Windows Explorer Has Stopped Working...

Hey, Folks,

I have a Gateway p-1708u FX dual-booting Windows 7 x64 and x32 (there are a couple of programs I need that simply will not run in x64).

Over the last three months, I've been increasingly getting this message: "Windows Explorer has stopped working (or responding)," followed by its either restarting, or me going into Task Manager and turning it off. I've tried everything I can think of to solve the problem, from doing a variety of different virus searches (both on the computer and from a boot disc), to running scandisk (no problems) and checking the ram (same deal), to removing programs that might be the culprit, to finally reinstalling both OSes. I did the last about two months ago, but it hasn't helped.

Nothing has helped; it's continuing to give me problems, and it's especially awful on the x32 side. I've checked the Microsoft Forums, and through there have been a number of suggestions, which I've followed, MS seems to be inclined to pretend it's not a bug, and offer perfectly ridiculous solutions to the problem, which, surprise! don't do a thing.

I am at my wit's end, here; as often as not, when the problem occurs and I go into Task Manager, I find that Windows Explorer is either using between 50 and 90% of my CPU, even though only one folder is open, or that there are multiple instances of Explorer open, though most of them are using no CPU at all. I also notice that just before or at about the time that Explorer stops working, my computer's core temperature tries its best to go through the roof (my video card's temp is fine), only to drop back to a reasonable level once I close Explorer. It seems to get particularly snotty if I (try to) open more than one folder at a time, or open another folder "too soon" after I've opened or closed another one.

Any ideas about what might be causing this--and how it can be fixed--would be greatly appreciated. I'm in the middle of a couple of projects that are on a timeline, and this is really getting on my nerves.

 

grab a copy of stresslinux (google/bing is your friend) and boot/run it for 12+ hours. Should show if you've got a h/w problem or not.

Are you confident enough in your hardware skills to strip the laptop down and clean/reapply the thermal compound?

Once hardware is eliminated, you could conceivably have a persistent virus or other malware that comes in when you install the OS.

Where did you get your windows install media from? What other programs do you install after the OS is installed and where did those installers come from?

I wouldn't bother dual-booting the machine. Just run a decent virtual machine like virtualbox and then install x32 in that space for the times you need your x32 program support.

 

Sorry it took so long to get back; it's been a very busy week.

I mentioned that, among the actions I've taken with this problem, that I'd done AV scans using Kaspersky and BitDefender rescue disks. Well, when a friend had me take a look at the dates of these disks, I realized they were quite old (though they are still the disks both companies have you download). This same friend suggested I give Avira's rescue disk a try, as they update it several times a day, just as they do with their onboard AV program.

I downloaded the rescue disk ISO, found a way to load it to one of my jump drives, ran it, and... wow. Avira found SIX different trojans that Kaspersky and BitDefender's disks ignored completely, including a lovely little backdoor number. Three of them came with a program that I bought through a "reputable" internet marketer. Because I didn't have it set to automatically delete the files involved, Avira simply renamed them so that I could look them over and delete them at my leisure.

Since then, the problem has pretty much gone away; I've only had one or two incidents of Explorer going south on the x64 side, even though I'm simultaneously building a website and putting together a video, something that involves using three or more CPU-intensive programs. I still need to run the x32 side of the computer. It's been sadly neglected while I work on these projects.

I will still run syslinux to make sure there's nothing hinky going on with the hardware, and considering the nature of backdoor trojans, I'll also likely strip both OSes, nuke my hard drives, then reload them when I have the chance. In the meantime, though, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome of using Avira's rescue disk. l will definitely run it again prior to doing a thorough back up when I set about reloading my OSes.

By the by: I'm not dual-booting on a single disk; the P-7805u FX has space for two hard drives, and I bought and inserted the second one almost as soon as I got the computer. I have each drive booting to the different versions of Windows 7, since I didn't want to connect them and can access files from either side if I need to, regardless of which version of 7 I'm using at the moment.

The lesson in all of this seems to be that if you're going to use a rescue disk to do an AV scan (and I highly recommend it, since no one AV seems to catch everything), use one that gets updated more than every six months to a year.

 

Explorer crashes are almost always caused by funky shell extensions, not by Explorer itself. Check your event log, and see if the error messages accompanying the Explorer crashes identify the DLL that causes the crash, then we can go from there.

 

Well, now I've apparently pissed it off.

I've been opening and closing folders all day, transferring downloaded items (yes, they're all legal) from one to the other. Suddenly, I'm getting the "Windows Explorer has stopped working/is not responding." When I open Task Manager there are no fewer than 10 instances of explorer still open, with two of them using up 100% of the CPU. I close them all, but now I can't get into any two folders at once without Explorer going ape-sh*t. Which is a new problem.

The messages with these crashes, according to the Event Viewer, are as follows:

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Hang
Date: 9/28/2011 5:54:25 PM
Event ID: 1002
Task Category: (101)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: MrFitzwilliamD
Description:
The program explorer.exe version 6.1.7601.17567 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.
Process ID: 12b0
Start Time: 01cc7e41bb387292
Termination Time: 35
Application Path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Report Id: 90e47075-ea35-11e0-a7c6-001d72ec5617

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Application Hang" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1002</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>101</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2011-09-29T00:54:25.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>6850</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>MrFitzwilliamD</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>explorer.exe</Data>
<Data>6.1.7601.17567</Data>
<Data>12b0</Data>
<Data>01cc7e41bb387292</Data>
<Data>35</Data>
<Data>C:\Windows\explorer.exe</Data>
<Data>90e47075-ea35-11e0-a7c6-001d72ec5617</Data>
<Binary>55006E006B006E006F0077006E0000000000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

And includes the information:

Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Winlogon
Date: 9/28/2011 5:54:25 PM
Event ID: 1002
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: MrFitzwilliamD
Description:
The shell stopped unexpectedly and explorer.exe was restarted.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Winlogon" Guid='{DBE9B383-7CF3-4331-91CC-A3CB16A3B538}' EventSourceName="Winlogon" />
<EventID Qualifiers="16384">1002</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2011-09-29T00:54:25.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>6849</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution Processid='0' Threadid='0' />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>MrFitzwilliamD</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>explorer.exe</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

This seems to be happening when I try to get into my folders--any folder. Or more to the point, any two folders at once, or any one too soon after I get out of another. The other programs don't seem to be impaired by it