Certain Programs refuse to launch

[AyCe]

Hello everyone!

I got a very strange problem which nobody else seems to have had before:

Some programs cannot be started normally. If I open them, they usually close themselves within a few seconds. The cursor indicates some loading, and the current explorer windows loses focus - it looks like a new window is opening any second. But nothing happens. The process is shown in the Taskmanager, but only for a few seconds.
Now, if I use Windows 98 compatibility mode, and only on this mode, it suddenly works. All other modes don't but, Win98 does - the programms now start correctly, but the programs think they are running on Win98, so some features don't work.
These programs aren't working in that manner so far:

Google Earth
Teamspeak 3
Mumble
Origin

There are probably more. Origin is interesting: Some months ago, I used Sandboxie to launch it, which made it work even without compatibility mode. But after some update of Origin, I cannot run it that way anymore. Win98 mode works of course - but then I cannot install or play Games which require Windows 7.

It's really strange that these programs all show the same symptoms. I guess I have killed some driver or something, but sfc /scannow says all is fine.

So... anybody got an idea?

 

[indianacarnie]

Welcome to the forums! Well, I was going to suggest a sfc/scannow but I see you're already ran it. How long have you had this problem? Is it "new"? If so, have you considered a system restore to a point before this started? Have you tried uninstalling the affected programs and reinstalling them?

 

[archer]

Welcome to SF.

Run complete virus, malware scan.

 

[AyCe]

I had this problem for quite a while now. In fact, I cannot even remember not having it. At first I thought that Teamspeak or whatever was the first program with this problem was just not working, but when the other programs showed the same behaviour, I tested the compatibility mode thing I found out, and somehow it was the same for all of them. After many months of occasional googling and posting and asking people I know I got here. System restore was my first thought, but of course - there is no restore point before the problems occured. And reinstall did not solve anything either - tried it multiple times with the programs affected.

I had Avira Antivirus installed, but removed it because I thought it might cause the problem. I now have AVG, but it seems my PC is clean.


Of course I could just reinstall Windows, but for problems like these, I'd like to know what causes them and maybe how to solve them instead of just overkilling the problem with a reinstall. Apart from that, I'd have to reinstall everything else. Not fun

 

[archer]

Regarding the virus scan and no viruses found, lets keep it aside for some time. Issue can be with Malware or spyware. Run Malwarebytes. This application will help you clean your PC.

 

[AyCe]

Okay, I will make a Malwarebytes scan, but at the moment I'm testing something else:

In Safe Mode, all of these programs start correctly! So now I'm looking for a way to get a list of the drivers that are not loaded when booted in safe mode. If this doesn't work, I'm trying out the scan.

 

[AyCe]

Interesting. When executing a program with WinDbg, I can make it work. For the mentioned programs the following message appears between other debug lines:

HEAP[mumble.exe]: Invalid address specified to RtlFreeHeap( 02B90000, 03A812A0 )
(d1c.ef4): Break instruction exception - code 80000003 (first chance)
eax=03a81298 ebx=03a81298 ecx=77650b42 edx=0035e3e5 esi=02b90000 edi=02b90000
eip=776b0574 esp=0035e62c ebp=0035e62c iopl=0 nv up ei pl nz na po nc
cs=0023 ss=002b ds=002b es=002b fs=0053 gs=002b efl=00000202
ntdll!RtlpNtEnumerateSubKey+0x3947:
776b0574 cc int 3

The same message appears for Origin:

HEAP[Origin.exe]: Invalid address specified to RtlFreeHeap( 02700000, 06F012A0 )
(1058.8fc): Break instruction exception - code 80000003 (first chance)
eax=06f01298 ebx=06f01298 ecx=77650b42 edx=0035e509 esi=02700000 edi=02700000
eip=776b0574 esp=0035e750 ebp=0035e750 iopl=0 nv up ei pl nz na po nc
cs=0023 ss=002b ds=002b es=002b fs=0053 gs=002b efl=00000202
ntdll!RtlpNtEnumerateSubKey+0x3947:
776b0574 cc int 3

Funny thing is, after I use the "Go" option 2 times, the program launches successfully! So the problematic programs now work with this workaround. Next I will try out the scan...

 

[AyCe]

Hooray! I fixed it. Turns out the Tablet driver/service was the problem. I deactivated the service - it works now! Probably a bad driver installed with my wacom driver.

 

[archer]

Glad your issue is fixed.

 

[Dude]

Hooray! I fixed it. Turns out the Tablet driver/service was the problem. I deactivated the service - it works now! Probably a bad driver installed with my wacom driver.

Thanks for updating, it will help others when searching for answers.