G'day.
I can't work this one out, or find any info by search or elsewhere.
OS=XP Prof +SP2.
Problem = Often, but not always, when I'm on-line with my dial-up connection, the Windows Explorer toolbar will freeze up. The application - either Firefox or Pegasus email - still works and I start applications via the desktop icons but the Quickstart toolbar and the tray don't respond to mouseclicks and icons with graphics like the networking icon and Zone Alarm's traffic register freeze.
So I can't disconnect via the networking icon but have to do it through by calling up networking properties via the dresktop "ISP connection" icon. The connection disconnects OK (I can tell from the leds on my external modem) but the networking icon in the tray stays up for several minutes. Then I'll get a chain of responses to any toolbar clicks I've done as though a buffer is clearing and everything is OK.
I can trigger the 'buffer clearing' - if that is what it is - by using task manager to kill a 'svchost.exe' process being run by System, but if I kill the wrong one Windows takes offence and closes down!
I've both Pest Patrol and Spybot up to date but they report no adware or trojans aboard, and an anti-virus scan produces nothing.
My dial-up connection, though, is sometimes 'hi-jacked' by something. I'd guess it is an application with an auto-update facility taking over the connection although I've turned off all the auto-updates I can find. When it's happening Zone Alarm doesn't report any unusual programs on line and I can't see any 'strange' processes running in task manager.
I"ve reached the point where a re- or repair install of XP seems the only solution (see my post 'dynamic disks' in the 'computer hardware' forum, but that's a last resort.
Any ideas? And in particular is there any way of tracking down the application I think is interfering with the connection when it's up, and which I think might by causing the freeze-up if something in the system is awaiting a response that doesn't come?
Desperately yours,
Falstaff