Programs become unresponsive after a time in Command Prompt

[Click Beetle DX]

Hello, all.

I've always relied heavily on DOS through the years. This didn't change when I made the move to XP, recently. However I notice something odd under XP's Command Prompt that I have never noticed before using real DOS, Win98 DOS box, et cetera:

Most of the time I can open and close the Command Prompt many times and do whatever I like, for as long as I like -- usually using the MS-DOS Editor (edit.com) to write HTML, etc. -- but it seems like if I leave my computer on for too long, eventually the only things I can successfully do in the Command Prompt are input simple DOS commands. Other programs (edit.com included) will start up, but immediately become unresponsive to keystrokes, forcing me to have to close the Command Prompt altogether. I then have to reset the machine if I wish to use the Command Prompt as normal.

I hope someone here has encountered the same or similar problem and knows a workaround, or can walk me through the process of finding out the trouble. I hate having to reset my entire system every time this problem occurs, and I don't intend to rely on the DOSBox emulator just for simple tasks, when I have the XP Command Prompt there the whole time.

Any suggestions / help appreciated, thanks.

[Tripredacus]

That is not a normal behaviour. I'd expect the issue isn't related to the command prompt.

When you go to run your command prompt, do you use COMMAND.COM or CMD.EXE?

[Click Beetle DX]

I use CMD.EXE

[Tripredacus]

Did you see if you could replicate the behaviour while in safe mode?

[Click Beetle DX]

I recently decided to uninstall the Microsoft IntelliType software for my Natural Keyboard as I didn't see any point to having it. Since doing this, the aforementioned problem has not appeared.

[Tripredacus]

Interesting. I've never seen much value in installing that or the mouse software, since Windows can handle those devices just fine.