Solved every 30 minutes my open program minimizes

[promytius1]

W7home pro

For the last several weeks my PC minimizes whatever program is open. It slowly advances, in that if it happens at 12:30, 1:00, etc then it will advance to 1:32, 2:02, etc.
I've tried to troubleshoot it, but have found nothing to indicate anything unusual. I ran Wireshark and it saw normal communication on the network, and no special instances at the minimizing times.
How can I figure out what this is being caused by?
Thanks.
Athlon PhenomII 3.65Gz 8GB RAM 2TB drives, 560 video, 9800 video (have replaced both video cards with others, no change)
Replaced the monitor, all cords, reset all devices, reseated all connections...

 

[UsernameIssues]

Perhaps Process Monitor.

 

[promytius1]

I will download, install and try it; thanks!

 

[promytius1]

no info found with procmon

I've watched and nothing unusual is going on in the network; the communications at the moment of minimize are normal port inquiries.
Has this ever happened to anyone else????

 

[UsernameIssues]

I don't know if this has happened to others...

Try Process Explorer.
Once it is started,
go to the menu bar and select
Options then Difference Highlight Duration...
...set that to 9 seconds.

See if an app starts at the time that your programs minimize.

 

[promytius1]

I see audiodg.exe, audioeng.exe, taskeng.exe, and other 'normal' activity; so far nothing points to any specific source, but I'll keep looking. Setting the difference duration was helpful and also turning on 'time' as a column.

 

[UsernameIssues]

~~~
...my PC minimizes whatever program is open....

If you have several windows open (one behind the other) - do they all minimize? Or is it only the window that is on top minimizes?

I've watched and nothing unusual is going on in the network; the communications at the moment of minimize are normal port inquiries....

I would not limit the hunt to network traffic.

I see audiodg.exe, audioeng.exe, taskeng.exe, and other 'normal' activity; so far nothing points to any specific source, but I'll keep looking. Setting the difference duration was helpful and also turning on 'time' as a column.

If you do not see a particular app starting that causes the window(s?) to minimize, then it might be some app that is already running. Try a clean boot.

 

[promytius1]

Thank you for the link - I did all that but that also shut all the virus protection and monitoring software off, and since last year I had a root kit invasion, I was reluctant to proceed connected to the Internet but not protected.
After thinking about it, I will try again later with your procedure but I will manually turn on the anti-virus - MS's own. Also one of the programs that displays this activity is an Internet game on Steam, and I got an error message that a module was not loaded and it wouldn't work, so I could not test that program either.
Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[kLN93]

I've watched and nothing unusual is going on in the network; the communications at the moment of minimize are normal port inquiries.
Has this ever happened to anyone else????

Yes this used to happen to me, what anti-virus do you have?

 

[promytius1]

I run Comodo firewall, both MS anti-virus prgs, malwarebytes, and will scan monthly for rootkits; also have an optimizer and a core tuner in residence, and they have limited protections as well.

 

[promytius1]

fatality

Thanks to a frayed wire touching the case, and the resulting fire, my newly built W7 system and its components are now trash, so this issue of half-hour minimizing will never be solved, so we can close this thread and my rebuild attempts. A ten cent part, a thousand dollar outcome. Brilliant.