Computer Related > Alt tab not working (and other stuff) Miscellaneous
Thread Author: smokie Replies: 18

 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - smokie
Windows 7 on a home brew PC with an SSD C drive. All working great until I Ghosted the SSD drive toa file on the D drive. First Ghost attempt failed (read failure), second attempt worked.

But now I can't switch screens with alt tab - I see a very quick flash but nothing changes. Windows key tab still works but is more clumsy. Other alt shortcuts (e, f and d) all work OK.

Also other bits are acting oddly. Seems no program will fire up from the task bar immediately after boot, until I have started a program by double clicking a desktop icon. And when I am on a maximised Chrome window, the task bar (which used to auto hide) will not come into view, until I minimise the Chrome window = this works fine in other apps.

I doubt anyone here will have come across this, and I haven't really researched it myself yet, and I don't really believe the Ghost (old version, done from a boot CD) would have caused it - but it seemed odd that it couldn't read the disc, then it could, and then I got problems.
Last edited by: smokie on Sun 28 Mar 10 at 19:41
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - Zero
So you are saying the win7 install on the c: drive hasnt been touched, just ghosted to the d: drive? no idea

however as you mentioned it.

How do you find SSD drives, are they as fast as you hoped? do you have the swop file on the SSD drive?
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - smokie
Yep, c drive hasn't been touched - but the ghosting is probably a red herring - but it was absolutely the same time as the problem started.

The SSD drive is fast - not blindingly, but pretty quick. You must have seen some of the YouTube demos where they chain and RAID them. Mine isn't like that, but start up, and things like starting office, and some I/O intensive applications, are considerably quicker. I bought a 64Gb Crucial which has all my apps, plus I've tried to shoehorn some other big files (like my .itl iTunes database) onto it. I've also got some recent games which I downloaded which I barely use, but when I do, I sync them from a backup onto the C drive to get the loading time benefits of the SSD - which is quite significant.

I only have 2Gb of memory (older m/b, won't support more) so I suppose the SSD is somewhat making up for the lack of memory. The pagefile is on C, which I know isn't best practice as the disks have a finite life, but they will be cheap enough to be disposable before too long. I made sure I got the later technology drive (v2 I think) which, with Windows 7. takes care of cleaning up after deletion much better. I just returned from the States with an 80Gb Intel SSD and a SATA slide-in 3.5" disk caddy (as I seem to have a surfeit of 1Tb drives...). I'm thinking I might use the 80Gb as C drive and either sell the 64 or use it as D, especially as I can now hot swap 1Tb drives. I need to analyse my data and see what I need to keep "online". Part of the SSD strategy is my wider attempt at achieving more savings in energy costs (albeit probably not a cost effective one!).
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - ....
Did this machine have Vista on before upgrading to Win7 or was it pure Win7 ? This has been noticed on Vista.

Did an update occur at about the same time you noticed the problem ?

Are the video driver(s) up to date ?
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - smokie
It didn't have Vista, it was a clean Win7 install.

I have updates as automatic but just checked history - only virus definition updates for Windows Security Essentials around the date I did the image.

NVidia 8800GT - driver was 196.21, which installed a month or so back when I installed Windows 7. Have updated it to 197.13 (latest from NVidia site), but problems remains.

Oddly enough it all seemed to be working OK this morning, but for some reason I've rebooted and it isn't again.
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - Zero
Just checked my Win 7

On my Home brew PC I have the 8800GTS running 196.21 and none of the issues you described.
I am up to date on downloads and patches (except the video drivers)

What Mboard you using? tried a BIOS update? I have an ASUS P7P55-M
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 29 Mar 10 at 12:23
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - smokie
Hmmm, I remember looking at this before I did the Win 7 upgrade. My board is an ASRock 4CoreDual-Sata2, with an old Bios release (1.30). 2.2 BIOS supports Vista, but I'd need a later board to support Windows 7. I have Intel quad processor.

I've downloaded the latest BIOS and may give it a shot - but I am pretty sure it won't fix the issue.

Made me think I should probably look what motherboard bargains are out there to be had though...


PS Just read the BIOS install instructions.

"1. Make a bootable floppy"



Hahahahahaha. This is 2010 ASRock!!!
Last edited by: smokie on Mon 29 Mar 10 at 23:00
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - smokie
...and now I can quantify some other issues. Sometimes when I click a link, the linked-to page opens, but behind the active windows (i.e. need to minimise the active window to see it).

And I've just realised that the speaker volume is stuck on zero - if I move the slider up you can hear stuff but it just slides itself down again.

I don't know how all these can be related but I feel sure they were all OK at one point then probably all failed at the same time - whatever the cause.

EDIT: and a bit of research throws up a number of instances of this volume slider problem but none are very convincing answers. It's an onboard Realtek something, with the latest drivers. I wondered whether it could be a user profile corruption so created a new user, but that had all the problems right away too.
Last edited by: smokie on Tue 30 Mar 10 at 08:57
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - smokie
...but I am suddenly much closer to the problem...

More careful research threw up a long convoluted problems where the "experts" ( - there are so many of them out there) spent ages having a guy run all kinds of spyware logs, tweak this, run it again...what do these guys get from being like this?

Anyway, the OP eventually tracked the problem down to some USB device. So I unplugged all of my USB devices and alt tab and volume problems immediately disappeared. Now I've pluigged them all back in and the problem is still absent. So at least when it re-occurs I can be a bit scientific about unplugging stuff one by one to see what the cause is.

Thanks all for advice and for listening, this helped as it made me concentrate on what my problems were, which collectively seems to have helped with the cure.
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - smokie
...and the answer was - wireless Logitech keyboard/mouse. Can't immediately see a solution except the easy and obvious one - unplug it when it occurs, them plug it back in. I'm trying it on a different USB port too, but need to get on with my day job... At least I've narrowed down where to look!
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - ....
Thanks for keeping us up to date.

I've read about this affecting Vista too but have not seen it myself. I use a USB Logitech media keyboard 600 with a cordless Click plus mouse. Your hardware is probably more recent than mine.
Last edited by: gmac on Tue 30 Mar 10 at 11:13
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - smokie
FWIW my Logitech model is Cordless Desktop EX110. It was very cheap, but I suspect my problems are more down to Logitech software/drivers misbehaving rather than it's cost.
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - VxFan
>> FWIW my Logitech model is Cordless Desktop EX110. It was very cheap

I have the exact same model. Yes, I agree - cheap. I paid something like £12.99 at Tesco for it. Have the feet broken off the keyboard yet on yours?
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - Zero
Get a new MB smokes. An Ausus one this time. Wont touch anything else.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 30 Mar 10 at 17:43
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - smokie
Yes, one foot broke but superglue is holding on for now.

I used to swear by Gigabyte MBs but needed cheapie last time cos of the amount of collateral upgrading I had to do.
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - VxFan
>> Yes one foot broke but superglue is holding on for now.

I had to resort to superglue as well on both feet. Been meaning to phone Logitech to see if they'll send out replacements.
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - The Nut
>> Get a new MB smokes. An Ausus one this time. Wont touch anything else.
>>

I'd second that, my other half had the same MB as smokie, chosen as it had AGP and PCI-e.

Sent the first one back as no mater what we did it would not reliably accept two sticks of memory, got the replacement and still had the same problem. Swapped every component including the case and the problem wouldn't go away. In the end we bought a Gigabyte motherboard and PCI-e graphics card.
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - smokie
Good point, support is limited to 2Gb anyway, so I have 1 x 2Gb stick,
 Alt tab not working (and other stuff) - smokie
Discovered an even easier fix to this problem. I have a PS2 keyboard plugged in as well as the wireless USB stuff. If I alt tab on the PS2, it not only works correctly, but fixes the wireless too/
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