Cntrl F command working intermittently ( and Norton Identity Safe) - SOLVED

[ComputerJunkie]

Hi,

I have been having TERRIBLE trouble getting Adobe CS5.5 Master Collection to install properly. Started January 22, and still working on this issue. Tech support said sorry only CS6 gets tech support; I wrote a well worded letter and shockingly got a call from them 2 days ago. Problem is that they did NOTHING but sit there and hold my hand. Sure enough, it installed (like a car at the auto mechanics), updates started running. As soon as I said okay, thanks, will just wait for updates to finish...well, they took over 30 minutes and at the end fatal error. Since Jan 22, I have reinstalled Windows twice, did system image recovery at least twice and tried to put Adobe CS5.5 on at least 3 times. And they also have a "clean uninstall tool" that still does NOT remove everything! And believe me, Adobe recognizes kin from a mile away!

So, I decided to install the Tweaking.com Windows Repair (All-in-One) tool and ran it tonight (unchecked Win 8 items), as per your advice, in safe mode with networking. All seemed fine.

Then I decided to install and run the Simple System Tweaker. I did not do the visual tweaks at all and skipped a couple items on the other tabs because I did not know what they were, to be honest.

I used Firefox because I had a few questions to research and went to use Ctrl+F and it just would not come up for anything. I closed FF and tried again, nothing...2nd window open and it worked on the 2nd window and popped up at the same time on the first window. Then a bit later, could not get the command to work again, go to a 2nd window and it worked but did not pop up in the first window this time.

After reboot, I installed CCleaner because it is an absolute must to remove all the Adobe scraps. All seemed fine but still this silly qwerk with the find command (and I use it A LOT).

OH! And I just noticed another glitch: It took my S-Bar.exe away too! Not sure which things would be affecting those and not sure yet, if there's anything else wrong...

Quick update: I see that clicking on S-Bar it started up and I am able to use the hotkey buttons both on the bar and on the computer itself. But it's no longer in my startup manager in Nortons and I just checked msconfig and there's no longer an option there either...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


My Computer:
iBuyPower CZ-17 Valkyrie Notebook
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (Anytime Upgrade from 7 Home Premium)
32GB RAM
KillerAtheros e-2200 Card
MS Office 2007 Ultimate
Firefox 35.x.x
Internet Explorer 10.x.x
(Not sure what else I should add here...will be installing CS5.5 Suite, Visual Studio 2013 and SQL...)

[Shane]

Most programs that start at windows startup will have a option in them to do it. In the s bar see if there is a settings area and see if you can find the start with windows option there.

I am not familiar with s-bar, do you have a link tot he program so I can check and see where the startup setting is?

As for the ctrl+f, the only time I have seen that problem has been 1 of 2 reasons.

1. Wireless keyboard, batteries are getting weak so not picking up all key strokes.
2. A 3rd party program that is hooking the keyboard and not letting all the key presses go through.

Best way to test is in safe mode with networking and try firefox and see how it does, If it does fine there then you know it is a 3rd party program causing the problem.

Shane

[ComputerJunkie]

Hi Shane,

S-Bar is one of those "hot key" bars or whatever you call it that MSI uses for some special buttons at the top of the laptop keyboard: F1 (put favorite program-I set mine to open Outlook), Cinema Pro (Opens Windows Media), Turbo fan (for gaming or just the laptop getting a little hot), Keyboard dimmer (blue lights on kb), Wi-Fi connector, Bluetooth connector, hibernate and open/close cd/dvd rom drive. Then there is an application at the top of your desktop that has several functions. For instance you have to use the desktop bar to activate your camera and blue tooth and so on. I do know that if it's not running, you have to do a bunch of changes to open certain things-so it's interconnected somehow. But, it's very hard to learn about it, specifically, and normally I would get it from MSI's website, but their link was not working so I did a search and found this and downloaded/installed from the link below:

http://drivers.softpedia.com/downloadTag/MSI+S-bar+2.0

A very short explanation of it lower on the page:
http://www.msi.com/product/nb/CR650GX670CR670.html#hero-overview

You know what it reminds me of? I used to have a Compaq desktop with a fancy keyboard that had all these push button keys at the top for the CD and volume and a bunch of stuff. Then when they went haywire, Compaq said to uninstall that part because everyone had more problems than good with it. And actually, I have grown to like the features of S-Bar. Once I re-installed it, it's working correctly now; and it seems this happened to me early last year, but I think that was caused by Windows updates or something-hard to remember now.

The Ctrl+F key:

I wish I had a wireless keyboard and mouse! MS quit selling the 7000 ergonomic kb/mouse model and so I just use the laptop keyboard.

Firefox doesn't like something I did. I wish I could say which option I chose that caused this and not 100% sure if it was Toolbox or something in Simple Tweaks. I am thinking maybe I should export my bookmarks and re-download/re-install it and see if it will fix it.

Man! I feel stupid now, because it would be nice if I could tell you exactly when it happened...I did keep some log files of all 3 programs but without keeping a few notes I do not know which is what anymore.

I tell you what, I will just go ahead and do a fresh install of Firefox and see if that fixes it and post back here.

But thank you so much for getting back with me.

Forgot to say: For the S-Bar, I cannot find a add to start option on the bar itself, right-clicking the tray icon, or even from right-clicking on the programs s-bar link. I even tried to drag and drop to the Startup Programs in the programs list- no go. But since it's re-installed, it's fine.

[Shane]

I use firefox all the time, the biggest problem I find with it always has to do with the add-ons. So what I would do is disable all the add ons in firefox and see how it does, in fect go one step better, in firefox go to help and then trouble shooting information. Then in the upper right hand coner you will see refresh firefox.

This area is great as you can see what add ons and what changes to the about:config have been done. That refresh firefox will put everything back to default while keeping your data

Shane

[ComputerJunkie]

Hi Shane,

I do have 2 add-ons, one I have used off and on for years- Bookmarks Checker and never had problems with it.

But the 2nd one I just started using about the same time as all this other stuff- Norton's Identity Safe and I think that could be the culprit. Because sometimes, even though I am logged into the vault and it says "Open", if I click to show my list of logins, it won't open-maybe that was causing the Ctrl+F to quit too? Anywho, I am going to take the add-on off and see how everything goes-makes sense to me.

Thanks for helping me troubleshoot this stuff; it was a great help.

[Shane]

No problem, let me know how it turns out

Shane

[ComputerJunkie]

Hi Shane,

Marking this as solved! I guess when having done the fixes the Identity Safe definitely got corrupted. Because after troubleshooting some more, my Internet Explorer quit working all together. I did some research to see there is an issue on Norton's side for that add-on. I went ahead and opened a chat with them to realize it's just time to disable that thing all together. So I am back to using my FF and IE password keepers lol

Thanks again and I shall put SOLVED on this-if I can figure out how...lol

[Shane]

Good to hear you are all set

Locking thread.

Shane