Computer Issue - Weird and Bothersome

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Cap Capello

Always @ Ur Service
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Dec 14, 2006
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Recently, for some inexplicable reason, when I close out a program, it remains active in memory. If I open and close Firefox three times in an hour, then go to the Task Manager (ctl-alt-del) under the processes tab, it shows firefox still running three separate times. This is pretty consistent across the open then close applications spectrum.

Anybody have any clue why, when applications are closed, they won't release themselves from memory? I'm not registry or policy edit shy (which is probably why I have this issue in the first place...too many tweaks!!!)

It's really time to do a format and clean install but I'd rather wait a bit longer if possible.
 
Cap I think it is an issue with Firefox itself as I have on occasion the same problem running under Linux.
 
Cap,

I'm sure you thought of this but...before I edit my registry I back it up in case problems occur after the change.

Did you make back ups that you can restore?
 
Fairly normal Cap :)

Happens all the time on certain programs here -- Firefox and Outlook are my two worse offenders.

Nothing to do with the registry -- the process just didn't finish properly. It usually means the process has threads still open. The entire process can't shut down, until it clears all its threads.
 
Rick : Are those open threads active dlls? Can I change the WaitToKillApplication registry timing?

This is all a recent happening (like with in a week). I did install and uninstall several video edit aps and altered a couple of policies to stop Win from autochecking for updates when I upgraded from SP1a to SP2 (update, not clean install).

HiredPower : Thanks for the concern. Actually, I perform a clone of the entire drive once a week. Reloading a registry backup is short term but does nothing in terms of dll glut, etc. Using the clone routine eliminates the need to have system restore active as well. That being said, my lazy dumb a$$ hasn't done a clone since 05-26.

Doug: Gotcha! Okay, looks like I'll have to do the manual unload from the Task Manager until I reformat and do a fresh install.
 
Rick : Are those open threads active dlls? Can I change the WaitToKillApplication registry timing?

This is all a recent happening (like with in a week). I did install and uninstall several video edit aps and altered a couple of policies to stop Win from autochecking for updates.

WaitToKillApplication, only has effect when shutting down the OS.

A thread could be part of a DLL, in which case you might see numerous rundll32.exe's going. Don't kill those though, because there is no way in Task Manager, to tell what they belong to (unless you have a debugger running -- like I do). If you kill the process, it should release them on its own...

Did you do the latest update to FF recently?

I'm up to 2.0.0.16
 
Just a suggestion. Download a program called ccleaner. Run it a few times over the next week or two. You will be surprised at the improvement in the way your system runs.

There are three basic modules. One module cleans out the temp folder, cookies and a bunch of other stuff that can clog up the system and/or that can be things you don't want hanging around. If you've never run it before it can remove as much as 500mb of crap, kind of like a colon cleanse.

The second module thoroughly cleans the registry of clutter and vestiges of programs that have been left behind that are no longer used etc. This will improve the peppiness of your system and may help with the Firefox problem too.

The third module lets you go through your entire catalog of installed programs and uninstall things that you don't want/need or that were installed by other programs that you might not even know are there. It's similar to the control panel "Add or remove programs". It works well and it's simple and effective.

Even though you may not have heard of this program, it's been round for years, hundreds of thousands of people if not millions are using it and it's a great utility. It's never caused ANY problems to any computer I've used it on and they keep improving the program and come out with updates regularly. It's free and if you like the program you can donate a few dollars to help them continue their work.

One other suggestion. After you get ccleaner and run it. Uninstall Firefox, run ccleaner and then reinstall Firefox. You should be good to go. If you use ccleaner you shouldn't need to go into the registry anymore or very little. Hope this helps.
 
Cap,

I remembered, there is a way to tell which rundll32.exe is executing what...

Open a cmd prompt, and paste this in:

tasklist /m /fi "IMAGENAME eq rundll32.exe" >C:\rundll32.txt

Then you can look in the text file it created, to see which DLLs are running on each of the rundll32 processes.

Then, in Task Manager, click the View menu, click Select Columns, and add the PID. Then you'll know which DLLs are running under each rundll32.
 
Just a suggestion. Download a program called ccleaner. Run it a few times over the next week or two. You will be surprised at the improvement in the way your system runs.

There are three basic modules. One module cleans out the temp folder, cookies and a bunch of other stuff that can clog up the system and/or that can be things you don't want hanging around. If you've never run it before it can remove as much as 500mb of crap, kind of like a colon cleanse.

The second module thoroughly cleans the registry of clutter and vestiges of programs that have been left behind that are no longer used etc. This will improve the peppiness of your system and may help with the Firefox problem too.

The third module lets you go through your entire catalog of installed programs and uninstall things that you don't want/need or that were installed by other programs that you might not even know are there. It's similar to the control panel "Add or remove programs". It works well and it's simple and effective.

Even though you may not have heard of this program, it's been round for years, hundreds of thousands of people if not millions are using it and it's a great utility. It's never caused ANY problems to any computer I've used it on and they keep improving the program and come out with updates regularly. It's free and if you like the program you can donate a few dollars to help them continue their work.

One other suggestion. After you get ccleaner and run it. Uninstall Firefox, run ccleaner and then reinstall Firefox. You should be good to go. If you use ccleaner you shouldn't need to go into the registry anymore or very little. Hope this helps.

Wiz, I have it and was not using it. Time to start! Do you have to close out of apps to run it?
 
Rick : The command line returned a message saying "No tasks running with the specified criteria".

It seems as though there's a common denominator here...Firefox and also anything that has internet affiliations.

I had Firefox 3.04b BETA installed. Rolled it back to 3.01. No change.

Went into settings/plug ins/etc and messed around. Nothing.

Went to Options - Advanced - Networks (tab) Setting - Internet Connection and changed the default value from No Proxy to Auto Detect Proxy and, well, so far so good (at least with FireFox)

Wizard Of Oz : I use a similar program called TuneUp Utilities 2008. Ran them both though. Thanks for the suggestion.

As far as regedit goes, I find residual stuff none of the cleaners do but these cleaners are excellent for quick cleanup. Again, thanks for your suggestions.
 
While we were discussing this, I finally got around to upgrading FF to 3.01 (which had been on my ToDo list for a bit). I'll let you know how that pans out on this end...

As for the tasklist, I get a ton of stuff, but I have a lot of development stuff running and memory debuggers, so they load almost every DLL that Window's has :sqerr:


Frankly though, I've just gotten used to checking Task Manager after I close FF or Outlook, to see if they are still running, and end them manually, if they are. I'm looking at Task Manager right now, with FireFox highlighted, and its thread count is 15, with 3 tabs open. That's really not too bad, as Rockit is running also, and has 18 threads open :)

The key (on the software side), is to make sure they are all shut down, before the actual process ends. Otherwise, it leaves the process still running...

The biggest problem, is too many developers on a project. If one guy spawns a thread, and the whole team is not aware of it, and he forgets to wait until it's shut down before his section of the code completes, then the process will still exist, as far as Windows is concerned.


Anyway, it's not yer fault it's happening -- blame the developers for that one :)
 
Instead of starting a new thread, figured I would just put it here.

As shown in some of my other questions, I am a computer idiot!!

When I open task manager and go to processes, there are about 80 things that are running. Is this right and normal?
 
Instead of starting a new thread, figured I would just put it here.

As shown in some of my other questions, I am a computer idiot!!

When I open task manager and go to processes, there are about 80 things that are running. Is this right and normal?

No, that's a Patrick :sqerr: :sqlaugh:


Clean install of the OS (XP), should be < 40 processes.

My machine currently has 45, and I consider that on the high side, but I have a lot of stuff running right now -- Visual Studio, Memory Debugger, FireFox, UltraEdit with 32 files open, Notepad, Paint Shop Pro, and Explorer.
 
how do I know what should and shouldn't be on there?

Is there a program that can get it straight?

I am currently using XP Home edition, and use ccleaner on a weekly basis.
 
I tried FF 3.0 on my machine at the day job where I have to use (ick) Windows. I immediately got rid of it and went back to 2.0. They really added a bunch of junk and no real way to turn it off. They blew with me this round. I'm still on 2.0 on Linux at home. I'm not gonna bother with 3.0.
 
I do it the old fashioned way Patrick -- I look every one up on Google. There are a number of websites that are devoted to that, and they will pop up at the top of the results, tell you what they are, and how to get rid of them properly.

Don't just end a process, unless you know what it does first... ;)
 
In my case old Firefox and the newest version still do it. Task Manager has 44 processes running so it's not that bad. And since talking to Rick a couple of weeks ago I've left all my computers running 24/7 with only the screensaver running they have not had any problems running, so thanks for the advice Rick.
 
DougF : I was fortunate (or unfortunate) to start with FF 3.0. I got my hands on 4.0BETA (shhhh) called Minefield. Appropriate! Downloads were very fast, page loads very fast however none of the plug-ins worked (yet).
 
To answer Socalhugh, it's best to run ccleaner after closing all applications. You may need to re log in to several of your places that you go afterwards. It depends on what you choose to have ccleaner delete when it cleans. Small price to pay IMO. Make sure you know your user name and password for the places you frequent like your banking web site, ODJT, email etc.

Cap, you must have done some programming somewhere along the way if you're that comfortable in the registry, not many people are.
 
Wiz (may I call you Wiz?) :

Went kicking and screaming from DOS 3.11 into 95, then 98, then ME, then 2000, now XP. No, no programming experience but an insatiable desire to tinker, tweak, and discover.

Blown 'em all up many many many times. Norton Ghost is my computer best friend.