Programs Close Just After Start

Hi
I have Win XP, SP 1. The system has been working reasonably well until recently. Suddenly and since, whenever I try to start a program, it starts for a short period just long enough to appear in the task manager and then closes. After several tries from 1 to about 30 or so, the program will continue to remain open and then everything works fine with that program - unless it tries to launch another program, such as in the case of creating PDF files through Acrobat. Spybot and Spysweeper do not catch anything. I have run Registry Mechanic and there is no improvement. I've run Norton System Doctor and Norton Win Doctor and none have fixed the problem. There are no virus warnings. Even at the command prompt, programs such as ping do not always start the first time, they have to be invoked a number of times before they actually continue to run (F3-Enter, repeat untl starts).

The problem is less severe right after restart. It gets worse for about 10 minutes of operation and then the average number of double-clicks to start a program and keep it running seems to be in the 10 range. Some programs, specifically IE (which I don't normally use) launch on the first double click, but IE takes a very long time to come up. Most programs start fairly quickly but probably a little slower than normal.

Can anyone suggest a solution? I"m totally stumped at this point.

Thanks so much if you can.

I even bought Fix It for windows, but I couldn't install it because its installation program requires it to launch other programs during the process. Since programs do not start on the first try, the installation fails and it is not possible to run the program.

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Hi scottflyer and welcom to majorgeeks!

You post was getting trapped in our spam filter due to its inline HJT log. Please don't post HJT logs unless they are asked for, if you DO need to post it please post it as an attachment. Thanks!

 

I would work through this thread to the letter http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

If you are still experiencing problems after doing this, make a new thread in the Malware Forum, and attach files as described.

I would also consider upgrading to Windows XP SP2 which has better security and can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx Windows XP SP1 is no longer supported by Microsoft, as of October 2006.