Strange Windows problem.

[MooseMan3000]

Alright, so I'm running Win2k Pro, SP4.

These last few days lot of programs have been freezing. The strange part is that when I try to end them through task manager, it gives me an error message.

Error
This program cannot be closed. If it is being debugged, please resume it or close the debugger first.

Huh?

I do virus scans weekly or so, along with the usual spyware and whatnot, and I'm clean there. My Windows is up to date.

And THEN once one program does it, everything else seems to want to do it, too. If one thing freezes, everything NEW that I do will also freeze and refuse to close. Programs that were already open remain functional.

THEN, when I try to shut down or reboot, it won't let me. It just doesn't say anything, and it won't shut down. If I try to open any new programs after I've told it to shut down, it says something along the lines of "Cannot open program, system shutting down."

I have to manually reset it using the reset button on my case.



So... any ideas wtf?

Note: I just tried googling the message, but that froze


Oh, and I forgot to add: when this happens, after I reset all my cookies are gone. Hmm...

[yodapaul]

I did some Google checking for you, quite a few people are having the same problem with Win2k. It seems to be a OS issue dealing. I haven't seen any solutions just a lot of talk about the problem.

Still Looking...

[bob32]

My uncle always had the debugger error on his computer with Win2k. I always just thought that he didn't know what he was doing b/c he was never able to reproduce the error with me watching. It ususally happened when he closed Internet Explorer.

A lot of the people in the Dell forum solved the problem by installing service packs and updates. Other people just decided it's a problem with the OS.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...#91;LN];321410 is an article on how to turn off the machine debug manager which may supposedly help solve your problem. MS says it applies to people with Office XP, so hope that's you.

Just in case your computer freezes while clicking the link:

How to Turn Off the Machine Debug Manager (only applies to Win2k)
If you run Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later, you can turn off the Machine Debug Manager by turning off script debugging. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Click to select the Disable script debugging check box, and then click OK.
5. Close Internet Explorer.

EDIT: link didn't work

[MooseMan3000]

Naw, the debugger thing was already disabled. I can't find an instance where debugger is ACTUALLY running... it just says that it might be.

Bah. In a few days I think I'm gonna format anyway. Maybe install XP, maybe fresh with 2k... not sure yet.