Decrypter and Shrink hang ups

[Trial by Fire]

Hi,
'I have been ripping and burning successfully for past 3 months using Decrypter/Shrink/Nero with no problems. Very fast, good quality. I now find that when I boot up Decrypter or Shrink it fills the screen way to large and the icons on the desk top are gigantic in size. I try to read a movie and it goes down to parsing files and then freezes up. You cannot "X" out of the software, can't multitask. You cannot delete from the status bar. You have to shurt down the computer. Upon reboot the desktop is normal. However, additionally I cannot load any new software, i.e, print drivers or other software.

I'm thinking Windows XP is the culprit. I tried a utility of VCOM PC Mechanic and it did nothing to help. I have checked all the settings on both shrink and decrypter and they are all correct. BTW, 200 gb HD and 1 gb of ram with AMD 64 bit processor, Radeon 9600 video card and Sony 18A burner.
Trial by Fire

Suggestions

[jimmalenko]

Reinstall the programs ?

I'd suggest that it's not WinXP that's the culprit - more than likely some of your files are corrupted. Done a defrag lately ?

[Trial by Fire]

Thanks.

But I have defraged twice and it looks good. Did a scan disk and dumped all the temp files that were old.

I was able to burn all the movies I had on the HD so I just burned them all and deleted all the files there. The folder is wide open.

[Trial by Fire]

Addendum:
(the search for truth)

It turns out the Sony burner (Model 18A) was the main fault. It no longer would read or write CD's or DVD's. I had another burner in another computer, took it out and replaced it in computer #1 and yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus.

Also lread a log from Win Media Player that had about 30 errors, mostly plug in types and refusals to burn or read or write, etc. I'm working on that now.

Thanks for the support.

tbf