Full Screen Makes The Taskbar Unusable

My taskbar becomes unusable in a number of situations. By unusable I mean that I can’t use it to select any open programs, open the windows start menu, or select anything from the notification area. IN short it losses all functionality. Programs already launched may be visible, but they can not be selected. Occasional bits of the taskbar are missing (and I can see the desktop background) or they are simple black.

This happens in a number of situations:
-when I use a full screen program (such as a game)
-when I change theme,
-when using fast-switching to allow someone else to use the computer, and then re-log on

They only way I can make the taskbar useable again is to either restart or to press ctrl + alt + delete and kill the ‘explorer.exe’ process, and then relaunch it. This problem does not happen on any other user account in my computer, and has been a problem for a month or two. I created a new used account, just to test it, and I could not recreate the problem.

Recently just to test if the problem still was there, I changed my theme, and sure enough the problem had gone away. However this time a new taskbar button had opened in the taskbar. It’s grey, with no text, and the icon looks is a white box, with a blue border, and what could be a red button in the top right corner (it’s small and hard to be sure) It looks a little bit like a window. It’s appears to be selected. I have the same problem, and can only get control of the taskbar back by the method described above.

I’ve scanned for virus (McAfee), checked for any spyware (Spybot search and destroy, Ad-aware, Microsoft anti-spyware), used registry mechanic and Tune-up Utilities 2004 to check the registry, and other problems, but all of these tools have been of no solution. I’ve also searched using Google but have not come up with anything.

This is really frustrating me, and I hope someone has a solution. While the solution (well, work around) may sound simple, having to do it 10-15 times a day can be annoying, time consuming, and I would prefer if I could have a normal functioning computer.

Please either reply here, or email at bendummett @ gmail.com

I’ve included some basic information, if you need anything else please get in touch!

System Summary

Thank you. OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name BMAIN
System Manufacturer To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Model To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 3 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~3198 Mhz
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 3 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~3198 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 1002.002, 25/02/2004
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale Australia
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = “5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)”
User Name
Time Zone AUS Eastern Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 353.81 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 2.40 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

(Out of interest I will also include this – are these conflicts bad? May they be causing the problem? Or are they nothing?)

Hardware resources

Conflicts/Sharing

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

IRQ 20 VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
IRQ 20 Agere Systems PCI Soft Modem

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF Intel® 82865G/PE/P/GV/82848P Processor to AGP Controller–2571
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF RADEON X800 Series (Omega 2.6.53)

IRQ 16 RADEON X800 Series (Omega 2.6.53)
IRQ 16 Intel® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller–24D2
IRQ 16 Intel® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller–24DE

IRQ 18 Intel® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller–24D7
IRQ 18 Intel® 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF Intel® 82865G/PE/P/GV/82848P Processor to AGP Controller–2571
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF RADEON X800 Series (Omega 2.6.53)

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB Intel® 82865G/PE/P/GV/82848P Processor to AGP Controller–2571
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB RADEON X800 Series (Omega 2.6.53)

I/O Port 0x0000C000-0x0000CFFF Intel® 82865G/PE/P/GV/82848P Processor to AGP Controller–2571
I/O Port 0x0000C000-0x0000CFFF RADEON X800 Series (Omega 2.6.53)

Hello,

Have you verified you have all the updates and patches installed for your operating system?

Also, does the problem occur if you remove the Omega drivers and use ATI-provided device drivers for your video card?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky