Windows XP Start Menu Going all Black

For 4 years now i've had problems with my Windows XP machines at home and at work. When I clicked on the start button, sometimes the pannel would crash making the left hand side of it all blackened with no icons, “all programs” would not work anymore, and the menus on the right hand side (admin tools ,etc) would not expand anymore. The only solution I found was to restart the computer...
 
This could happen as many as 3 times a day. With all the mods I have on my PC (which really looks more like a Mac), I thought it was just the price to pay.
 
I found out today from a random site that the logitech QuickCam drivers did that! I unistalled them and voila.
 
Now my PC works almost as well as a Mac :).
 
posted on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 5:18 PM by steventap

Comments

# re: Windows XP Start Menu Going all Black

How did you find out that this was the problem? I suspect the same thing as I recently installed a Logitech camera and have been having this black start menu problem.

I want to keep the camera and get rid of the probelm... any ideas?
Wednesday, November 30, 2005 1:11 PM by Money Penny

# re: Windows XP Start Menu Going all Black

I started having this problem about 3 years ago and the successive driver releases did not fix it. I tried it with 3 logitech cams too.
I found a few posts on the logitech forums about it:
http://forums.logitech.com/pe/forums/displaypost.jsp?postID=10151434
http://forums.logitech.com/pe/forums/displaypost.jsp?postID=10131973

But Logitech hasn't fixed it yet... it's a shame because they make really good webcams...

Thursday, December 01, 2005 1:25 PM by Steven Tapping

# re: Windows XP Start Menu Going all Black

Problem with Start Menu going black due to Logitech webcam?

Sort of found a way to fix it. I too had a problem about Start menu going all black due to Logitech webcam. I wanted to keep the cam, but it was annoying to see that black menu kept coming back. So... I did an experiment to trigger the problem. It took several trial test to pin point where exactly the problem triggered.

For me, I had the Start menu configured so that the control panel is not a button, instead it is a drop-down list (menu of a control panel). The black start menu is triggered everytime I mouse over the "Control Panel" to display a menu and took mouse off of that back and forth. Voila black menu came back.

My solution was to change the Start Menu to not have control panel as a menu item.

Solution that worked for me:

-- Right-click on the task bar
-- Clark on Properties
-- At the top, click the tab, "Start Menu"
-- Click the button, "Customize"
-- At the top, click the tab, "Advanced"
-- You will see, "Control Panel"
----- Select the, "Display as a link"
-- Click "OK" and that's it.

Hope that helps. I know this isn't exactly a solution, but more of a work-around.

Please let me know if this worked for you.

Cheers,
Deaf Dude
Thursday, August 17, 2006 4:22 PM by Deaf Dude

# re: Windows XP Start Menu Going all Black

Steven,

I have a Logitech Quickcam Fusion webcam, and have also experienced the Start Menu intermittently going all black, exactly as you describe. When this happens, I also cannot expand any of the menu items in the right-hand panel of the start menu (e.g. Favorites, My Recent Documents, Control Panel); clicking "Run" opens a dialogue box saying "Windows cannot create a shortcut here"; and my Quick Launch bar resizes on its own, with the icons being displayed in a different order. After rebooting -- which temporarily solves the problem, if only for a short while -- running the mouse cursor repeatedly over the expandable menu items will, once again, cause the black/not able to expand phenomenon. I tried Deaf Dude's solution of changing the Control Panel to a link (rather than an expandable menu item) and it has solved the problem. As he said, this is more of a workaround than a solution. I notice the links in the Logitech forums that you posted no longer work, so I'm wondering whether you have an update to any of this, and whether you know if Logitech has fixed this issue in it's latest drivers and software? I can't seem to find anything in the new forums on this topic.
Monday, November 27, 2006 4:53 PM by Les K

# re: Windows XP Start Menu Going all Black

Just wanted to say thank you for figuring this out. I was afraid I had some kind of virus. Let me know if you find a solution. Has anybody tried to pressure Logitech? Thanks.
Thursday, February 01, 2007 2:28 PM by Original Sin

# re: Windows XP Start Menu Going all Black

I also began suffering from the same problem as described by everyone else, but mine just started happening recently when I updated the driver. I went back to version 8.2.0 and I haven't had it go black on me yet. I uploaded the older version here. http://putstuff.putfile.com/72797/3658578
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 3:22 PM by s0lice

# THANKYOU SO MUCH!

This just happened to me again ... I decided to google it for the 50th or so time this year and it led me here... I've uninstalled the software but kept the drivers, moused over control panel over and over and over and it doesn't happen anymore!!

So I don't get the software... but it still works in MSN and My Computer, and I still get my menu instead if a link for the control panel :)
Monday, June 25, 2007 6:49 PM by Aaron

# re: Windows XP Start Menu Going all Black

the same happened to me yesterday, after I installed some updates to winXP.
It kept happening all the afternoon, until I cleared the recent program list (right click on start, properties,customize, general tab, clear.

I did not happen anymore, since then. hope it helps.
Thursday, July 12, 2007 9:06 AM by pomarc

# re: Windows XP Start Menu Going all Black

Thank you for figuring this out! It has been driving me absolutely nuts for over a year now!!!One less annoyance!
Saturday, September 08, 2007 7:51 AM by Green Eyed Mosnter

# re: Windows XP Start Menu Going all Black

Thanks for posting this, I didn't know what the cause was either.

FWIW, there if your start menu goes black there is another work around that's much quicker than rebooting. Simply open task manager and kill the process named "explorer.exe". Then start it again manually from within the task manager by selecting "File/New Task" and typing "explorer".

In earlier versions of Windows explorer automatically restarted, but I don't think it does in XP.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 7:55 PM by Shane

# re: Windows XP Start Menu Going all Black

Okay, well I had the same problem. All I had to do was add one item to the quick program select thing (the few programs on the top left side of the start menu).

I didn't want the item there, so I deleted it right after. The blackness went away =]
Monday, September 15, 2008 1:13 AM by chomps268