www.virtualacorn.co.uk/forum

Hi,
I'm running into a frustrating problem with increasing frequency
Apparently randomly, while using VRPC Adjust in full screen mode everything will freeze. Moving the mouse has no effect on the pointer for a few seconds then the pointer skips to the new location and then freezes again. Pressing Alt-Enter also has no effect for a few seconds. When I eventually get back to Windows, everything remains frozen inside the window (sometimes including the windows pointer over the window furniture). The solution appears to be to minimise VRPC then maximise it again.
Anyone else experienced this? Anyone got any solutions?
Thanks a lot,
Adam

I have had this happen occasionally on VARPC-SE. I find it is usually some Windows program which effectively stops the whole machine, such as anti-virus s/w, or routine tasks which perform at a certain time.
I haven't found a solution, as it only happens to me maybe once a week.

There are a number of things that can cause "freezing". Staring from the top:
Turn off the VirtualAcorn sound from the Tools->Options dialogue.
Increase the value of ProcessorPriority in the VA.cfg file (max 3)
Turn off the VA Power Management battery manager (double click on !Boot and go to VAPower).
If none of the above help then you need to start investigating the Windows side to see what's happening. Normal "criminals" include Norton Anti-Virus (spit), Symantic spyware tool (double spit) or something else that's kicking in and knicking all the CPU time.

Thanks Aaron, I'll try the three things you suggest, in order...
As for the last possibility I think it is unlikely that there's anything on my particular XP machine taking up excessive processor time.
Adam

The intermittent and, presumably, recent nature of this problem sounds very much like the Screen Blanking topic posted a few weeks back. Could the cause be the same?
On Screen Blanking, I questioned whether this might be related to recent Windows updates. From Aaron's comments, it seems as likely that it relates to Norton (and, possibly, to upgrading to the 2006 version).
It might be interesting if the various respondents reported whether they:
a. download all Windows updates; and,
b. use Norton (and, in particular, have upgraded to the 2006 version).
This might just provide a clear pointer to where the problem lies.
[NB: Aaron, how many "spits" do I score for having upgraded to Norton Internet Security 2006?]
David[/u]

No spits Just a very very long sigh............
For anyone thinking of spening money on Norton/Symantic/Whatever can you please give the free edition of AVG a go?
And get ZoneAlarm as a firewall, oh, and AdAware to get rid of spyware. All three are free for non commercial use (ie. for home users).

I agree. these three programs are a must. Add in Spybot Search & Destroy and you'e pretty safe from thos nasties.
Regards from New Zealand.
David

I forgot SpyBot, I don't know why as it's running on my machines. SpyBot can sometimes catch nasties that AdAware misses.

Dunno - it's pretty hard to nail down. However, since my last post I've disabled sound on VRPC and this appears to have stopped the freezes (tempting fate now though...). I still get the occasional "blanking" thing.

[snip]


Yes
No, just ZoneAlarm here.
Adam