Strange computer problem

It all started some days ago, well, after I removed some Windows Services accidentally, but then I renabled all I needed again.

Very often, while using the computer, the bottom bar the taskbar freezes completely. I mean, I cannot click the start button, nor the tabs of any program. I can however, switch programs using Alt+Tab and open task manager. if I kill explorer.exe, then open it again everything seems fine (but usually it takes a lot for the taskbar to return).
The taskbar freezes normally for 10-15 minutes, and that's horrible. I have run a scan with all the softwares in my sig, but found nothing...
Normally my PC is a bit slow (30GB out of 80GB HDD remaining), but this has NEVER happened before...
I wonder if anyone could help?

 

Sounds to me like theres something hogging all your cpu in the background for a set amout of time.Maybe kaspersky is performing a background scan?.Id Download process explorer and see if anything shows with it.
ellison

 

Kaspersky works the same as it worked before all this would happen...
PS: Nothing strange in the apps, nothing taking much CPU

 

Try opening taskmanager >processes and end process in turn for each third party program application and see if taskbar responds after any have been shutdown.
ellison

 

Yeah I tried already, turning off Kaspersky, Opera, (and sometimes messenger). The other's are windows services.

 

Any logs in event manger that might help?
ellison

 

Take a look at this http://photoserver.ws/files/tczzqrx9wb7ev0eih2ky.jpg

 

Nothing looks out of the ordinary there.Have all the icons loaded to the tray or taskbar?Maybe the taskbar is "waiting" on an icon to load.Have you tried disabling sandboxie?.What does event manager in administrative tools show?
ellison

 

"all I needed again" or "the way it was before the problem"? Could that still be the problem?

I regularly export my services list (in .txt format) so that if there is a problem I can re-check the list and find out what the startup type used to be before the problem (Services-Action-Export List). Did you export the list so you can check?

If it is not related to the services, I would try disabling all non-Windows startup programs/services and see if you still have the problem.

 

I attached the log of Event Viewer. I didn't notice any problem, though, that could have caused that...
The sandboxie service starts up, but there's no icon in the system tray. I think that if the service is disabled sandboxie won't run? I can try to disable it however.
Besides that, all icons load, I wait until they fully load (they are only 4) and then start using my computer.

All needed = the way it was before the problem. Though even If I do enable all, the problem still occurs..

 

The event viewer log seems quite old...April seems to be last entry?.Strange ....there are also two entries for 24 june 2008?
ellison

 

That's what the event viewer has...

And 24 june 2008? I have no idea how that's possible..

 

Yes that is weird...
........................
2008-06-24 21:03 MsiInstaller Information None 11729 COMPULAB-29C527\User COMPULAB-29C527 Product: Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 -- Configuration failed.
2008-06-24 21:03 MsiInstaller Information None 11728 COMPULAB-29C527\User COMPULAB-29C527 Product: Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 -- Configuration completed successfully.
........................
Not sure what to advise ,because the event viewer logs seem old and suggest some registry corruption and there are instances of disk corruption where chkdsk has ran too.
You could try start>run>type msconfig> and under general tab tick diagnostic startup.This will only load basic services and drivers.Does the taskbar still hang?.If so you may have major problem .If not im afraid its trial and error of all your programs and drivers.
ellison

 

This can happen if there are corrupted files on your hard disk and/or if your hard disk is heavily fragmented.
How much ram is used by the explorer when it happens? In both the above examples explorer has difficulties in indexing the files and the usage of the ram goes very high.

Panagiotis

 

Ran disk defragmenter and the harddisk was not fragmented.
I ran chdsk and it did correct some errors, but the issue is still present...
when the problem happens, the RAM doesn't increase, it stays as it is normally... around 35MB.

 

Removed some Windows Services ? So you didn't disable them, you removed them instead of disabling. How did you get these removed services back, before you could enable them ? No images either to restore your system ?

 

Do you p2p when it happens? Earlier versions of kaspersky gave this kind of problems during p2p.

 

Hi emperordarius. Are you using Windows XP? If yes, see if flushing your icon cache and resetting your taskbar to default would fix the freezing. Did you try a system restore?

thanatos

 

I removed the services from the Add/Remove programs, in the windows services... and I re-enabled them by installing and using the Xp disk..

No, I don't.

I will try the following programs. If the problem, persists, I will post it here. Thanks all for your help.