cetkat

Compaq Presario S4020WM Desktop
Windows XP SP3 (Error also occured on SP2)
AMD Athlon Processor
S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR Card

This error only occurs on right-click popup menu selections. It happens randomly (mostly with notification bar icon menus), but it has now also occured in the Mail panel of my Opera browser when I selected "Empty trash" from the menu that drops down when you click on a folder (in this instance "Trash").

The operation completes fine, and the selection menu goes away; but my individual selection remains in a kind of stationary ghost image in the forefront of my screen above any programs. It's completely non-reactive to anything I do (like re-opening the same menu and selecting that option again). At one point I downloaded a program that registers oject positions on the screen (like open windows) and it didn't see anything there.

Here's a picture of the problem: http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/n...lMenuError.jpg

The only way I have found to get it to go away is restarting the computer.

If anyone has a fix or an idea of how to make it disappear without restarting, I'd be greatful.

cetkat

Update: The screensaver had never come on while this was happening before, but it just did. Sure enough the thing is still there. On top of the window logo and everything. (And the login menu when it came up.)

Heh. Thing's indestructible.

ThorXP

Problerms like this are usually cured be refreshing the screen and if this does not happen it is caused by not enough video Ram, if the S3 is on board then the video RAM is taken out of the system RAM and usually updates itself so it can use more RAM if needed.

I would check the settings for the page file for windows and set it to let windows manage it.

cetkat

Refreshing has no affect. You're correct about the S3 being on the board. I'm at my max on RAM, 2x512. I did go ahead and reset my page file. Windows only puts it at 1487 though, and I had it at 3000-4096. It seems like mine would be more benificial.

I did notice a selection under Visual Effects that says 'show translucent selection rectangle'. Would unchecking that box keep the problem from happening?

cetkat

Bump, please..

ThorXP

Why not set the pagefile to let windows handle it for the size then you do not supposedly have to worry about it. I solved my problem with this by putting in a video card with its own on-board RA like 128 Mb and that solved the problem with this except when I am running like 10 different programs then I get it a little bit.

cetkat

Supposedly.. but I have found that video plays better with it increased. My computer probably would benifit from a real video card, but it works fine otherwise. The weird thing is, it's not the same as lag. It just seems to forget that it's there, and goes on functioning normally.. like an overlay or something.

Any idea if the menu option I mentioned represents the blue box in the picture?

Edit: Not that particular box, of course.. the feature.

tech2020

Hello

Did this problem get solved?

I am having similar issues.

And some things give me a feeling it only starts when I have my webcam turned on and and i go to webcam settings tool box.

After this the problem stays, I can go to display settings and change the colors to 16bit and then again 32 bit, the problem goes away. but as soon as I again use any right click menu item then the problem comes back.

Any clue?

cetkat

No, I haven't solved it. But I haven't found any other reason for it other than a shortage of video RAM, either.

Mine only happens occasionally - about five times in all, but it's annoying when it does. I didn't think to switch display settings like that. Thank you. That may save me from having to reset in the future.


As for you, it definitely makes sense that your webcam could be causing it by using up too many resources.

BluEnergyVortex

Yes, I have that same problem, but when I open a right click menu over the selection it goes away, but I will still happen
I think it has to do with Service Pack 3, I see a lot of people including me that have SP3 and have this problem

level42

Don't know how much this will help you guys, but I have a secondary display attached to my computer with the same issue. For some reason when I turn off and on my TV (Second Display) the menu item disappears.

Now I know this works but I would really much rather have a permanent fix to prevent this from ever happening again.

MeSue

Hello,

I have been having this same problem in Windows Vista, and this was the only site I could find with reference to this problem. I found a solution, and registered here just so I could post it.

In my case, I would only have this problem after using Windows Movie Maker in Vista, but it happened every time. The first time I would use WMM, it will always stop responding. After relaunching it a second time, it would work, but whatever my first menu selection was, it would stay on the screen as a ghost image. I could change my screen resolution to something else and back to what it was before and that would clear the ghost image, but a new one would appear the next time I clicked on any menu.

The solution I found is to go into Windows Performance Options and de-select the option for "Fade out menu items after clicking." In Vista, this is accessed from right clicking My Computer > Properties > Advanced system settings (link on the left) > Advanced (tab) > Performance settings (button) > Visual effects (tab). Whew!

Hopefully it's not buried quite so deep in Windows XP! Hope this solves it for the rest of you...

nabilalk

In XP: My Computer>Properties>Performance settings (button)

Thanks, that seemed to solve my problem on XP. Not sure why this is happening. It doesn't happen all the time. Only every now and again, however the only way to previously fix this was to restart. I will post back if this fix doesn't actually fix the problem. However, at present, things seem to be working.

cetkat

Thanks MeSue! That's the same section where I found the 'show translucent selection rectangle' setting, but I didn't end up deselecting it since nobody knew if it would help. I didn't think about the one you mention, but I do sometimes have whole menus that try to stick around (though they usually disappear after a bit). That could be a precursor to the other issue. It's definitely worth a try.

As for XP - it's the same location:

Control Panel > System > Advanced (tab) > Performance settings (button) > Visual effects (tab)

The only difference is how you get to the System Settings window. Somewhere along the line my My Computer icon got turned into a shortcut, so that way didn't work for me.

nabilalk - I hope things keep working for you!

jerrytoo

Whew! is right. I am an experienced computer user (30+ years) from the time of Heath Kits but this problem really stymied me on my brand new home-built high powered system. I knew it didn't have anything to do, as some people thought, with system RAM or video RAM since my system is loaded. Then I thought maybe it was a video driver problem with the ATI 4870 drivers but it seemed to affect people regardless of video card.

Whatever the cause it is definitely an MS Windows bug affecting systems from XP to Vista64 but your "fix" fixed the problem that shouldn't be there to begin with. Kudos for finding the fix and posting it. I searched the Web and out of 10 sites like this one many expressed their frustration with this bug.

Your the Hero of the Day (or Month) for finding this bug fix!
I'd buy you a beer if you lived around here. Thanks!

Jerry in NW Florida

tsado

Just to add to the wackiness of this issue. I have experienced the same thing on Windows XP 64-bit, with a PCIe ATI card, with all the latest patches. The thing is that it was fine until sometime in the last couple of days!

So I read through peoples responses on this thread, and I discovered that if I turned off my monitor, and then turned it right back on, the ghost menu item would be gone. This worked quite reliably.

My monitor is a ViewSonic 20" wide screen, which isn't terribly remarkable, but I do use a DVI connection for it. I think the act of turning the screen off and back on sends some sort of display "reset" to windows, because my other screen, yes I have two, flashes twice when I do turn off the primary one. The second screen is the exact same ViewSonic model and is plugged into the exact same video card the exact same way, the only difference is it uses a different port.

Ultimately I fixed the problem by doing as other commentators suggested, I disabled the menu selection fade out, in fact I disabled ALL menu fading, because other menu fade effects were acting weird after I disabled the selection fade. By weird I mean that when I would first click on a menu it would fade in part way, about 20%, it was only when I moved the mouse on the menu that it would fade in the rest of the way.

As to "Why did this happen" I have no clues to offer, but as a sysadmin for my company I do have a lot of different software installed on my computer, and I have installed new stuff recently, but I can't say for sure exactly when it started and point to component X as the culprit. I suppose I could "roll back" with system restore, but I don't actually want to loose the stuff I added recently, so I will live with the menu effects turned off.

Hope this helps someone.

krap101

As MeSue registered just to post the solution, I feel obligated to register to post that it worked. THANKS