Windows explorer constantly frozen

[ryan.externaldrive2]

I do not know what is wrong. My computer (which has been running Win
XP SP2 fine for ~3 months) is suddenly having problems. I am NOT new
to windows, or computers, and realize there is something wrong with
windows. My problem below:

This problem just appeared randomly a few days ago with no warning,
and no "fade into it". my system is actually perfectly fine, except
explorer (and only explorer) is unfathomably slow. Anything to do
with file browsing, task bar, start menu, is all hung constantly. For
short periods, it will suddenly jump to life and act normally until I
issue a command, or a random (and short) amount of time has passed,
then it will freeze again, trying to execute my command (in the event
I gave it one).

What is strange about this is the rest of the OS is acting completely
normally, and I can view all my files fine through Firefox (luckily).

Please let me know if you have ever heard of this problem and/or know
what to do.

Note: Two points of info:
A. I've noticed when I first login, it seems normal, except:
1. explorer is not started (but it's trying, and accomplishes starting
in about ~30mins.)
2. the memory consumption is ~270 megabytes, instead of the normal
idle of ~ 380 megabytes (I suspect some services that are also having
trouble because of explorer are not yet started, or are very slow to
acquire their required resources).

B: I HAVE turned off the windows imaging thing, so don't suggest that
(I just see that a lot, so don't in advance)

Once again, please help me, and thank you in advance if you have an
idea or solution. I can try to provide more info if necessary.

 

[Claymore]

I do not know what is wrong. My computer (which has been running Win
XP SP2 fine for ~3 months) is suddenly having problems. I am NOT new
to windows, or computers, and realize there is something wrong with
windows. My problem below:

This problem just appeared randomly a few days ago with no warning,
and no "fade into it". my system is actually perfectly fine, except
explorer (and only explorer) is unfathomably slow. Anything to do
with file browsing, task bar, start menu, is all hung constantly. For
short periods, it will suddenly jump to life and act normally until I
issue a command, or a random (and short) amount of time has passed,
then it will freeze again, trying to execute my command (in the event
I gave it one).

What is strange about this is the rest of the OS is acting completely
normally, and I can view all my files fine through Firefox (luckily).

Please let me know if you have ever heard of this problem and/or know
what to do.

Note: Two points of info:
A. I've noticed when I first login, it seems normal, except:
1. explorer is not started (but it's trying, and accomplishes starting
in about ~30mins.)
2. the memory consumption is ~270 megabytes, instead of the normal
idle of ~ 380 megabytes (I suspect some services that are also having
trouble because of explorer are not yet started, or are very slow to
acquire their required resources).

B: I HAVE turned off the windows imaging thing, so don't suggest that
(I just see that a lot, so don't in advance)

Once again, please help me, and thank you in advance if you have an
idea or solution. I can try to provide more info if necessary.

Hello Ryan,

You could try Process Explorer, a better alternative to Task Manager.
Leave it running and when you get a hang, see what is using up the
resources. It may give a clue.
You can get it here:

Process Explorer
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx

 

[Bruce]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @y66g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

I do not know what is wrong. My computer (which has been running Win
XP SP2 fine for ~3 months) is suddenly having problems. I am NOT new
to windows, or computers, and realize there is something wrong with
windows. My problem below:

This problem just appeared randomly a few days ago with no warning,
and no "fade into it". my system is actually perfectly fine, except
explorer (and only explorer) is unfathomably slow. Anything to do
with file browsing, task bar, start menu, is all hung constantly. For
short periods, it will suddenly jump to life and act normally until I
issue a command, or a random (and short) amount of time has passed,
then it will freeze again, trying to execute my command (in the event
I gave it one).

What is strange about this is the rest of the OS is acting completely
normally, and I can view all my files fine through Firefox (luckily).

Please let me know if you have ever heard of this problem and/or know
what to do.

Note: Two points of info:
A. I've noticed when I first login, it seems normal, except:
1. explorer is not started (but it's trying, and accomplishes starting
in about ~30mins.)
2. the memory consumption is ~270 megabytes, instead of the normal
idle of ~ 380 megabytes (I suspect some services that are also having
trouble because of explorer are not yet started, or are very slow to
acquire their required resources).

B: I HAVE turned off the windows imaging thing, so don't suggest that
(I just see that a lot, so don't in advance)

Once again, please help me, and thank you in advance if you have an
idea or solution. I can try to provide more info if necessary.

I had this problem once. It turned out that a networked pc to which I had
once mapped was no longer on the network (I had decomissioned the networked
pc). Since the pc was no longer on the network, my working pc's windows
explorer would spend lots of time trying to find it, which it never could.
And, since the pc was decomissioned, I could not disconnect the network
drive.

To test if this is your problem, disable your network connection so that
you can't hunt for any mapped drives. If the problem goes away, I suspect
this is your problem.

Next, the fix was to find every instance in my registry that pointed to the
decomissioned pc. Here's how I did that:

I donw loaded RegScanner, and looked in HKCR for anything pointing to "\\".
I found plenty that pointed to two machines that were wipped clean a while
ago. I deleted these lines in the registry, and my problem was fixed.

Let us know what you find.

HTH,
Bruce

 

[ryan.externaldrive2]

Hello Ryan,

You could try Process Explorer, a better alternative to Task Manager.
Leave it running and when you get a hang, see what is using up the
resources. It may give a clue.
You can get it here:

Process Explorerhttp://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Pro...

Thank you for your quick response. I'll see if I can find anything
wrong (it's just that the memory, and CPU usage are normal, and
minimal)

 

[ryan.externaldrive2]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @y66g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:










I had this problem once. It turned out that a networked pc to which I had
once mapped was no longer on the network (I had decomissioned the networked
pc). Since the pc was no longer on the network, my working pc's windows
explorer would spend lots of time trying to find it, which it never could.
And, since the pc was decomissioned, I could not disconnect the network
drive.

To test if this is your problem, disable your network connection so that
you can't hunt for any mapped drives. If the problem goes away, I suspect
this is your problem.

Next, the fix was to find every instance in my registry that pointed to the
decomissioned pc. Here's how I did that:

I donw loaded RegScanner, and looked in HKCR for anything pointing to "\\".
I found plenty that pointed to two machines that were wipped clean a while
ago. I deleted these lines in the registry, and my problem was fixed.

Let us know what you find.

HTH,
Bruce

Ok, I'll see if that's the problem, but I don't think I ever tried to
connect to a drive somewhere else, but the problem could quite
possibly have to do with something similar to this.

 

[ryan.externaldrive2]

Ok, I'll see if that's the problem, but I don't think I ever tried to
connect to a drive somewhere else, but the problem could quite
possibly have to do with something similar to this.

New Post:
I would still appreciate any advice, but I'm changing the priority of
mt problem from "I'm going crazy! Please help!" to "this is odd, but
oh well"

Reasoning: I found a semi-solution that's good enough for me for now
- Explorer and all file browsing used to be almost constantly locked
up, but I can get around that like this (and if you don't mind not
having a task bar, this is for you!)

First make a copy of explorer but don't do anything to it or the
original

When I boot up and log on, I kill explorer and start the copy. This
allows me, in short, to have completely functional system (and normal
speed too! ) just with no task bar and no desktop icons. But this
is actually better in my mind! I get the extra ~1cm of extra height
back the task bar was using, and I can still minimize and restore
windows normally, and I never liked all those icons cluttering my
desktop anyways!

To conclude: *My system is back and better than ever, but a little odd
(but I like it!)

To both of you who helped, thanks a alot! That task viewer is sweet!
(hard to believe micro$oft came up with it and I believe the
network is a likely problem many might have and they should consider
it for themselves. I never did actually find the cause, but I'm OK
with this (see above*).

 

[Bruce]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in

New Post:
I would still appreciate any advice, but I'm changing the priority of
mt problem from "I'm going crazy! Please help!" to "this is odd, but
oh well"

Reasoning: I found a semi-solution that's good enough for me for now
- Explorer and all file browsing used to be almost constantly locked
up, but I can get around that like this (and if you don't mind not
having a task bar, this is for you!)

First make a copy of explorer but don't do anything to it or the
original

When I boot up and log on, I kill explorer and start the copy. This
allows me, in short, to have completely functional system (and normal
speed too! ) just with no task bar and no desktop icons. But this
is actually better in my mind! I get the extra ~1cm of extra height
back the task bar was using, and I can still minimize and restore
windows normally, and I never liked all those icons cluttering my
desktop anyways!

To conclude: *My system is back and better than ever, but a little odd
(but I like it!)

To both of you who helped, thanks a alot! That task viewer is sweet!
(hard to believe micro$oft came up with it and I believe the
network is a likely problem many might have and they should consider
it for themselves. I never did actually find the cause, but I'm OK
with this (see above*).

Glad you found a suitable workaround. Let me suggest another possible,
easy fix.

Have you tried doing a system restore to point in time just before the
problem started?

Bruce

 

[ryan.externaldrive2]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in









Glad you found a suitable workaround. Let me suggest another possible,
easy fix.

Have you tried doing a system restore to point in time just before the
problem started?

Bruce

I thought of that, but two things stopped me:

1. Last time (a long time ago) I tried that for something else, it
moved files around to where they used to be (but not all of them 0_o),
and
2. I don't remember where to do that, but if I had, I don't think I
could have navigated to that point in less than ~2 hours!

but I'll give it a go and tell you what happens

 

[ryan.externaldrive2]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in









Glad you found a suitable workaround. Let me suggest another possible,
easy fix.

Have you tried doing a system restore to point in time just before the
problem started?

Bruce

I rolled it back to the 7th I think, and IT WORKS! I still don't know
what happened between then and now, but it's good, and all the files
seem to be in place. The only thing thats bad is it uninstalled RCT3
and screwed up iTunes pretty bad, but that's easily enough repaired,
and I hadn't really played it much yet anyways.