Sometimes programs hang

I had another occurrence, and this time I was running Process Explorer at the time. The only odd thing I saw was 2 copies of Firefox executing with only about 300K each being used. I tried doing a "Kill Process" on one and nothing happened. On the other I got a pop-up saying something the action failed (I don't remember the exact wording) followed by "Access denied". Apparently my first attempt to start Firefox hung up some critical process in Windows. I'm going to do a clean install of Windows, but I'm going to try it on a old, non-critical PC first. I have no doubt the the clean install will succeed, but I have significant doubt I have everything ready to reinstall all the products I have installed - things like install packages, product keys, etc.

pokeefe0001 said:

I had another occurrence, and this time I was running Process Explorer at the time. The only odd thing I saw was 2 copies of Firefox executing with only about 300K each being used. I tried doing a "Kill Process" on one and nothing happened. On the other I got a pop-up saying something the action failed (I don't remember the exact wording) followed by "Access denied". Apparently my first attempt to start Firefox hung up some critical process in Windows. I'm going to do a clean install of Windows, but I'm going to try it on a old, non-critical PC first. I have no doubt the the clean install will succeed, but I have significant doubt I have everything ready to reinstall all the products I have installed - things like install packages, product keys, etc.

Process explorer find known .dll that maybe causing you issues, i am not sure if i knew you were using this before. I use Firefox and only see one process that is .exe file Firefox.exe which uses around 280MB of memory. I am not sure what other add-ons for this browser you have, but you originally stated browsers were the programs that did not give you issues.

Been awhile since your last post and for me to recall and read back on every post. Question is why would you attempt a clean install on another PC ? Not going to determine anything from this one as these issues can be caused by more then just software and drivers as mentioned before many times.

jds63 said:

... but you originally stated browsers were the programs that did not give you issues.

Not so. I said already running programs have no problems, and in the past Firefox has always been one of the already running programs. This time it had not been running and got caught by the problem when I tried starting it. I seriously doubt the problem has anything to do with Firefox (or any other program getting caught by the problem). It is almost certainly something deeper in the internals of Windows since it breaks a fundamental Windows function: the ability to launch programs.

jds63 said:

Been awhile since your last post and for me to recall and read back on every post. ...

It has been a while because the problem is happening very infrequently now, and I had no new information to tell. Until now, it happened only when I had no diagnostic programs running so I had nothing to report.

jds63 said:

... Question is why would you attempt a clean install on another PC ? Not going to determine anything from this one as these issues can be caused by more then just software and drivers as mentioned before many times.

I'm getting tired of running into this problem. If a clean install does not fix it then I will have an opportunity to do more debugging. If the clean install does fix it then I will gladly forego the fun of problem determination. Anyway, I can tell from the event log that I have other (non-critical) problems that will be fixed by a clean install. For instance, I had a package for communicating with a Nokia phone that did not uninstall properly. There is a scheduled process related to the (uninstalled) Nokia Suite that generates errors. Many people on this forum have recommended doing a clean install rather than an upgrade in place. I'm about ready to try that.

Since the beginning you did not want to try safe mode this will determine if any drivers or software drivers and running processes were causing this whether even due to conflicts, but you did not want to try this.

There was a link i gave with a list of what can cause these type of issues, so if you were talking diagnosing you need to look at this more.
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000690.htm

Which sort of diagnosis except Process explorer which is similar to Task Manager have you tried ? Inplace repair upgrade would solve any corruption to the Windows 10 installation, but i am not saying for sure this is the cause and this being sort of a last alternative as is a clean install except you will loose more with a clean install ( settings, added software, drivers).

Your getting tired of this problem i understand, but not many steps have been taken to try to diagnose this problem and an intermittent issue are the toughest to find.

True for me to i would try a clean install after an upgrade to Windows 10, again not saying this will solve your issue for sure if everything is put back on the same, software, drivers and if a hardware issue too. Worth a try if do not want to try anything else, just make sure everything important is backed up.