OT: Windows 8 Blank App Images

I have been having a problem lately that I can't seem to find a solution 
to in Google searches.  Mostly because I can't find a decent keyword to 
describe it.

The problem happens when I change context from one application to 
another, but only very intermittently.  Normally I use Alt-Tab to change 
context, either by just repeatedly hitting the Tab with the Alt down or 
sometimes I use the small images of each process Windows displays and 
click on one with the mouse.  Sometimes I even just click on a visible 
part of a window that does not have focus.  When the problem happens the 
screen will flash black for an instant to maybe two seconds and then 
switch me to the other app.  But now all the stored images of the apps 
used for the Alt-Tab display are gone and instead show the app icon in 
the small window image.  When the Alt-Tab app images are gone, so are 
the app images that show when you mouse over the task bar icons.

I have found some mentions of other problems, especially with games when 
I search, but not this particular bug.  It almost seems like a memory or 
resource problem, but I have 16 GB and am only using typically 10-12 at 
any given time.  I usually run all three browsers, IE, Firefox and 
Chrome at the same time along with an email program (Eudora) and 
Thunderbird for newsgroups.  LibreOffice is also usually running.

How might I find some mention of this problem?  I am stumped on what to 
search for.

-- 

Rick

On 10/02/2015 02:53, rickman wrote:
> I have been having a problem lately that I can't seem to find a solution
> to in Google searches.  Mostly because I can't find a decent keyword to
> describe it.
>
> The problem happens when I change context from one application to
> another, but only very intermittently.  Normally I use Alt-Tab to change
> context, either by just repeatedly hitting the Tab with the Alt down or
> sometimes I use the small images of each process Windows displays and
> click on one with the mouse.  Sometimes I even just click on a visible
> part of a window that does not have focus.  When the problem happens the
> screen will flash black for an instant to maybe two seconds and then
> switch me to the other app.  But now all the stored images of the apps
> used for the Alt-Tab display are gone and instead show the app icon in
> the small window image.  When the Alt-Tab app images are gone, so are
> the app images that show when you mouse over the task bar icons.

Not seen anything like this with Win8 but this used to be a problem when 
something was grabbing resource handles and never letting go. Eventually 
you end up with all black icons or transparent ones.
>
> I have found some mentions of other problems, especially with games when
> I search, but not this particular bug.  It almost seems like a memory or
> resource problem, but I have 16 GB and am only using typically 10-12 at
> any given time.  I usually run all three browsers, IE, Firefox and
> Chrome at the same time along with an email program (Eudora) and
> Thunderbird for newsgroups.  LibreOffice is also usually running.
>
> How might I find some mention of this problem?  I am stumped on what to
> search for.

Try MSKB and icon problem. Also try not running some of the above and 
see if you can figure out which one is the root cause. It would not 
surprise me if the browsers were capable of deadlocking each other for 
key resources under some circumstances.

I have seen IE11 freeze up far too often to trust it.

-- 
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 2/10/2015 3:47 AM, Martin Brown wrote:
> On 10/02/2015 02:53, rickman wrote:
>> I have been having a problem lately that I can't seem to find a solution
>> to in Google searches.  Mostly because I can't find a decent keyword to
>> describe it.
>>
>> The problem happens when I change context from one application to
>> another, but only very intermittently.  Normally I use Alt-Tab to change
>> context, either by just repeatedly hitting the Tab with the Alt down or
>> sometimes I use the small images of each process Windows displays and
>> click on one with the mouse.  Sometimes I even just click on a visible
>> part of a window that does not have focus.  When the problem happens the
>> screen will flash black for an instant to maybe two seconds and then
>> switch me to the other app.  But now all the stored images of the apps
>> used for the Alt-Tab display are gone and instead show the app icon in
>> the small window image.  When the Alt-Tab app images are gone, so are
>> the app images that show when you mouse over the task bar icons.
>
> Not seen anything like this with Win8 but this used to be a problem when
> something was grabbing resource handles and never letting go. Eventually
> you end up with all black icons or transparent ones.
>>
>> I have found some mentions of other problems, especially with games when
>> I search, but not this particular bug.  It almost seems like a memory or
>> resource problem, but I have 16 GB and am only using typically 10-12 at
>> any given time.  I usually run all three browsers, IE, Firefox and
>> Chrome at the same time along with an email program (Eudora) and
>> Thunderbird for newsgroups.  LibreOffice is also usually running.
>>
>> How might I find some mention of this problem?  I am stumped on what to
>> search for.
>
> Try MSKB and icon problem. Also try not running some of the above and
> see if you can figure out which one is the root cause. It would not
> surprise me if the browsers were capable of deadlocking each other for
> key resources under some circumstances.
>
> I have seen IE11 freeze up far too often to trust it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "trust" it.  How is trust related to 
computer usage?  I don't put much confidence in anything on the 
computer.  I certainly don't "trust" any of it.

Way back when microcomputers were 8 bit and memory was typically 16 kB 
on a hot machine, someone pointed out that debugging was a process of 
looking for as little as one bit in the wrong state.  Not an easy task. 
  He also pointed out that the computer was a finite state machine with 
and astronomical number of possible states based on the content of 
memory.  Today machines have GB of RAM and the same rules apply...  So 
which bit is out of whack and where can I get some more whack to fix it?

-- 

Rick