windows explorer hangs

[kakii]

Windows XP Pro SP3
Scan for malware made with NOD32 online AV-scanner - no findings
All disks scanned for errors in file system - no finding

Problem description:
1. Windows (explorer.exe) hangs in following situations:
- windows search completes
- windows search stopped by user
- copying a file from any folder to desktop by dragging the file icon
from opened windows explorer to desktop
- right-click on icon of any file
2. The hang-up of windows explorer occurred one time also in following
situtation
- user log-in procedure, desktop gets visible, system tray shows
some apps, nod32 av gui starts to system tray
3. No every one attempt of the above operations leads to the hang-up.
Most attempts complete without hang-up
4. Problems present also with personal firewall and av solution being
disabled

What could be the reason?
Any proposal for further debugging?

Thanks in advance

 

[Gerry]

Is the system over dependent on using the pagefile?

How much RAM?

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?

How long is it since you last ran Disk Defragmenter?

Are you carrying out necessary preliminaries before you run Disk
Defragmenter ? Firstly you need to compact your Outlook Express files.

In Outlook Express place the cursor on Local Folders and select File,
Work Offline followed by File, Folder, Compact All. Do not attempt to
interupt or stop the process until it has completed. Close Outlook
Express when it has completed. As an aside your Outlook Express folders
are too large and you will encounter folder corruption and loss of
messages if you do not take measure to resolve that situation.

Next you need to run Disk Clean Up.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

A better programme than Disk CleanUp is cCleaner but note that cCleaner
will not handle System Restore points. Removing older restore points
should help get Disk Defragmenter to work better.
http://www.ccleaner.com/download

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[db]

I would test the issue in safe
mode.

if safe mode pans out to be
stable,

then you might try a clean
boot and relieve normal mode
of third party startups that is
likely the cause for the poor
performance you are experiencing.

--
db·´—`·...¸><)))o>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @Hotmail.com
- nntp Postologist
~ "share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[kakii]

Commit charge, total, limit and peak respectively
275808, 4955488, 286500

mem usage, peak mem usage, virtual mem
ekrn 47532 83876 43268
explorer 22788 22788 13656
SbPFSvc 19132 23348 15688
SVchost 17980 22464 11096
TrueImageMonitor 8736 10324 6556
SbPFCl 7136 7296 3724
searchindexer 6904 14612 15368

ekrn - nod32 av scanner
SbPF... - sunbelt kerio personal firewall
TrueImage... - Acronis True Image

Disk defragmentation done some weeks ago - as an attempt to solve these
probs.
Generally disk defragmetation carried out on periodical base.

OE and IE never been in used due to 3rd party mail client and
web browser. Therefore just after windows installation both
oe and ie disabled and theirs cache&Co preferences set to ZERO.

System restore also not in use for several years due to 3rd party
backup solution. Today temporarily enabled to see if old restore points
still present. System restore calender doesn't allow me to navigate
to other month than Dec 2010. Restore points list presents only one topic.

Disk clean-up tried using the windows on-board utility - no help.

As the next I will try as db proposes it in the next mail.

Thanks

 

[Gerry]

You omitted to mention the amount of RAM installed so I cannot interpret
the commit charge figures. Please advise RAM.

Task Manager mentions searchindexer. This is Windows Search, which is
built into Vista but an optional extra for Windows XP. Windows Search is
known to create problems and does work with Windows Explorer. You should
investigate whether this is causing Windows Explorer to hang.

My primary computer has Windows XP without Windows Search. I have
deliberately not installed Windows Search because I greatly prefer the
existing search facility in Windows XP to that in Vista. However, others
prefer Windows Search. It all depends on what you use the search
function for.


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[kakii]

Sorry for missing specs
2GB RAM
716 MB swap file on system partition
2.8 GB swap file on special hdd (a disk dedicated for swap file)

That with windows search was one of my attempts to solve the probs.
Because one of failure situation is usage of file search, I did want
to see if new windows search helps to omit the issue.
This new windows search is installed for a few weeks.
Generally indexing service is off and files indexing attributes are
reset on all partitions from the system installation on.