Weird problems with XP accessing the floppy drive randomly and other t

[shockme17]

I've noticed this strange thing happening when i open certain programs. I'll open WMP11 and it will access the floppy a: drive for some reason. This happens with a few other programs as well and I don't understand why. I've never installed anything from that drive or used it since I've installed the OS. I have MCE with all of the latest updates from windowsupdate.

Also, If I delete a file from within Explorer, the window doesn't always refresh to reflect the change. This also happens when I cut/paste a file to another location. I can manually hit F5 to refresh the window, but I don't know why it doesn't refresh automatically.

If anyone has any idea on how to remedy these problems, I'd be very grateful.

Much thanks in advance

[#rootworm]

windows randomly accessing the a: drive is usually either a sign of a virus, or a sign of antivirus.

old versions of nod32 used to randomly access my empty disk drive (back when i had one) at odd times.

[HyperHacker]

Mine always used to access the floppy drive when opening a large folder. Never did figure out why. The not updating issue just seems to be a bug, it happens to me too.

[cluberti]

It could very well be the antivirus software, but disabling all non-Microsoft explorer shell extensions (via shellexview from nirsoft.net) and startup items (autoruns from sysinternals) is a good way to check for other things. After the changes, a reboot should tell you whether that has made a change in behavior or not.

[LLXX]

windows randomly accessing the a: drive is usually either a sign of a virus, or a sign of antivirus.

Hmm... that's an interesting statement Edited November 13, 2006 by LLXX

[cluberti]

lol - damned if you do, damned if you dont...

[#rootworm]

also wanted to mention that explorer not updating is a side-effect of threaded explorer.exe (launch folder windows in separate process)

i like the extra stability but that bugs me too.

[shockme17]

thanks for the help guys.. the only thing is that i'm not running any antivirus software, and i run explorer in a single window (not seperate process) i'll try uninstalling styler, and any IE7 addins to see if it helps.. but i'm not certain it will.

i just did a fresh reinstall of this a few weeks ago.. i don't believe i had anything different in my old installation and explorer worked fine, and the a: drive was never accessed..

i'll try running an antivirus, but i run the adaware and spybot weekly, along with tweaknow's regcleaner..

any other suggestions would be appreciated..

thanks again!

[#rootworm]

i didn't mean to scare you with the virus mention, only reason i said that is because really really ancient virii would often automatically access the a or b drive to infect the bootsector. i don't think virii like that have been in the wild for years and years.

personally i'd just yank the drive out and throw it in the trash...problem solved

[CptMurphy]

Do this, insert a floppy disk, doesn't matter which. Access it via My Computer, let it load completely until the green light on the floppy drive turns off. You're done. I had a similar problem in a class. Apperently the PC wasn't done reading the contents because I had pulled it out while it was still reading it.

[shockme17]

thanks, but like i said in the original post, i've never used the drive before. plus, in your case, sounds like a reboot wouldve fixed the problem as well.

[CptMurphy]

thanks, but like i said in the original post, i've never used the drive before. plus, in your case, sounds like a reboot wouldve fixed the problem as well.

You know, I had tried that as well, and it never helped. At first I thought it was some stupid little lamer getting into my system using sub-seven, but someone else told me to try that and it worked. IIRC, I also disabled some media service which caused the issue to stop around the same time. Don't remember which one though, sorry.