sometime a program will not start

Some times when I start a program it does not start. I look in Process Explorer and find in the path column
"Only part of a ReadProcessMemory or WriteProcessMemory request was completed" all other columns with the exception of the name column are blank. I can not 'kill' or restart the application. Sometime that message is there but the program has started. What is going on?

I have used various virus, rootkit, spyware and adware programs and they all came up clean. Norton 2011 is installed.
I am running XP home edition with SP3 installed.

Hi ricocki, and welcome to WTT Forums,

Have you had a look at these two Microsoft help Topics?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891894
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows…2c-7c48d5c502cf

Thank you Doug… I never thought that the message could be because a CD drive was going bad or some other problem with it. I looked in the Device Manager and under the Primary ID channel under Device 1 the current transfer mode is PIO. I edited the registry and deleted both entries as described in the second link you provided. On the reboot I checked and PIO was still listed.It is asking for DMA if available. There was no change. I do not think my drive is SATA. How would I check that?

IDE is also known as Parallel ATA (P-ATA or PATA) and SATA as Serial ATA (S-ATA or SATA) .

PATA has a wide flat approx. 1 1/2" cable connecting it, SATA has a thin flat cable approx 3/8".

To avoid opening your computer case, open Device Manager:
1) Go to Start / run / type devmgmt.msc / OK.
2) Expand Disk drives and read what is says.

Example: ST3250318AS ATA Device. That means it's a S-ATA drive.

Cheers,
Lee