winxp games minimizing to taskbar

[ogami]

Hi There,

I have a PC running winxp home. I used to have this problem a while ago when I was on winxp pro where whenever I started up a game...any game it would minimize to the taskbar! You could click it on the taskbar and it would pop up for a second then minimize again! The only way to get it to maximize seemed to be to click on it then keep left clicking on the screen and eventually it would stay maximized! I formated and this solved the problem.

I have just last night formatted and put on winxp home sp2, and I now again have the same problem, I start the game and it goes straight to the system tray, click it and it maximizes for about a second then minimizes again! If I maximize it and click the screen like mad eventually it'll stay maximized!

Has anyone come across this before? I'm at a loss to explain it, it's weird that it used to do this months ago but stopped when i formatted and now has started again after this format! I haven't installed any new hardware and I haven't installed any programs that weren't there before.

Any ideas gratefully received!
Thanks everyone

[Relik]

I had the same issue with my system. I believe 99% of the cases this is caused by some background processes that capture the focus from full screen games. I still don't know which of my applications caused the problem, but you can start by closing down all processes you don't need from the taskbar. If that doesn't help, start closing processes from XP task manager. Make sure you don't have any usb-devices hooked, which might cause system to poll them constantly. If possible, try to disable/uninstall any wireless keyboard/mouse software. For example logitech is known for making crap software although their hardware is excellent. If games only minimize, not crash or hang, the problem is not hardware-based. Also Games and some applications running in windows (not full screen) kept losing focus, although they did not minimize. From that I realized it's not for example a memory or GPU-problem.

I managed to remove the problem once by closing down processes, but then it returned. Then I created a new account and started to use that for gaming. This solved the issue although I'm still not sure which process caused it. My guess is that it might have been the logitech Harmony software which kept on polling the usb-port or the logitech wireless keyboard/mouse sw. But it might have been something else as well. You can also check for viruses and spyware but these are not the cause as often as people may think. Some have solved this problem by removing certain Windows XP hotfix patches but that didn't work for me.

It's a good idea in general to create a new user account for gaming which doesn't have anything extra installed. Problem there is that for example in my system antivirus shield will block all games from starting so I have to disable it in order to play. Dangerous feature if you want to play online games.

Please give us strategy games and simulators for PS3 and Xbox360! Please give us mouse and keyboard for consoles! That's the only reason we are playing on PC and spend weeks and months of time to get them to work since there is no alternative. I won't even go to hardware costs.

[lukenlogs]

OK, so I've had this games-minimizing-to-desktop problem for a while, and today I had a new problem, which I suspect was related, so I thought I should spread some good tech karma and tell the story (with the happy ending, natch')
. First, system specs:

Abit AS-8 w/ P4 2.8
Windows XP Home SP2
SB Audigy Value

BFG 6600 GT-OC
2GB Corsair Value Ram PC3200 (4x512)

I'd be playing AOE3 or BF42 (CTF on the Dawg Pwnd server!) and, out of nowhere, I'd be tossed to the desktop and the game would just minimize to the taskbar. I was always able to alt-tab back into the game, but it was frustrating, and sometimes a serious detriment to immediate in-game situations (!!!). This morning, I was playing AOE3, and the game stuttered like it was going to minimize. No biggie, I readied my fingers on alt-tab, but then the computer one-upped the usual problem and completely restarted. This is NEVER a good sign. Upon restart, I'd make it to the Windows XP logo screen, 14 bars would sweep across as usual, and then the screen would just go black; no flashing cursor, no nothing.

I had a similar type of problem a long time ago on an old system, but it was a perpetual restart. I troubleshot that and found it was a homemade CPU temp sensor shorting out that, once removed, solved the problem. So for today's problem, I went through the usual process of elimination of unplugging all my USB devices, removing and moving memory around, and swapping out the 6600 for an old FX 5200 I had sitting around: still no luck. I got on MS Support's site and found this:


I followed the instructions, disabling the 440AGP thing after restarting off of my XP CD, and my box started up successfully. But w/o this AGP440 driver, my vid card wouldn't be recognized. I went into Device Manager and found a System Device w/ a yellow "!" triangle. It was my Intel Chipset's Processor to AGP controller failing. I hunted around and found this driver on Intel's site


I was able to install that, then reinstall the latest drivers for the 6600, and now I'm back to normal, and I've gamed for a few hours w/ no minimizations.

As for the cause of the sudden problem, I'm not sure. All I remember doing this week was installing the Kodak EasyShare software (so I could troubleshoot my Mom's problems, but that's another story).

GL & HF,

Lukenlogs