[SOLVED] Window pops up for a split second every hour at the same time

[jdyos14]

Since a couple of days ago, every hour a window pops up at around 43 minutes past. It flashes so quickly that I don't see an actual window, but I see an icon appear and then disappear on my taskbar.

It is causing my games to minimize and for Fifa 19 it forces you to quit an online game altogether if you tab out, so this is a really annoying issue.

I remembered there was an issue a couple of years ago with a Microsoft Office task that was running every hour causing a cmd window to open, so I checked task scheduler and sorted by last run time for the last few hours this has happened, but no tasks have a run time that corresponds to the time that the window appears.

If anyone has any suggestions that would be greatly appreciated!

As a side note, I did install a new SSD and new RAM a few days ago, but I can't see that having anything to do with this; but, I might be wrong.

 

[Ralston18]

In Task Manager check what application are being launched at startup.

One of them (perhaps unwanted) may be trying to phone home, update, or backup. Failing for some reason; buggy, corrupted.

Take a look in Reliability History/Manager. It is very likely that some problem or related action is being captured at the time of the window pop-ups. May be an error code, a warning, or even just informational.

Event Viewer may likewise capturing the culprit.

 

[jdyos14]

In Task Manager check what application are being launched at startup.

One of them (perhaps unwanted) may be trying to phone home, update, or backup. Failing for some reason; buggy, corrupted.

Take a look in Reliability History/Manager. It is very likely that some problem or related action is being captured at the time of the window pop-ups. May be an error code, a warning, or even just informational.

Event Viewer may likewise capturing the culprit.

Thanks for the response.

I had been checking event viewer as well but didn't see anything, however upon checking again there was a Warning happening every hour about 30 seconds or so before the window popped up.

After searching the source of the warning (SMBCtrl) the culprit turned out to be my RGB Fusion software, as per this thread. Luckily I have an older version saved so I will revert back to using that, and now I realise why it began happening once I installed my new RAM - it is RGB ram so I updated the software to use it.

 

[Ralston18]

Look in your Event Viewer - see if there are any relevant entries therein.

Just as a matter of record for future reference if need be.

Or if you are curious about it all....