32-bit programs refusing to start

[Pixelkitten]

Hello, I bet you that I have the weirdest problem you have ever heard of.

 

You see, sometimes when my computer starts, the 32-bit programs I try to run doesn't start properly. The processes show up in task manager, but with about a tenth of the memory they should have (100K instead of 1000K), and then nothing happens. No window opening, no loading screen, not even a notification telling me something is wrong.

 

The programs sometimes start if I tell them something else than just to start, for example, telling Messenger to open my hotmail also starts up Chrome just fine, but thats about the only program I can do that for.

 

Sometimes it goes away when I restart, and sometimes it disappears for weeks at a time.

 

I'm running a win7 64-bit on a AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with a Asrock 939Dual-Sata2 motherboard. I reinstalled windows in december, so that shouldn't be the problem, right?

 

Could it be my five year old CPU disagreeing with Win7?

Should I call an exorcist?

 

Thanks in advance for any help you might give.

[Goku]

Hello Pixelkitten. Can you give us a list of some programs that the problem occurs with? Also, have you tried reinstalling the problematic ones and see if it makes a difference? If yes, what results did it yield?

 

-- Goku

[Pixelkitten]

Hello Goku. This happens with every 32-bit program except for Avast Antivirus and MS Live Messenger, since they are in the start queue. But the ones that irritate me the most is Google Chrome and Picasa, VLC media player and any game I try to play. I'll download the latest installers for Chrome and VLC, if the problem comes back (it didn't today^^) I'll reinstall (If I can get the installers to start) and tell you the results.

[Pixelkitten]

Hello again. As I expected, the installer refused to start as well. This seems to be a system or OS problem rather than program-specific. The obvious solution would be to reinstall the OS, but I don't really want to continue doing that every 6 months. Does anyone have another idea?

[Goku]

Hello Pixelkitten. I am on a 64-bit OS myself and don't face any such problems. Can you think of any recent changes you made before you first encountered the problem? Also, this is a long shot, but have you tried updating the drivers? Incompatible or outdated drivers can cause the weirdest problems.

 

-- Goku

[Pixelkitten]

I don't think I've made any changes. Not after the reinstall at least. I'll check the drivers, but it seems weird that old drivers would cause this now, unless Microsoft has changed win7 in some way (I bet they have).

[Plastic Nev]

OK you have plenty to do in checking and updating all drivers, but it may just be down to a glitch in the re-install of the OS, this can happen sometimes.

 

Also you don't say which version of W7 you have, is it Home, Home Premium, Professional, or other?

 

I am running Professional as I found the upgrade from Home Premium reasonably priced, and it does seem to handle most of my older 32 bit programs OK. Though the real reason for the upgrade was to be able to run the Virtual environment in order to run a couple of XP based things that just will not run otherwise.

Nev.

[Pixelkitten]

Also you don't say which version of W7 you have, is it Home, Home Premium, Professional, or other?

 

Ultimate, says so in my info on the left ;)

 

BTW, this whole operation will have to be put on hold for a while, as I've gotten a new laptop and have to tune it the way I want to, as well as transfer documents and stuff to it. Secondly I'm going on vacation on Tuesday, and won't have access to my desktop from a cottage 10Km away from civilization. You'll here from me if things continue to annoy me when I get back.

[Plastic Nev]

Ok, let us know how things go when you get back. Sorry about asking for OS type, just that sometimes folk put whatever they run as the main machine, but forget to tell us the problem is on another one.

Nev.