Mouse won't click to open files

[yungman]

Hi,

It's been a while. But the problem still cannot be solved. I took it to the IT people in the company and they cannot resolve it either. The only way to get out is go to task manager and end the explorer.exe, then restart the explorer.exe. They are convinced that it's not hardware either.

They could not make it fail, I think it's due to they don't open the web. I have IE, Firefox and Chrome all open and I put comments on the news on Yahoo front page. Seems like when I get on the web, it will fail.

Any fresh idea, nothing in these 5 pages work so far, the IT people ran malware and virus scan also, update everything they think it's important like we did here. So they are up in arms.

 

[StevieTNZ]

Maybe backup your work and do a clean install of Windows?

 

[meBigGuy]

A clean install of windows would give you a good reference point. If it still happens, then it is either some really weird SSD hardware issue, or a driver compatibility problem.

I hate resorting to "reinstall and see what happens", but that's about all that is left.

 

[yungman]

I think I am going to recover the laptop. I already backed up the files onto the flash drive. How do I recover the laptop? the laptop does not come with a recovery disk. Also, this laptop comes with Win7 but it also has Win8 which I absolutely do not want. How do I make sure I recover to Win7?

Thanks

 

[meBigGuy]

Go to the lenovo site, or contact their support. I can be of no help beyond suggesting that.

 

[StevieTNZ]

I think I am going to recover the laptop. I already backed up the files onto the flash drive. How do I recover the laptop? the laptop does not come with a recovery disk. Also, this laptop comes with Win7 but it also has Win8 which I absolutely do not want. How do I make sure I recover to Win7?

Thanks

Is there a recovery partition on the hard drive?

 

[Tosh5457]

Try scanning with Malware Bytes, explorer.exe might have been tampered with. After scanning, try running explorer.exe as Administrator. If it doesn't work, make a new partition and install another copy of Windows 7/8/10 there, that should do it.

 

[meBigGuy]

Try scanning with Malware Bytes, explorer.exe might have been tampered with. After scanning, try running explorer.exe as Administrator. If it doesn't work, make a new partition and install another copy of Windows 7/8/10 there, that should do it.

LOL -- obviously have not read this thread. Just a random reply.

 

[StevieTNZ]

LOL -- obviously have not read this thread. Just a random reply.

What brand and version laptop do you have? I'll see if I can pull up some information on how to do a recovery.

 

[meBigGuy]

It is Lenovo Thinkpad T440 20B7S1KJ00 i5-4300U Dual Core 1.9GHz with 2.9GHz Max Turbo 8GB DDR3L-1600 128GB SSD 14" HD 1366x768 Display 3-Cell + 3-Cell Battery Intel N-7260 Win 7 Pro 64bit. The laptop is only 4 to 5 months old, never have a problem until now. It comes with SSD drive, no hard drive.

 

[StevieTNZ]

You might be best to ring Lenovo support to ask if there is a recovery partition on the SSD, or how you can restore the laptop to factory settings.

 

[Tosh5457]

LOL -- obviously have not read this thread. Just a random reply.

I have a life, and just trying to help, not contesting your pool of wisdom ;)

 

[yungman]

Hi guys

I have not recover the computer yet. First it is so easy to unstuck the computer, just stop the explorer.exe and restart it again can cure the problem. I did back up everything. I was just doing different things to see whether it will stop the problem. I found a sure way to avoid the problem...Don't go onto the internet. For over 4 days, I use the computer all the time, BUT I have another laptop side by side, I use the other laptop to do all the internet work and just use the one with problem only for schematic, layout, simulation and all the stuffs that does not involve internet. It never fail.

I am going to try using one browser at a time to see which one cause the problem. I'll wait for another day to make sure it's not failing. Then I am going to use IE first to check my home email. Then the Firefox for work email, then Chrome to scream at the people on politics

Does that open other doors? I don't think it's malware, we did it all here, I gave it to the IT in the company and they ran the malware programs and they checked all the updates also. I am a little torn whether I should recover the computer as it's easy to work around, only 20 seconds to do the stop and restart of the explorer.exe.

Thanks

 

[yungman]

Another question. I have SSD drive that is only 128G. I checked the usage, just the OS and my own stuff uses close to 75G, I don't exactly have a whole world of room. Could that be a problem?

When I use internet, I have all three browser open and particular with Firefox, I have like 4 sub-browser open all the time. 2 in IE also. Usually one in Chrome. Could that use too much of the small SSD?

 

[meBigGuy]

Based on the above, I have little confidence that a restore will change anything.
Using multiple browsers that way is pretty unorthodox.
The SSD size has little to do with anything assuming you don't have an unrealistic amount of virtual memory.
The SSD drivers could be having issues with virtual memory paging.

How much virtual memory do you have (I'm too lazy to go back and find what you said previously)? You can look at task manager to see how much you are using.

Having multiple browsers open will consume lots of memory.

I have no idea how the operation of explorer.exe is becoming affected by too many browsers unless it is some strange virtual memory glitch.

 

[yungman]

Thanks for your reply. I opened all the normal browser. I opened the Task Manager/Resource Monitor/Disk, activity says about 900K/sec total.

I go to the Resource/Memory only 4G being used and 3.6G on standby. I take that I am not even close to using up RAM.

One think I have to say, the Adobe Flash player kept crashing and the web slow down. Often the message pops up that the flash player crashed and ask me whether I want to stop the scrip. Stopping it will make it faster. I can hear the fan going stronger when the flash player crash. This happens more often with Firefox, but it happens with the other two. It happens with two of my other computers, so I never mentioned this because it seems like the adobe flash player always have problems no matter what. Any way to fix it. It kept asking me to update and I did!

Thanks

Alan

 

[meBigGuy]

So, I am puzzled. Not using up ram (which you have said before), not using CPU, yet explorer.exe is hanging. Flash is a likely suspect, since it is a buggy resource hog. It could be that multiple browsers trying to run multiple flash instances could cause something weird since they probably all share dll functions,but may have subtle implementation differences at the browser level. But, I'm only guessing.

 

[yungman]

I closed the IE and Chrome and just let the Firefox with 4 sub browser going. I am just going to see whether it fail. The Adobe Flash is working, it'll fail, just matter of time. When I fails, I'll look at the Resource again and report back.

I guess it's no hurry, just something keep telling me I should hold off in wiping the computer just yet.

Thanks

Alan

 

[yungman]

I had the Firefox open with 4 sub browser. Only took 5 hours before it failed. I was not even using the computer, I walked away when it was working, less than an hour later I came back, it failed by itself.

Both SSD flash and RAM usage are very low.

 

[Borg]

One think I have to say, the Adobe Flash player kept crashing and the web slow down. Often the message pops up that the flash player crashed and ask me whether I want to stop the scrip. Stopping it will make it faster. I can hear the fan going stronger when the flash player crash. This happens more often with Firefox, but it happens with the other two. It happens with two of my other computers, so I never mentioned this because it seems like the adobe flash player always have problems no matter what. Any way to fix it. It kept asking me to update and I did!

I had a lot of problems with Flash pushing the fan to its limits and crashing - mostly for ads. You can configure it to not run automatically using the following steps:
In a new browser tab, type about:config.
Accept the warning if you haven't been there before.
Seach for plugin.state.flash - it is probably set to 2.
The acceptable values are:
plugin.state.flash = 0 --> never activate
plugin.state.flash = 1 --> ask to activate
plugin.state.flash = 2 --> always activate
Double click the setting and set it to 1.

You can check it by selecting the Tools->Add Ons option in Firefox. Flash should be set to "Ask To Activate". This will keep web pages from automatically running flash unless you OK it. For most web pages that I visit, the only thing using Flash are advertisements so I rarely have to activate it.

 

[Borg]

The nice thing about the Flash "Ask To Activate" setting is that it is page-specific. Only the page(s) that you activate it for will run Flash. This way you don't have multiple pages all running flash and chewing up system resources (unless you turned it on for those pages). You can tell it to remember your choice for a website but I'm not sure how to change it once you do. Since I set this on my laptop, the fan hasn't gone into overdrive once. Now I love seeing the "Do you want to activate flash" notification at the top of the pages when I go to sites like Yahoo that are the worst offenders with Flash ads. In your dreams Yahoo.

 

[yungman]

Thanks Borg

It is a lot faster. Now I'll see whether it still crash or not.

How do you do it on Internet Explorer and Chrome. They have the same issue, just not as often and not as bad.

What is Adobe Flash use for? What do I miss...other than commercial?

Thanks

 

[Borg]

Thanks Borg

It is a lot faster. Now I'll see whether it still crash or not.

How do you do it on Internet Explorer and Chrome. They have the same issue, just not as often and not as bad.

What is Adobe Flash use for? What do I miss...other than commercial?

Thanks

Glad to help with that. YouTube and some videos use flash but you can always turn it on selectively. Other than that, it seems to be an open sewer for advertisements.

 

[yungman]

Thanks Borg
The computer is still running, I am crossing my fingers this it the problem. I have not heard the fan for a while, it's nice and quiet.

Why is Adobe Flash player so bad, this is not the only computer having problem, every single computer I have is like this ( not the explorer crash), the flash always crash. What wrong with that, don't they know and try to fix it?

 

[meBigGuy]

I think that if you stuck to 1 browser that flash would have fewer issues. I can't prove that of course. Flash has issues regardless, is resource hungary, is used by ads, etc as Borg has said.

Do you use adBlock? You should consider it.

 

[yungman]

What is adBlock? I don't have pop up that I can remember. Norton seems to do a good job on that.

the computer is still running great. You think the Flash might be the cause of all my problem? The computer has not run so smooth since I disable the Flash. But my other computers never have the explorer.exe issue. could it be the others all have large size hard disk ( my two older one with hard disk are all much larger than 128G).

Thanks

 

[meBigGuy]

Do you use the same multiple browser methodology on all of your machines? Same OS? Could be as simple as different video cards.

RE: AdBlock
Go to firefox->Tools->Add-Ons -> get Add ons

Search for Adblock plus and install it. Bingo - no more ads. It will blow your mind how much faster mainstream pages will load.

IE and Chrome have the same or similar add-ons

 

[yungman]

Thanks for the reply. One of my old computer was Win7, the other one I am using is Win8. Yes, the Firefox is always like this, always get very slow. When I keep clicking on the screen, it will have a message of the Adobe Flash Player has crashed, and ask me whether I want to stop the script. If I stop the script, the computer will get a lot faster. then eventually repeat again.

Thanks

 

[OCR]

What is adBlock?

Be sure it's AdBlock Plus... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adblock_Plus

Official website: https://adblockplus.org/en/about

 

[OCR]

It should look like the red icon on the right. I've opened the drop down in this screen grab...

 

[meBigGuy]

You really do want to use AdBlock Plus. Most "advanced" users have it. It really does speed up most mainstream websites because the ads don't need to load. (as you can see, several have already piped into assist)
You may have a few small issues with some sites, but it is easy to configure. And, it actually makes your computer safer. Compromised ad servers are one way hackers will root your machine (and virus protection will not always catch it). By blocking ads, you block their access path. A compromised ad server can root your machine while it is unattended. You don't have to click anything (has happened to me).

 

[yungman]

Hi

My computer experience unintended shutdown twice since I stop the Flash. I copied the message after the restart:Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: c2
BCP1: 0000000000000007
BCP2: 000000000000109B
BCP3: 00000000040E0000
BCP4: FFFFFA801A062010
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\102815-7768-01.dmp
C:\Users\Bo\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-11200-0.sysdata.xml

I don't understand a thing about this. does this mean anything?

Thanks

 

[meBigGuy]

How did you stop flash? If you terminated it in task manager, that could be the cause. Terminating in task manager can have unintended consequences. It is not something you want to be doing regularly.

If you only used normal browser settings to disable or limit flash, then I have no idea what is going on.
I have no idea what the bluescreen information means or how to interpret it.

 

[yungman]

I followed Borg's suggestion in changing the browser setting, it really helps, It ask me whether I want to start the Flash only. Just the two blue screen now.

Thanks

 

[Silicon Waffle]

Hi

My computer experience unintended shutdown twice since I stop the Flash. I copied the message after the restart:
[...]
I don't understand a thing about this. does this mean anything?

Thanks

That means you are still using Windows 7 SP1, and you have a memory crash which is caused by either hardware or software failure to function properly.

BCCode: c2
BCP1: 0000000000000007
BCP2: 000000000000109B
BCP3: 00000000040E0000
BCP4: FFFFFA801A062010

These are bug check codes (BCCode) and its 4 parameters (BCPx) designed for programmers and MS software analysts to reference.
C2 value of BCCode references a bad pool caller, that means your code is making a bad request to a kernel function.
Please note that I don't conclude this is caused solely by your Flash that is being turned off unexpectedly and it being having a bug itself, maybe you are likely having a bad, out-dated driver or that is a malfunctioning one and your software fails to communicate with it properly, which also causes the issue in question.
So take a look at this to fix it yourself first.

 

[yungman]

Thanks Silicon Waffle, I did a lot of hardware test already. I will look through and see what I missed.

 

[yungman]

Hi

The computer did it again after two days. It is an improvement. I just got notice that the Flash in Chrome crashed and then I notice the computer acted up again. How do I disable the Flash in Chrome and IE? I am very happy with the Firefox since I disable the Flash.

Thanks

 

[Silicon Waffle]

How do I disable the Flash in Chrome and IE

IE: Choose Tools, Manage Add-On then disable your shockwave flash
Chrome: type chrome://plugins in your address textbox, Enter then Disable your Adobe Flash

Visit this site to verify they work
http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

 

[yungman]

Thanks Silicon Waffle

I just did that on both, now is wait and see.

Thanks

 

[yungman]

I had another restart again.

A friend of mine that works on computer came over yesterday, I told him the history, that we went through ALL the testing in DOS startup, updated all the drivers, ran all the malware scanners...So he tried another step that we never tried before...He ran the defragmentation the harddisk (SSD). We ran into very slow progress at one point. Took over 20 minutes to pass through one section and then speed up. Then it ran the whole thing without failure. He think I have a bad sector and he think the defragmentation caught the bad sector and isolated it. He think it should be fine now.

My question is whether this make any sense? If so, should I change to a bigger SSD.

thanks

Alan

 

[yungman]

No, it still failed. It is absolutely related to internet. I was reading some post and it got really slow and it failed. I can tell when it got slow, the fan comes on also.

 

[meBigGuy]

Are you sure it is the fan and not the DVD? Run with the DVD door open?

The fan should only come on if the CPU ot system is getting hot. You can run a temperature monitor program and watch for that. Maybe your CPU has a heatsink contact problem (thermal grease).

 

[yungman]

Thanks MeBigGuy

I don't have a DVD. So the fan is for the CPU. But I did test the heat by putting it on a warm HP pulse generator for at least 30 minutes. The whole lap top got definitely warmer than normal use. The fan was not running that high, it was just quiet most of the time since I disable the Flash players.

I was bad yesterday, Yahoo had a "Greatest-wardrobe-malfunctions-in-cheerleading-history". I was looking at beautiful women when that happens. This was on Yahoo front page, I hope that's not some site with malware. That is even with the Flash disabled. I include the link, maybe you can tell a lot more. I hope this is not inappropriate, this is the only site that actually did it to my computer, I have no choice if I want to look deeper into the problem. It was on Yahoo front page.

http://www.idistracted.net/the-greatest-wardrobe-malfunctions-in-cheerleading-history/16/?v=p

It went to blue screen in front of me and restarted.

 

[yungman]

Just update what's going on.

My friend suggested to increase the virtual memory size to 8192M initial size and 22G max. The explorer doesn't seems to fail as often. More importantly, I don't have blue screen restart for a week already. So the problem becomes the explorer stop working, I go in and end the program and restart it. Everything goes back to normal.

Does this tell anything? This is really the first thing that shows a difference. Not fixing the problem, but a big step in the positive direction. Of cause, it's only been a week, but it has never last this long since the problem started. Usually blue screen followed within hours after I restarted the explorer, quite predictable.

 

[harborsparrow]

I haven't had time to read this entire thread--but--do you have plenty of disk space?

Not having enough disk space for the virtual memory file to expand and shrink can definitely cause Blue Screen of Death and other issues similar to these. So the fix would be to clean up the drive, defrag (if possible), then set the VM file to a fixed (large) size, with initial and maximum values identical--and NOT system-managed, but manually determined. Requires a reboot.

 

[AkshayJain]

Install TuneUp Utilities and optimize your pc for full performance.

 

[yungman]

I recovered the computer, everything is wiped. Still failed. Now what?

You think calling Lenovo will do any good at this point? Or just buy a new computer and give the worst review on Amazon? I think this is the end of the road

 

[meBigGuy]

I'd certainly try the Lenovo route.

 

[StevieTNZ]

I recovered the computer, everything is wiped. Still failed. Now what?

You think calling Lenovo will do any good at this point? Or just buy a new computer and give the worst review on Amazon? I think this is the end of the road

As meBigGuy suggests, try Lenovo support (especially if its still under warranty). They may even send a replacement.

 

[yungman]

Thanks guys, I just need to find a few hours of time before I can call Lenovo support. You know how that goes, I have called for help before with other computers, they make you go through the whole work up, one time I spent a whole Christmas holiday working on the Dell. I had extended warranty, but they just refused to take it in, keep telling me to try this, to try that, I literally spent days with them. That computer never got fixed and I gave it away. That was a $2400 desktop in the late 90s, top of the line computer.

Remember I worked through the whole gantlet here with MeBigGuy and other the very experienced people here. Also, this laptop has gone to the IT department three times. I even have one of my friend that others consider the guru worked on it. Simply put, they cannot make it fail in front of them. It was in last week that the company's IT did the whole hardware test and they could not find anything. You really expect the Lenovo support can find something you guys, my friend and my IT department could not find in the last 3 months? The IT department had two people working on it, they actually escalated up the chain!

The ONLY thing that actually help to some extend is to increase the virtual memory.

That's the reason I am so reluctant to call. I don't have a few hours continuous. It's ok to work on it with you guys 15mins at a time, then drop it till the next day, then another 15 minutes...and so on.