Topic: Should I Re-install XP?

[Adept]

If you right click the toolbar and select properties, there should be a "Hide Inactive Icons" option. Untick it

[TR]

Just when I knew 1 Adept beats me to it  

[Adept]

Soz  :-[

[TR]

Am laughing my socks off here.... I should really ask Mrs Beaton how to type faster  

[Simon]

Actually, keep thinking boys!    Perhaps I didn't word the question clearly, I want to hide the icons, but I also want to be able to see them when needed, for which I need the little arrow that slides right to left to display the icons.

Maybe it will appear when I get some more icons in there?  It did appear once, then vanished again.

[TR]

Hope the picture shows you Simon  ..

[Adept]

Make your mind up!

[TR]

While we are waiting for Simon to come back Adept.. can you see Clives 1st house on my wall paper   in the picture.

[Simon]

OK, well it's appeared now, so no worries, but thanks anyway!  

I'm still busy installing stuff - just spent the last hour fiddling with Office, and setting up my e-mails, address book, etc.  

It's a bloody job isn't it?  Hope I don't have to do this too often!  

[Clive]

Ah yes Hook.  That first house brings back such fond memories.  

[Simon]

Right, all done.  Installed everything.  All the AV stuff, Firewall, Ad Aware, Spybot, Spyware Blaster, Anti Trojan Watch, the lot.

Now, there does appear to be a problem.  Every now and then, the whole thing freezes for a few seconds, then my screen goes blank for another couple of seconds, then when it returns, some of the system tray icons are missing, but according to msconfig 'Services', the items are all still running.

Any ideas?

Apart from that, everything seems to be running OK.  

Thanks for all the help from everyone so far  -- you're not gettin' away yet!  

[Adept]

Have a look in Administrative Tools | Event Viewer Simon. See if there are any red cross icons in the Application or System logs.

It may shed some light on the problem

[Simon]

Hmmm... I don't really want to say this, in case it means what I think it might mean, but this cropped up a few (4 or 5) times, which is probably about the same number of times the blank screen event occurred.  Hopefully it's not connected:  

AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to write to an illegal IO port address (0xcf8), which lies in the 0xcf8 - 0xcff protected address range. This could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.

I clicked on the help link and it said I might need to upgrade my BIOS.    :'( :'( :'(

I think I've had enough stress for one weekend!  

[Clive]

You have had a real outing with this Simon!  I feel sorry for anyone who has to fix computers for a living.  It must be very stressful.  It's little wonder that Adept has to unwind with a bottle of wine each evening.  

[Adept]

Relax Simon!

I think I've seen that error message on nearly all the XP machines I've seen. Many of them brand new, with bang up-to-date BIOSes.

I don't think it's the cause of your freezing problem. Keep looking ...