Solved Resources Monitor's GUI broken and unusable

[soewhaty]

Hi guys,

I'm on win7 x64 pro and when I open the Resource Monitor I get the error as displayed in the attachmenthttp://imgur.com/b9mObGw. The File and Help menu are clickable and working ... so the GUI is sorta functioning but the main window where i am supposed to see stuff remains transparent. However, this is the case ONLY when I disable Visual Styles in System properties / Performance options dialog. So, when the 'Use visual styles ...' is unchecked I get the problem as seen in the above screen. But when I enable the 'Use visual styles ...' menu, then Resource Monitor works fine. I would really like to use the Resouce Monitor, but I really don't wanna use 'Use visual styles ...' How can I achieve that?

 

[Ztruker]

Just tried having it checked and unchecked on my Win 7 Pro X64 system and Resmon works correctly either way.

Might try running sfc /scannow from a Elevated Command Prompt, see if that helps/

 

[soewhaty]

Thanks! Here is what i got:

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

And here are the contents of the CBS.log file
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d0q7tl3ozsmfvbj/CBS.log?dl=0 (wait till browsers gives you the download button in the top right corner)
There are also other files in C:\windows\Logs\CBS folder. If you need info from any one of them let me know.

So now what to do since Windows could not fix some of the corrupt files? Maybe that's the reason why my Resource monitor is messy?

PS - eventually if you don't wanna download the Dropbox file, which I link to above, its contents are also available here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_3DaY-ZRwaDYY-hMU9y2Kj3tJ-NyBHSC1pRv_Kb9QX4/edit just be patient cos it's a google doc with 494 pages and it takes some time till it loads it all.

 

[Ztruker]

Install and run the System Update Readiness Tool (SURT):
See here What is the System Update Readiness Tool?

Now run SFC again:

Open a Elevated Command Prompt.

Click on the Start button and type cmd.
DO NOT press Enter or click Go.
Look at the upper part of the window and you will see cmd.exe.
Right click on it and select Run as Administrator.

Type SFC /scannow and press Enter. See if the Component store problems are fixed. Run 2-3 times if necessary.

 

[soewhaty]

Thanks for your time and support. Yep, this is how I ran the elevated cmd in the first place as well, so np with that. Bad thing is that I still got the same error after installing SURT and running SFC /scannow 3 times and worse still Resmon is still with the same issue ... What now?

Here's the NEW cbs.log file again - https://www.dropbox.com/s/fwk1ob4zcxo39n0/CBS%202.log?dl=0 (download from '...' button in top-right corner)

 

[soewhaty]

Even turned off my notebook, waited few minutes, and turned it on again so as to do a power cycle, but still ... the error is there

 

[Ztruker]

Since visual styles fixes it, try updating your video driver perhaps?

 

[soewhaty]

Would definitely NOT do that because I am anyway using the latest drivers from HP for my switchable graphics GPU and they are the only ones working well for me. I've tried many drivers ... even modified ones and other 3rd party drivers, but the original HP drivers for my notebook work best for my GPU.

So .. .yeah, I am looking for another solution.

 

[soewhaty]

Here are 2 more places where the same problem is described ... so clearly the problem is not from my display drivers. It is a weird bug in Windows.

Resource Monitor is empty window , or transparent window, Windows 7 Classic display (only when DPI changes from 100%) - Super User

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-no-data/bf2b3275-e543-4f68-982b-af6695fc3d3d

Also, as described in the first link, it's not only Visual Styles that fixes the problem. Switching from 125% (my current AND PREFERRED) to 100% scaling in the 'Make text and other items larger or smaller / Make it easier to read what's on your screen' also fixes the problem. But I will not switch to 100% since my screen res is full hd and at 100% everything is too small.

As described in the 2nd link, I do not have the kb977074 update so I cannot uninstall it to see if that fixes Resmon. Furthermore, I tried all of the below from the 2nd link:

You may try the below methods one by one and check if this helps.

Method 1: Uninstall the installed update and check if the issue is resolved.

1. Click on start button and select Control Panel>System and Security>Windows Update>View update history
2. Click on Installed update (on top of the screen). Now right-click on kb977074 update and select uninstall.
3. Restart your computer.


Method 2:

Check if the problem persists in safe mode (Step 1). If the issue doesn’t occur in safe mode then, perform clean boot (Step 2) on your computer.

Step 1:

Steps to boot the computer in safe mode:

1. Restart the computer
2. Start tapping F8 key
3. You will get advanced boot option window
4. Select the option “Safe mode”

Link: Start your computer in safe mode - Windows Help

Step 2:

Starting your computer by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs so that you can determine whether a background program is interfering with your game or program. This kind of startup is known as a "Clean boot."

To perform a clean boot on a computer, follow these steps.

1. Click Start, type msconfig in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

2. On the General tab, click Selective Startup.
3. Under Selective Startup, click to clear the Load Startup Items check box.
4. Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
5. Click OK.
6. When you are prompted, click Restart.
7. After the computer starts, check whether the problem is resolved.

Please monitor the system in the Clean Boot environment. If the problem does not occur, it indicates that the problem is related to one application or service we have disabled. You may use the MSCONFIG tool again to re-enable the disabled item one by one to find out the culprit.

... and nothing worked. NOTHING! Booting in Safe Mode, at 100%, 125% and 150% scaling, Resmon displays perfect. So what gives?

 

[soewhaty]

SOLVED !!!

The solution came from the 1st link

I fixed this problem uninstalling Internet Explorer 10 and KB2670838 update and keeping the 125%. looks like the problem is the KB2670838 update that is automatically installed when upgrading to IE10 just uninstall both and it should work again I found the solution here and here

In my case I only had to uninstall the kb update. I think that uninstalled IE stuff as well. I never use IE anyway, so ... yeah. Well, problem solved for now. Cheers!

 

[lmh47]

Uninstalling KB2670838 fixed it for me. Thanks! (I guess I never check ResMon since last fall....)

 

[soewhaty]

Happy to have helped! MS should be aware of this whole issue ... @Ztruker

 

[Ztruker]

That's good news, glad to see you are fixed.

 

[soewhaty]

And thank you for your time and effort! They are appreciated!

 

[lmh47]

You're welcome, but....Arrghh. Here we go again.

I was under the impression that the above-mentioned update was some kind of security patch for IE 10. So uninstalling it should not really change anything, since I never use MSIE anyhow. But I did notice that suddenly, I was running IE 8 on my Win 7 Pro system. (I thought it was the recent System Restore that had done it.)

So I installed IE 11 from a standalone copy I have on a flash drive. And...yes....of course, now no ResMon again.

I would DL a new copy of IE 11, just to see, but I had to work on multiple Windows 10 machines this month, and now I'm too close to my Comcast data cap for any big downloads.

I'll have to wait until next month.

 

[soewhaty]

You found yourself suddenly on IE8, just as I did, because you uninstalled that update probably. At least that's what happened with me. As soon as I uninstalled the above-mentioned update, IE rolled back to v8 ... also some other updates and stuff got uninstalled and Windows Update prompted me to install them again. Funnily enough the culprit update wasn't amongst them ... I didn't hide it or anything. Just uninstalled it and it never even appeared as a suggested to be installed again.

 

[lmh47]

I uninstalled the culprit again, and then went to Windows Update, in the hopes of their (miraculously) finding a fix for me. No luck. I'm still running IE 8. But the ResMon works. And Win Updates still works. So I guess I'll continue with IE 8 until something yells at me to upgrade. I only use FF anyhow.

 

[lmh47]

Ok.....This fixed it.

Now, that was a walk on the wild side....

 

[soewhaty]

Thanks for your input although ... that's the same source I quoted anyway, so your giving old news, really. Besides that, saying 'this' fixed it doesn't tell us much. By 'this' you could mean any one of the solutions suggested there, so be more descriptive so that it probably helps out someone in the same boat as you.

As to IE, nobody uses it anyway, so even if uninstalling that kb update messed up your ie ... you're still prolly ok!

 

[UsernameIssues]

Thanks for your input although ... that's the same source I quoted anyway, so your giving old news, really. Besides that, saying 'this' fixed it doesn't tell us much. By 'this' you could mean any one of the solutions suggested there, so be more descriptive so that it probably helps out someone in the same boat as you.

As to IE, nobody uses it anyway, so even if uninstalling that kb update messed up your ie ... you're still prolly ok!

You are correct in saying that it is best to detail which solution fixed the issue when linking to a thread full of solutions. It would help others that find this thread later on.

It would also help others if you would rework your first post in this thread. Please post your screenshots using these steps: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html Some forum members don't trust image hosting websites and the one that you picked was infecting certain users not too long ago (source).


Tons of people use IE in the business world. IE does stuff that no other browser can do. In my case, I launch scripts directly from IE's Favorites bar dozens of times each work day. [Let me know if you ever find a browser that can do that.] Those scripts can communicate directly with IE via IE's Application Program Interface (APIs). I use Pale Moon for forums and Chrome for streaming content.

IE can handle some websites far better than Firefox or Chrome. See this post.

The IE info above is just FYI. I'm not trying to get you to use IE. The info below speaks more to your situation:

If you are not going to update IE to IE11 because of problems with the prerequisite platform KB, then I would suggest turning off the IE feature via Turn Windows Features on or off. Doing that should remove access to most (but not all) of IE's APIs. You don't want an infection to gain access to IE8s outdated APIs.


edit: I was able to reproduce the issue in the OP on 3 different computers.