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I need help troubleshooting a very odd hang in Windows Vista that I have so far been unsuccessful in troubleshooting.
Sometimes when I am trying to open a new application--it doesn't matter which one--the new app won't run, although existing apps will work fine. When I right click on task manager, the little icon in the taskbar appears, but the window will not. If I try to open task manager again, another duplicate little icon appears, but no window. I can do this over and over and the window still won't appear. Eventually, after about 20 minutes, it will come up if I let it sit there.
The frustrating thing about this problem is that I can't do the typical troubleshooting approach of just shutting down every application and service running, because I can't get the task manager up! Additionally, because there is no outright crash of an application, Windows Vista doesn't recognize there is anything wrong, so there is no logfile or crash report saved.
It's been doing this for several weeks, and I've tried everything--driver upgrades, uninstalling iTunes, Automatic Updates, hotfixes, disabling services, running msconfig with a barebones configuration, all with no change. (Only thing I haven't tried is a total reinstall, and I really don't want to do that if I can avoid it.) It happens on AC power and on battery, and with wireless on or switched off.
This is an erratic problem--other times, I can bring up task manager no problem.
(This is a T60p with Windows Vista Business, and the FireGL 5250 video card)
Would you all be so kind as to suggest 1) what might cause this, or 2) any other troubleshooting approaches I can take to determine the cause?
MOD EDIT: Picture warning added.
