Solved Programs show under processes, but not in Applications tab

[weirdal]

Hi

Most of my programs are not starting up correctly any more. They do appear in the list of processes after I try to start them from the start menu, but they do not show in the applications tab in Windows Task Manager. Also, no program window appears as well as no tray icon is shown. Resource Monitor shows the "stuck" apps with status 'suspended'.
I am only able to start these applications normally when I do run them with administrator privileges.

The last thing I was doing before these problems occured was using Debian 6.0 in a VirtualBox (v4.0.6). I immediately started VirtualBox after Windows logon and subsequently I could not open any other programs.
Now these problems persist even after several reboots and without VirtualBox running. I also already tried the repair function of Windows with no effect.

The only programs which still seem to work normally are VirtualBox, Internet Explorer 9 (64-bit), Avira AntiVir (v10.0.0.648) and the Snipping Tool.

When I try to run system tools like Reliability History, Network and Sharing Center, Windows Updates or even the Control Panel(!), I get a message box saying "There is not enough free memory to run this program. Exit one or more programs, and then try again.".
Resource monitor tells me I got 2.8GB of free memory, tho.

I was not able to find a similar thread or problem described, neither on these forums nor through google. Still I hope someone else has already experienced this and can help me fix it.

Is Windows 7 . . .
- x86 (32-bit) or x64 ? x64
- the original installed OS on the system? yes
- an OEM or full retail version? Dell OEM (not a Dell PC tho)

- What is the age of system (hardware)? approx. 3 yrs
- What is the age of OS installation? 4 weeks

 

[mgorman87]

Please upload a report as there is some information included I would like to look over

http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

 

[weirdal]

I found that every program which is affected by this 'bug' is sent to 'suspended' state in resource monitor immediately after startup. I can recover them by manually setting them back to 'running' state.

 

[mgorman87]

Nothing stood out in your logs

Try a system file check
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

Also do a memory test
Memtest86 - Run for 7-8 passes - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

 

[weirdal]

Running 'scf /scannow' a couple of times from the boot menu command prompt obviously did the trick. System seems to be back to normal.

Still no idea what it was, tho. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, mgorman87.

 

[jimcarmichael]

I have the exact same problem, but is intermittent...sometimes present sometimes not...
Any ideas on what is causing this?

 

[weirdal]

The last thing I was doing before these problems occured was using Debian 6.0 in a VirtualBox (v4.0.6). I immediately started VirtualBox after Windows logon and subsequently I could not open any other programs.

Sorry, apart from what I wrote in my intial post I can't link anything else to this. But it might also be totally unrelevant. No idea about the cause, I was happy that my system went back to acting normal

Did you already try the /scf thingie?

 

[jimcarmichael]

interesting - I had just installed IDL virtual machine...Sounds like a possible common cause...
Still no idea how to sort the problem out


/scf / virus scan etc all normal...

 

[weirdal]

I had this issue again today! As last time, 'sfc /scannow' fixed it.

But I can exclude VirtualBox as a cause, since this time I did nothing except booting and logging on. Then I went to bed (yeah, the joys of being drunk) and when I tried to run programs 8hrs later they would start as 'suspended' again. At shutdown, Win7 is hanging up at the 'Logging off...' screen.

It's quite annyoing to repeatedly boot from the DVD and run the repair tool, so I would like to know what is causing this and if Microsoft is aware of the issue...

I do not hope this is going to happen each month now :<

 

[mgorman87]

Something is corrupting your system files. Have you tried just not having a VM installed and see if it occurs again?

 

[weirdal]

Tbh, no I did not. I bought this copy of Windows in April and VirtualBox was probably the first thing I installed. So you think that it could be corrupting my system files even when I didn't even use VirtualBox before the problem occurred last time? Maybe some service running in the background?