 100% of the time.

Also, coincidentally or not, when I do a warm reboot,
the computer goes to a black (initial) screen after "shutting
down" (perfectly normal, so far), and then beeps quickly and
randomly, like a crazed Morse code operator,
for no apparent reason until it gets to the first
Windows boot screen.
However, this problem seems to have gone away,
following my attempted fixes (see below)
for the aforementioned problem (I don't know specifically
what I did to make it go away,
except for the possibility that it was the new Synaptic driver
(see below)).

I've noticed that hitting the escape or ALT keys makes the flickering
stop for a random amount of time (sometimes a few seconds,
sometimes minutes), so, at first, I thought it was a problem with the
keyboard. However, there appear to be no conflicts, registry faults,
etc.; I've cleaned the keyboard (not very dirty), removed unnecessary
programs, increased the virtual page memory, run virus and spyware
checks, and disabled programs (pop-ups, spyware, virus progs, etc),
but nothing makes the flickering go away.

The following problem occurred only recently.
I have not downloaded any programs,
although it's possible that the automated Windows update may have done
so without my knowledge.
I have tried Dell's and MicroSquish's automated computer checks to no
avail
(the only item of consequence was MS telling me that the Synaptic
(internal) mouse driver
needed to be updated, which I did, but it didn't make the flickering
problem go away;
it's POSSIBLE that it made the aforementioned "beeping-on-warm-reboot"
problem go away).

It doesn't matter whether I am or am not running any other programs,
so, whatever the flicker problem is, it's most likely due to a
background program or driver,
but I'll be darned if I can figure out what it/they may be.

I am a computer programmer with over 20 years of experience.
My sideline work is fixing other people's computers,
but this has me stumped!

Any ideas would be most appreciated!




-----
Bond . . . James Bond


Do not reply via e-mail.
The address is phony to prevent spam, etc.
Thank you for understanding.

The first problem, the blinking taskbar icon for the application, is
caused by another program stealing the focus being demanded by the
starting application. Coupled with the subsidiary problems, this points
to some background process that becomes active whenever you launch a
wanted application. This certainly could be some trojan activity.

I would try Trend Micro's on-line antivirus scan, www.trendmicro.com ,
that is very good at uncovering virus and trojan activity. HijackThis
(Google) will list every process running on the computer - it's tedious
to review each and every entry but with the help of Google and the
security forums at www.dslreports.com you can often track down the
source of the problem. Also review everything reported in Task Manager,
and in the startup list generated by msconfig (start, run command:
msconfig, startup tab.

Q

Thanks for the great tips!

I have a feeling it will take a while to figure out the problem
(if it can be figured out at all!), but I do appreciate your
help!

On Sat, 1 Oct 2005 10:49:52 -0600, "Quaoar"
wrote:


"James Bond 007" wrote in message
...
I have a Dell Inspiron 2600 running Win XP SP2 with an external PS/2
mouse.

Here's the problem:

When I do a reboot (cold or warm) and bring up virtually any
program (MS or otherwise), its 'File' toolbar item will
(eventually) start flashing/flickering/blinking
for no apparent reason.

Coincidentally or not, when I run "MS-Notepad",
the "greater-than" ( ) sign won't type out
with the left-shift key, but it *does* work with the
RIGHT-shift key. At first, I thought it was a keyboard problem,
but when I "kill" that window, and then bring-up a new
"Notepad", everything works just fine.
However, none of this happens 100% of the time.
[snip]


The first problem, the blinking taskbar icon for the application, is
caused by another program stealing the focus being demanded by the
starting application. Coupled with the subsidiary problems, this points
to some background process that becomes active whenever you launch a
wanted application. This certainly could be some trojan activity.

I would try Trend Micro's on-line antivirus scan, www.trendmicro.com ,
that is very good at uncovering virus and trojan activity. HijackThis
(Google) will list every process running on the computer - it's tedious
to review each and every entry but with the help of Google and the
security forums at www.dslreports.com you can often track down the
source of the problem. Also review everything reported in Task Manager,
and in the startup list generated by msconfig (start, run command:
msconfig, startup tab.

Q






-----
Bond . . . James Bond


Do not reply via e-mail.
The address is phony to prevent spam, etc.
Thank you for understanding.