Taskbar doesn't work

[Mobius]

I've had this problem in the past, but it seems to be happening more often recently.  Whenever I try to click on an icon in the taskbar, it just starts to flash orange, and it will only be selected if I click on it a lot (like 6 or 8 times).  I also can't right click on any of the icons.  The taskbar is the only place where this seems to be happening, and it is extremely annoying, and I am hoping I can avoid throwing my computer out the window, so any help would be greatly appreciated.  Here's a picture of what it looks like in Firefox (it happens with all programs though)...



In the picture I had just opened Firefox, and I came to Simviation, and came to the forums, and I tried to click the taskbar icon for the homepage (the one on the left), but it just turned orange, so I clicked the one for the forums, but it just started flashing orange.

Thanks.

[Politically Incorrect]

Usually when a task bar icon flashes it is trying to steal focus, you will see MSN Messenger do this if someone sends a message and you don't have that window already selected.
Curious is SimV the only site this happens at? Does it only happen with websites or do you experience it with other programs?

[Mobius]

It happens with all sites, and all programs, I just used Firefox as an example.

[Politically Incorrect]

HMM odd.

Next time it happens see if you can Ctrl-Alt-Delete and enter task manager and check and see what your CPU usage is, if it is hitting 100% this will cause a major delay in anything you do and may help troubleshoot the problem by then going to processes and seeing what is sucking the life out of it.
Another possible is running out of memory.

[GeForce]

Could well be explorer hanging for one reason or another. Next time it happens, Ctrl-Alt-Del into task manager and check explorer.exe's CPU usage. If it's over about 50% then you've probably found the problem.

Jon 8-)