What is wrong with Windows XP search, please?

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Can anyone offer me any idea of where to start looking for the answer to this?

I have just noticed that if I do a very simple search on Windows XP by using Start, Search, I am starting to get some unusual behaviour.

By unusual, I mean, that if I ask it to search for all excel spreadsheets by inputting .xls, the PC starts to search, perhaps finds several files, then it disappears, then it shows the desktop with no icons, within about 3 seconds, all of my icons re-appear.
Then my PC, behaves normally.

Now to the very best of my knowledge, I haven't changed anything in my settings nor do I have any security issues.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

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fairly generic reply for this mate but have you installed anything new recently?

or been on any peer 2 peer sites?

try doing some scans for virus/spyware/ad-ware etc, and let us know. hth!

 

Hi there!

I know what you're gonna tell me - that maybe I'm riddled with nasty spyware etc.
I was running checks whilst I was typing my post, and "yes", I did get about 6 tracking cookies detected. I do have quite a lot of stuff on here like, mcAfee full suite, Adware, Spyblaster, Registry mechanic, Spybot etc. I'm a little bit obsessive about them too! I run them roughly every three days.

As part of the CIW course, I was asked to download a copy of Netscape, so that I could test in different browsers. So I have recently updated Winamp too! from these downloads, it appears that all I have on here is perhaps a few tracking cookies.

Moominboy- I do appreciate your help, though.

 

Just out of interest what Spec is this PC? Is it new?

What I'm thinking is that the little delay you are seeing may be caused by the search program fully loading it's self into memory.

Think that I'm probably waaay wrong on this one tho!

 

Hi Simon

I bought this PC from Comet in 2003. It's Windows XP Home Edition.

I know what Moomin is trying to tell me - the fact that the PC behaves afterwards is the weirdest thing. I mean, anything really bad would keep shutting me down, wouldn't it?

I have been asked to upgrade to the latest versions of some of my software lately, so I may have a problem somewhere.

I have tried searching for various file extensions, and the same thing keeps happening.

 

Have you recently run a disk defrag ? If not, it may be a good place to start - I think the behaviour you are describing just sounds like the PC is wheezing over the task in hand, IMHO.

 

Do you know how much memory it has installed in it? anything less than 256Mb and it may struggle.

Not Necessarilly (sp?) bad things don't just shut down your computer, they can just cause silly little things like you are experiencing.

Have you upgraded, or just been asked too? If you have then the latest versions of the software may be more memory intensive than the previous versions, and could be partially responsible for the problems you are having.

I don't think that it is an issue with what file types you are searching for, but an issue with the system it's self.

Other than what Moominboy suggested I'd recommend running a full defrag on the disk to try and restore order to the files on it, then try running the search again, make sure that you don't have any other programs open when you run it to see if this affects it.

If you are still having issues look at the Task Manager and see what services windows has running in the background to see if there are any that you don't think should be there. (if you aren't sure post a screen shot).

 

Hi Gav

I have run a disk defrag only yesterday morning. i did a bit of downloading in the late evening. I'm going to remove all recent downloads, do all of the checks again, and even run a dsat file and then I'll see what happens.

My Virus scan is not reporting anything at all.

Thanks

Oh sorry, Simon. I didn't realise that you had posted, too!

here is a very brief spec;
intel pentium 4 HT
2.660 GHz processor speed
512 DDR mb RAM
160 GB hard disk drive
7200 RPM hard Disk speed

 

Dee,

does the PC have XP Service Pack 2 installed on it?

 

Hi

Yes, It does have service pack 2 installed on it.

I used to have problems constantly, until I finally blew a fuse last June, and told them(comet) to come and collect my PC back. The technicain did hear some whistling sounds from my Harddrive and informed me that my hard-drive was faulty.

i had a brand new hard-drive in June, and therefore, I did all the necessary things. protection, service pack 2, ISP, software.

i just tried last night to update my Netscape program, but I couldn't find Composer in Netscape V8, so uninstalled etc. then i re-installed again (beta) from a mirror. (I think that could have been a mistake).

I'll try the dsat file now, and do some checks again.

 

Hi gents

I am just about to run a dsat file but I have also run a HijackThis log file.

I don't seem to have anything bad on there. Oh, Search is still acting odd.

Everything seems clean according to my security software.

Thanks In advance

 

This probably has nothing to do with your problem but shouldn't your search string read *.xls if you are searching for all Excel files?

 

Hi Trip

I have just tried making sure that I search for an actual file name plus extension, and It really doesn't seem to make any difference.

the search engine does exactly the same thing as before. The dsat file that I have just run reported NO infected files.
I must have checked a box somewhere, because I don't seem to get any infections when I scan.

Thanks

 

not fully sure what problems this causes but it may be worth a shot?

http://www.certforums.co.uk/forums/search.php?searchid=30743

i just noticed you have itunes on your hijackthis log.

whats the c-dilla thing too?

O23 - Service: C-DillaCdaC11BA - C-Dilla Ltd - C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\CDAC11BA.EXE

other than whats been said above mate, i cant think....

 

C-Dilla Ltd - SafeCast Windows NT Version 4.11.050 Windows NT 2001/07/12

This file is located in my system32\drivers.

Not sure exactly what it's doing there, but I must have thought that a program has installed it.
I'm only a small workstaion - not a network!

Please advise me about this, lads!!

i'll just check out your link now, Moomin!

About iTunes, the thing is I'm not wireless, I don't think I'm connected to a router??, I'm running version 4.9.0, and I've always been very happy with ITunes. I don't download music, but I do use it for listening to the radio stations.

This is turning out to be a nightmare!

 

i think the problems with itunes centres on version 5.0 so it should be ok, but maybe noelg can elaborate?

have you tried any error fixing software? i've got tune-up utilities and it's one click maintenance does a lot of good stuff maybe worth a shot because i can't find anything on google.....

 

yes Moom your right...iTunes 5.0 was the major problem where it disconnected peoples broadband connection...so if I were you Dee either stick with the current iTunes you have...but saying that the latest version iTunes available is iTunes 6.0.1 so that clears up the problem with iTunes 5.0 but at the same time as downloading iTunes 6 u need Quicktime 7.0.3 otherwise iTunes 6 wont work...

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html

thats the link to download Quicktime 7.0.3 cos even tho it says it downloads it with iTunes 6 it doesnt always install it. hope that sorts that bit out for u....

 

I have System mechanic 4 installed on here, and that does the kind of thing that you are suggesting .
It is actually running now.

Hey, I now have this:

System Mechanic encountered a problem while attempting to defragment the current drive C:. This usually indicates physical corruption on the disk surface, or other such structural issues. A through Scandisk operation (including disk surface scan) is reccommended before attempting to defrag this drive again.

I do know that when I restart again, i'll have to wait for a little while, While this process completely finishes.

Hey! I have never seen Scandisk on Windows XP. (help!)

NoelG - I also have Quicktime installed and it has never acted odd! I'll leave the Itunes alone for a while, until I can get this sorted out.

 

could be what the guys suggested earlier then? some corruption either physical or data wise just disturbing the index process or the search itself?

 

Yeah, could be?

My PC is now absolutely fine now again, I haven't run Scandisk, and the final result on System Mechanic failed to record any damaged or infected files. I did the restart, and it did it's usual process and seems fine again.

i have just tried to search for a spreadsheet, that i know I have, The search ran for 3 seconds, displayed the wanted file and then switched itself off again.

Has anyone else noticed that we are all managing to type into the future??? It is 18.42pm, isn't it?