Strange lockdown in Windows 7

N

N86eAL

New Member
Hello everyone.

Been searching around for quite some time for this problem but haven't found solution. It also seems to grow bigger and occur more often as times goes by. I am using Windows 7 64-bit at the moment. My problem looks like this:

I start my computer, log in, and I see my desktop, taskbar and my programs start to load. I can interact with my desktop, press icons, but my taskbar and notification area are completely locked. I can't interact with them at all. It almost feels like explorer.exe has crashed.

I then press ctrl-alt-del, press Cancel, and when I get back everything works as it should. I open Google Chrome and starts to surf. I go to some ordinary sites, change between tabs, do what I usually do. Then out of nowhere when I press an open tab, Google Chrome decides to close it. I try to interact with my Taskbar, but it doesn't work at all.

I once again press ctrl-alt-del>Cancel, and everything is once again fine. Sometimes my computer works perfectly fine for a long time, sometimes it occurs within seconds. I have been trying to find some sort of hint of what the problem might be, but without any success at all.
 
What are you canceling? Keep open Task Manager in the Performance tab, in case it happens again, and see if the CPU usage spikes. Then "cancel" whatever, and go to the process tab and click the CPU column so that the processes using the most CPU are at the top. When it happens again, take note of the process using the most CPU and post it here.

If nothing unusual shows up, you could also try typing into the Orb's search box "sfc /scannow" and press enter. This will scan for corrupted or missing Windows files and replace them. It will take a while, though.
You could also check your HD, though that may be unrelated.
 
When I press ctrl-alt-del I get to a new place in win 7 where I can Lock the computer, switch user, log off etc. That is where I press cancel, so basically the only thing I do to "fix" the problem is to press ctrl-alt-del and then do nothing.

I am going to monitor my CPU to see if there are any strange happenings.
 
It seems that I fixed the problem. I had a little hint that the problems occured more often when using Flash, like playing games/watching videos. When looking at the Event Viewer, I could see that Adobe Air stopped working a couple of times.

Not knowing why I have Adobe Air installed, I uninstalled it and the problem haven't occured once after removing the program. I have been playing one game and watching a couple of videos too.

Going to continue to test my computer even though it is hard, because the symptoms usually just appear from nothing. Hoping for the best.
 
Ok, I didn't solve the problem as it seems because it appeared again now and more frequent too. I tried checking my Task Manager for anything strange but found nothing. One strange thing is that I couldn't move around in the task manager with my mouse but had to use my keyboard.

Didn't do anything I haven't done today already, which is quite frustrating.
 
I do not have anything to change with at the moment, but going to borrow some from work. Though I have to say it feels like that is not the problem. For example:

I am playing Runes of Magic, a free MMORPG, and when the problem kicks in it is still possible to walk around and start talking to people. What doesn't work is when I started to talk to an NPC and I get options what I want to say, I can't click them.

Instead, when I choose what to say the mouse clicks through the interaction window, and clicks on the ground instead, like there was no window there at the first place.

This is inside a game too, which freaks me out a little.

EDIT:
One more thing I found out when this problem occurs is that if I click on a link in google chrome, it automatically opens a new tab, almost like when you hold ctrl+left click.
 
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Weird. Virus?
Windows 7 shouldn't have that issue. Does double clicking something perform those weird actions you're talking about? Because the clicker could be dieing, or maybe your keyboard has a few stuck keys and needs to be replaced. I had a problem similar to this, and it all seemed timed with when I pressed control+alt+delete. Turned out, my control key was stuck. You could try jiggling the modifier keys (alt, control) when it happens.
 
I tried another mouse, no difference and the keyboard seems healthy and all when looking at it. Still, holding ctrl or shift plus clicking shouldn't generate the problems I get.

I thought it could be a problem with Aero, so I removed it but it didn't help, nor did my virus scan that found not a single problem.

I am going to try and shut down programs and see if that help. The problem here is that it is quite hard to monitor, since the problem can occur 3 times within a minute, or 3 times within the hour.
 
"I am a creature of a superior race: I can diagnose keyboards simply by gazing at them with my superior x-ray vision..."
Oh gosh:angry:
You cannot diagnose a faulty keyboard simply by looking at it in most cases, and in this case it may be a loose contact inside it. Before you go goofballs and take the darn thing apart, FYI: you can't fix it. Try another keyboard, geez.

I hate typing at 4:30 in the morning:angry:...
 
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