I just spent AN HOUR trying to fix a completely incomprehensible error that occurred when I restarted my PC for whatever reason that I can't even remember now. When it booted back up all the desktop icons were flickering like MAD (as was the mouse pointer I might add), windows wouldn't open properly and response from the system was pretty much nonexistant.
First I suspected windows itself, I'd renamed the register reminder .exe for heroes of might and magic 3 so it wouldn't autostart (I hate that registering shit, and besides, 3do's busted anyway) and windows had popped up an error requester telling me it couldn't find the file. No shit sherlock! It seemed like a logical conclusion at the time, it tried repeatedly to find and run the file and failed again and again. So I toggled the power switch on the UPS because the computer was locked solid anyway by then anyway, and busted my filesystem in the process. Thanks!
Took windows failsafe mode half an age to verify the drive, and then I found the bloody shortcut to the reminder exe and killed it (hid in the autostart folder, not in the registry as I first thought).
Of course, that didn't fix anything. :?
Upon rebooting again, the desktop STILL flickered like crazy. I then suspected MSNM 7, because if shit starts acting up, it's always MSNM's fault. Old fishermen's wives' saying, that one. Also, it was probably the most recent program I installed, and each time the computer booted up after installing it, it flings up its main window instead of starting minimized in the tray like it should. So it must be MSNM's fault. Back to safe mode it was!
Couldn't find MSNM's exe in the registry, it starts up in some other arcane way it seems (perhaps via services, what do I know), and it wasn't possible to uninstall the program in safe mode (yay microsoft!!!), but I simply renamed the program's folder instead, yay me! Case solved I thought, and rebooted once more.
Of course that didn't fix anything EITHER.
By now, I'd spent around 30 minutes swearing at my computer, rebooting, rebooting again, having my harddrive scanned, pulling out grey hair etc (and wanting to bust up all my computer shit with a large hammer), without coming any closer to the problem. I'd noticed before upon ctrl-alt-deling, that rivatuner seemed to consume around 40% CPU - unusual - but then, CPU consumption figures aren't always trustworthy right when the task manager has just opened up, or indeed when the comp's barely responsive at all. Anyway, after a couple false starts, I managed to get rivatuner killed, and lo. The problem solved itself.
Seems RT doesn't like the 76.44 driver set... Or at least the version of RT I have installed. I've yet to reboot a final time after uninstalling RT to see if this truly fixed anything, but I am slightly optimistic this time.
So maybe it's wrong of me to blame all this on windows if rivatuner caused the problem, but on the other hand if the foundation is shitty and the house sinks into the ground, you don't blame the house, you blame the foundation. "Always blame Bill Gates." That's another old fishermen's wives' saying.
First I suspected windows itself, I'd renamed the register reminder .exe for heroes of might and magic 3 so it wouldn't autostart (I hate that registering shit, and besides, 3do's busted anyway) and windows had popped up an error requester telling me it couldn't find the file. No shit sherlock! It seemed like a logical conclusion at the time, it tried repeatedly to find and run the file and failed again and again. So I toggled the power switch on the UPS because the computer was locked solid anyway by then anyway, and busted my filesystem in the process. Thanks!
Took windows failsafe mode half an age to verify the drive, and then I found the bloody shortcut to the reminder exe and killed it (hid in the autostart folder, not in the registry as I first thought).
Of course, that didn't fix anything. :?
Upon rebooting again, the desktop STILL flickered like crazy. I then suspected MSNM 7, because if shit starts acting up, it's always MSNM's fault. Old fishermen's wives' saying, that one. Also, it was probably the most recent program I installed, and each time the computer booted up after installing it, it flings up its main window instead of starting minimized in the tray like it should. So it must be MSNM's fault. Back to safe mode it was!
Couldn't find MSNM's exe in the registry, it starts up in some other arcane way it seems (perhaps via services, what do I know), and it wasn't possible to uninstall the program in safe mode (yay microsoft!!!), but I simply renamed the program's folder instead, yay me! Case solved I thought, and rebooted once more.
Of course that didn't fix anything EITHER.
By now, I'd spent around 30 minutes swearing at my computer, rebooting, rebooting again, having my harddrive scanned, pulling out grey hair etc (and wanting to bust up all my computer shit with a large hammer), without coming any closer to the problem. I'd noticed before upon ctrl-alt-deling, that rivatuner seemed to consume around 40% CPU - unusual - but then, CPU consumption figures aren't always trustworthy right when the task manager has just opened up, or indeed when the comp's barely responsive at all. Anyway, after a couple false starts, I managed to get rivatuner killed, and lo. The problem solved itself.
Seems RT doesn't like the 76.44 driver set... Or at least the version of RT I have installed. I've yet to reboot a final time after uninstalling RT to see if this truly fixed anything, but I am slightly optimistic this time.
So maybe it's wrong of me to blame all this on windows if rivatuner caused the problem, but on the other hand if the foundation is shitty and the house sinks into the ground, you don't blame the house, you blame the foundation. "Always blame Bill Gates." That's another old fishermen's wives' saying.
