explorer.exe error and restart after opening programs.

[Guest]

This is my first time posting but I wish I had come here sooner. My computer
was running great until about a week ago. Here is my problem:

I get a fresh restart of Windows XP and everything is going fine. Then,
maybe 15 minutes go by and I'm surfing the internet or listening to music,
etc. I go to open anything; be it Ventrilo, Winamp, My Computer, Firefox,
etc...and I get an error from explorer.exe It asks if I want to Send Error
Report or just Close, I have chosen both in the past. When that dialog box
goes away, the Taskbar and my icons disappear but all my programs remain
open, the Taskbar and icons come back about 10 seconds later, only my System
Tray is missing all of its icons aside from Norton, Logitech and my Internet
Connection status.

Two days ago, my computer up and shut itself off with no preemptive warning.
It just turned off and restart. When it came back it said there was a
Hardware error but it couldn't tell me exactly what hardware had the error.
That hasn't happened again though today I had huge problems with my frame
rate in a game I was playing. I tried to download my latest drivers for my
graphics card but towards the end of the install I got another explorer.exe
error, so I'm not sure if it worked correctly or not.

A friend told me to open the computer and see if anything is overheating, so
I felt all the heatsinks inside while touching the metal to make sure not to
shock it and made sure all the fans were actually moving. Nothing was even
luke warm inside. I also tried to start the computer in Safe Mode and do a
System Restore to 4 months ago when everything was absolutely fine. I did
this 3 times and each time the computer would look like it's restoring,
restart and told me there haven't been any changes since that date (I chose
different dates each time). I'm running an Alienware Area 52 computer which
means when I bought it I got an Alienware Respawn CD which only brings it
back to when I got it from the factory, so I don't have a Windows XP CD to
reinstall Windows without formatting my entire computer.

I have run out of people to ask. Do any of you have an idea about what
might be happening, or things for me to try to alleviate my problems?

 

[maxpaster]

I gave that same problem :/

 

[Claymore]

Hello Mike,

You could start by checking the Event Viewer:

First, right-click on 'My Computer' => Properties => Advanced tab =>
'Startup and Recovery' section => Settings button => uncheck the box

'Automatically restart', and check the boxes 'Write an event to the
system log' and 'Send an administrative alert'. This will cause the
computer not to

restart automatically, but to blue screen with a message that may give
a clue to the problem.


Go to Start => Run and type in "eventvwr.msc" {without the quotes}
Look in the System folder for any errors about the time you encounter
the problem, and double-click to open them. There should be a link to
Microsoft's

online help that may give a solution.
Otherwise, you'll see a small notebook-type icon. Click this, which
will copy the error message to the clipboard. Open Notepad and paste
it in. Copy what

you get and post it here.

 

[Car Guy]

I changed the icon propertiese to plain old c:\windows \exploredr.exe and it
works fine. Buy why dowsn't it work the MS set up the icion. (I think it
refers to the root host.

--
My love of cars brings me here,

Love, the Car Guy
http://MortgageConsolidationRefinance.com (Where there's no such word as
DECLINED!)
http://SPANKtheBank.org (Legal ways to bring the bank to thier knees to
give you the loan YOU want!)

 

[Guest]

I did that and found the errors. explorer.exe shut down 3 times while doing
this. Once while opening Firefox, then when opening the Start > Run box and
then again after opening the Event Viewer. all 3 of the errors have the same
description aside from the last portion, the fault address:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 3/9/2007
Time: 2:13:16 PM
User: N/A
Computer: MICHAEL
Description:
Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2900.2180, faulting module
unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x0124640e.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 65 78 70 ure exp
0018: 6c 6f 72 65 72 2e 65 78 lorer.ex
0020: 65 20 36 2e 30 2e 32 39 e 6.0.29
0028: 30 30 2e 32 31 38 30 20 00.2180
0030: 69 6e 20 75 6e 6b 6e 6f in unkno
0038: 77 6e 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 wn 0.0.0
0040: 2e 30 20 61 74 20 6f 66 .0 at of
0048: 66 73 65 74 20 30 31 32 fset 012
0050: 34 36 34 30 65 0d 0a 4640e..


Above each of these is an Information bubble that says:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1002
Date: 3/9/2007
Time: 2:13:22 PM
User: N/A
Computer: MICHAEL
Description:
The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


I have no idea what any of this means, but it happens with every program I
go to open. The programs all open fine, but explorer.exe shuts down and
restarts every time. Also, my Windows Defender has found 3 files every time
it searches and every time I click on "Apply Action" and it says they were
taken care of, then Norton Antivirus says it removed 5 different viruses
ending in .wmf.xor but they keep coming back. Will booting in Safe Mode and
running these searches fix this problem?

 

[Claymore]

Hello again Mike,

There is an error in your Windows shell => explorer.exe file
(shell32.dll). Very serious.

Although I don't know if the cause is the viruses you're detecting,
the first thing is to take care of these. I'm no expert in virus/
trojan removal so you need to go where you can get expert help. This
is one of many forums that can assist:

http://forums.techguy.org/54-security/

Open an account with them and after you're confirmed as a member, go
back to the above page and check the link "Sticky: Security Help
Tools" for some online scans. Then post a new message (start a new
thread) and include (at least) this part of your post above:

My programs all open fine, but explorer.exe shuts down and
restarts every time. Also, my Windows Defender has found 3 files
every time
it searches and every time I click on "Apply Action" and it says they
were
taken care of, then Norton Antivirus says it removed 5 different
viruses
ending in .wmf.xor but they keep coming back.

Ask them how you would download and post a HiJackThis log.

These folks will guide you through getting rid of the malware.

Luck!