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Going Blank

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Simon:
Now, this is quite embarassing   as I've asked about this before, but I can't find the thread!  

Anyway, I still have this problem that every so often, my screen freezes for a second, then my desktop (only my desktop) goes blank for about three seconds, then comes back up, but with some of the system tray icons missing, although the programs themselves. i.e. firewall, anti-virus etc are still running.  This seems to happen when I'm navigating Windows Explorer, i.e. finding files etc, but I can't tie it down to any particular event.  The only thing I thought was am I going to quick for it, but surely that's just silly.

First I thought it was my firewall, as it seemed to do it at roughly the same random intervals as you get alerts.  It also seemed to start when I 'silenced' the alerts, but I've re-installed the firewall, had the alerts on and off, and I don't now think it's connected.

Then I thought it might be my graphics card drivers, so I updated them, and thought it was OK, but after a while it started again.

This only started happening since I re-formatted my hard drive and re-installed Windows XP, due to a quagmire of other problems.  I'm not prepared to re-format yet again, just on the offchance that it might cure this problem (well, it's more of an annoyance really), unless I can actually pin the cause down.  I'm wondering if it's something to do with clearing memory, but really haven't a clue.

Any thoughts on this appreciated.  

 :)

Robotochan:
I get that when my PC is loading a lot or on 98SE when it crashed. I normally just started explorer again and it worked fine

Tony:
:tony: I dare say a cautious lad like you Simon would not like to run without a fire wall, right? But would like to eliminate any lingering doubts you have that it could be your fire wall, right ?  Well why dont you try a proccess of elimination,  uninstall Sygate and load ZoneAlarm just to see if the fault stays or goes. :tony: just testing ::)

Adept:
Are you still running that diskeeper program Simon?

I've spent all last night sorting out similar problems on my PC after installing Diskeeper  >:( I had to uninstall it in the end - it was too much bother.

I wonder if your problem is related? :-\

Simon:
Tony, well I suppose it might be worth a try, but this wasn't happening before the re-format, and I was using Sygate then.   :-\

Sean, no I didn't re-install Diskeeper after the re-format, so it can't be that.

I'm starting to be strangely drawn towards memory settings.  I had set my own virtual memory settings to 3 x RAM, before re-installing XP, but then I couldn't remember if both the minimum and maximum were set to 1536Mb, or just the max, with the min not set, or set to 0.  As I couldn't remember the configuration, I have let Windows manage the VM, and it's currently set to 767Mb, with 512 RAM.  Does anyone think this might be connected to the problem?

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