Desktop Refreshes By Itself!

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Spyke

Posts: 47   +0
Hi!

For the last few days my PC has been doing this wierd thing!
Windows will slow right down for up to a minute, then speed up again. Whenever I get back to the desktop from whatever I was doing, the Desktop Refreshes itself, just like after booting up, like when all the icons get drawn! Again, it takes about 20-30 seconds, and then its all back to normal- till next time!

I think it's random, usually does it two to three times per night, but it's never happened before about couple of weeks ago.

I've got a new Ti4200 graphics card and 40.72 drivers installed, and thats the only change I think I've made! Help?

Athlon 1.2
Win 98SE
ECS K7VZA mobo
512 mb ram
PNY GF4 Ti4200 64mb (40.72)
Creative soundblaster 5.1 Digital
20Gb HD (12Gb full)

Any suggestions gratefully rec'd!


:(
 
Dont think Virus.

I keep McAfee updated, and ran complete system scan when first happened, and nothing showed...

:confused:
 
Hit ctrl+alt+del once and post here the list of apps you see running when this happens. Also, have you enabled Active Desktop? Or maybe it's Desktop as a web page these days..
 
I haven't deliberately set Active Desktop- When I right clock on blank section of desktop, and highlight Active Desktop, there are no ticks against the options presented.

Will try CTRL+ALT+DELETE, but while it is actually happening, I have no control, and by the time the applications list comes up, the refresh is over!:(

Very frustrating...
 
This happends to me too. Except its when I come out of larger applications such as Warcraft 3 or Unreal Tournament. When I exit out of Warcraft 3 the pc is VERY slow for about 1 min, meanwhile I have no idea what its doing(probbly clearing cache and ram), except for it refreshes the icons/desktop. Im running an AthlonXP 1700+, with 256MBs of RAM, so Im not lacking any system requirments.

Funky...
 
Virtual memory bah!

Maybe you can attribute that to the applications that were running, using lotsa memory~
virtual memory on ur harddrive, and then windows deleting all that temporary crap after u quit the application

which generally happens with lotsa applications when you have only say 256 mb of ram. same goes for 512 sometimes

that and ur harddrive all fragged up will cause window to chug away for a while whenever you quit a large application/game

U can get more ram, or set up how window cache those neat little virtual memory stuff urself.


or something like dat :confused:
 
He has 512 mb of memory so I do not think that is the problem. This proble is caused by the icon cache being released, I'm guessing... Which is a symptom of running out of memory... But with 512 he should be pretty well off.

I recommend disabling active desktop (It's trash anyway). You may want to see if ou are getting your 512mb worth of memory by visiting the knowledgebase link in my signature and searching for "512 memory" and select your operating system. You'll find that Windows 98 may not be handling your memory properly and this could be the cause for your problems.

You'll be doing yourself a huge favor by upgrading to Windows 2000
or XP. They are infinitely better operating systems and if you have this option readily available to you.. Then I suggest you do this.
 
The size of icon cache doesn't sepend on the amount of memory you have. IMO it is fixed in Windows. Youo can use tweak programs (like X-Setup) or the trusty Regedit to change this.
 
This is interesting- I hadn't thought about memory.

As you know, I have 512 mb pc133 cas2 ram, but I have my swap-file set to 1024mb. This is because I mostly play flight sims, and they are pretty heavy on Ram usage, in fact I couldnt get Combat Flight Simulator 3 to run acceptably till I had increased the Swap File.
I have also enabled the "Swap File Conservative Usage" windows tweak in the ini (?) settings, and I run Scandisk aand Defrag every weekend, as well as emptying all my temp folders every day.

Does this help? I forgot to mention I had a 400w psu fitted when I upgraded my vid card. Could it be a psu problem?

Thanks,

:)
 
And it just did it, and all I've been doing is reading this forum, sending a couple of e-mails, and downloading a 2mb file!!!

Aaaarrrggghhh!
 
Fixed, I think!

Hi!

I think I've fixed it.
Used the vcache tweak that you list in the windows os tweak guide, setting min and max to 0, and it seems to have helped;

and I gained 100 points in 3dMark2001 as well!:D
 
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