explorer.exe now consistantly crashes after XP SP2 upgrade

[D.R.]

Hi there,

I finally did it. After much debating about whether it was safe to install XP
SP2, I updated about 16 pcs in a classroom to XP SP2 today.

However, one pc which was working fine previously, now crashes everytime I try
to open My Computer or Control Panel. Here is the message:

"Add Word: Explorer.exe Application Error:
The instruction at "0x1001ca30" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The
memory could not be written"

I can't get into the Control Panel or anything. The PC was working fine until
today's update. I have done a complete virus-scan and spyware scan prior to
installing SP2.

After the error, I tried a "sfc /scannow" to see check and reinstall protected
system files. Not fixed. Explorer.exe still crashes when trying to open a
folder.

Please could someone help shed some light on this.

Am I best to use System Restore to remove SP2, or try a Repair Install with my
non-sp2 XP CDROM?

Thanks in advance.
D.R.

 

[Rock]

Hi there,

I finally did it. After much debating about whether it was safe to install XP
SP2, I updated about 16 pcs in a classroom to XP SP2 today.

However, one pc which was working fine previously, now crashes everytime I try
to open My Computer or Control Panel. Here is the message:

"Add Word: Explorer.exe Application Error:
The instruction at "0x1001ca30" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The
memory could not be written"

I can't get into the Control Panel or anything. The PC was working fine until
today's update. I have done a complete virus-scan and spyware scan prior to
installing SP2.

After the error, I tried a "sfc /scannow" to see check and reinstall protected
system files. Not fixed. Explorer.exe still crashes when trying to open a
folder.

Please could someone help shed some light on this.

Am I best to use System Restore to remove SP2, or try a Repair Install with my
non-sp2 XP CDROM?

Thanks in advance.
D.R.

Did you have DivX 5.2 installed? That creates a right click menu item
that crashes SP2, as do a few other programs. There is a fix on their
website.

 

[D.R.]

Did you have DivX 5.2 installed? That creates a right click menu item
that crashes SP2, as do a few other programs. There is a fix on their
website.

Thanks for the reply. I don't think Divx has been installed.

Right-clicking the desktop still opens the Display Properties. Opening a window,
ie clicking on "My Computer" on the taskbar causes install explorer.exe crash.
Basically I am not able to browse the harddrive.

D.R.

 

[Rock]

Thanks for the reply. I don't think Divx has been installed.

Right-clicking the desktop still opens the Display Properties. Opening a window,
ie clicking on "My Computer" on the taskbar causes install explorer.exe crash.
Basically I am not able to browse the harddrive.

D.R.

Spysweeper, phpedit and crpto something also cause that problem. If it
is a right click menu problem download a shell extension viewer,
shexview.zip from:

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/shellexview.html

When run it creates a list of all extensions. Sort it by Type and look
at the context menu grouping. Disable each non microsoft item one at
time so see if you can find the culprit.

 

[D.R.]

Spysweeper, phpedit and crpto something also cause that problem. If it
is a right click menu problem download a shell extension viewer,
shexview.zip from:

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/shellexview.html

When run it creates a list of all extensions. Sort it by Type and look
at the context menu grouping. Disable each non microsoft item one at
time so see if you can find the culprit.

Thanks, but it doesn't crash on right-click menu. Only when trying to open an
explorer window.
D.R.

 

[Rock]

Thanks, but it doesn't crash on right-click menu. Only when trying to open an
explorer window.
D.R.

Geez, all that and I misread it thinking it was a right click problem.
Sorry.

 

[D.R.]

"Add Word: Explorer.exe Application Error:
The instruction at "0x1001ca30" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The
memory could not be written"

Any takers? Google comes up with nothing.

 

[D.R.]

Any takers? Google comes up with nothing.

Actually I made my search more generic, and the Divx issue seems to affect more
than right-click menus. I will investigate this divx thing more.

 

[D.R.]

"Add Word: Explorer.exe Application Error:
The instruction at "0x1001ca30" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The
memory could not be written"

Uninstalled SP2. PC ran fine. Removed all spyware with Spybot. Divx wasn't
installed. I ran that Shell Extension viewer app and disabled non-microsoft
shell extensions. Pc run fine. Re-installed SP2 same error. Disabled DEP,
explorer crashes but now without the error. Uninstalled SP2 for a second time
and now am looking for other solutions.

Please help.
D.R.

 

[D.R.]

Uninstalled SP2. PC ran fine. Removed all spyware with Spybot. Divx wasn't
installed. I ran that Shell Extension viewer app and disabled non-microsoft
shell extensions. Pc run fine. Re-installed SP2 same error. Disabled DEP,
explorer crashes but now without the error. Uninstalled SP2 for a second time
and now am looking for other solutions.

Please help.

Ran memtest+ for a few hours. no memory issues. Computer free from viruses and
spyware. Explorer crashes every time I click on it. Can revert to SP1 and all is
ok again. Installing SP2 brings the problem back. What gives?

 

[Rock]

Ran memtest+ for a few hours. no memory issues. Computer free from viruses and
spyware. Explorer crashes every time I click on it. Can revert to SP1 and all is
ok again. Installing SP2 brings the problem back. What gives?

Sigh, I don't know what else to suggest. I am guessing it is probably
one (or more) of the shell extensions listed in the shell extension
viewer causing the problem. Another poster had a problem with it
crashing at the same memory address but when opening a folder with .avi
files. He found it was the .avi properties handler (one of the system
extensions) that was causing the problem. This is a microsoft
extension. There are so many of extensions listed, I don't know how
long it would take to go through the whole list and what other problems
would happen if you disabled one that is critical to the operation. So
at this point I don't know what to suggest.

 

[D.R.]

Sigh, I don't know what else to suggest. I am guessing it is probably
one (or more) of the shell extensions listed in the shell extension
viewer causing the problem. Another poster had a problem with it
crashing at the same memory address but when opening a folder with .avi
files. He found it was the .avi properties handler (one of the system
extensions) that was causing the problem. This is a microsoft
extension. There are so many of extensions listed, I don't know how
long it would take to go through the whole list and what other problems
would happen if you disabled one that is critical to the operation. So
at this point I don't know what to suggest.

Thanks anyways. Thanks for following it up. Cheers Rock
D.R.

 

[Don Taylor]

Sigh, I don't know what else to suggest. I am guessing it is probably
one (or more) of the shell extensions listed in the shell extension
viewer causing the problem. Another poster had a problem with it
crashing at the same memory address but when opening a folder with .avi
files. He found it was the .avi properties handler (one of the system
extensions) that was causing the problem. This is a microsoft
extension. There are so many of extensions listed, I don't know how
long it would take to go through the whole list and what other problems
would happen if you disabled one that is critical to the operation. So
at this point I don't know what to suggest.

Having read thousands of these postings it seems that a small number of
the folks with the Windows Explorer problem do find that disabling a
Shell Extension fixes it. I was disabling, testing, and re-enabling
these one at a time until I got tired of that. So I selected all 75
of them at once, 71 of them being Microsoft supplied, and disabled the
entire batch with one click. Didn't make any change in the Windows
Explorer problem in my case. So I selected all 75 of them, turned them
back on, and then had to go manually undo some of the things that get
lost if you disable and then re-enable.

You can also "divide and conquer", disable half them, try it, if it
doesn't fix it, enable them and disable the other half. There is less
certainty in this but it can save time.

But there are other explanations out there somewhere for the persistent
reports by many people of almost identical problems with Windows Explorer
post-SP2, it is just that nobody has reported what they really are or how
to really decide what the culprit is.

And my Windows Explorer still refuses all mouse clicks in anything but
Safe mode or in a bare newly created user. Nobody has thus far had a
clue about how to diagnose the real cause or the real fix.

 

[D.R.]

Having read thousands of these postings it seems that a small number of
the folks with the Windows Explorer problem do find that disabling a
Shell Extension fixes it. I was disabling, testing, and re-enabling
these one at a time until I got tired of that. So I selected all 75
of them at once, 71 of them being Microsoft supplied, and disabled the
entire batch with one click. Didn't make any change in the Windows
Explorer problem in my case. So I selected all 75 of them, turned them
back on, and then had to go manually undo some of the things that get
lost if you disable and then re-enable.

You can also "divide and conquer", disable half them, try it, if it
doesn't fix it, enable them and disable the other half. There is less
certainty in this but it can save time.

But there are other explanations out there somewhere for the persistent
reports by many people of almost identical problems with Windows Explorer
post-SP2, it is just that nobody has reported what they really are or how
to really decide what the culprit is.

And my Windows Explorer still refuses all mouse clicks in anything but
Safe mode or in a bare newly created user. Nobody has thus far had a
clue about how to diagnose the real cause or the real fix.

So does the problem not exist if you trash the profiles and create new ones?
I never tried that. What a pain if it is though.

D.R.

 

[Don Taylor]

So does the problem not exist if you trash the profiles and create new ones?
I never tried that. What a pain if it is though.

At the moment, well for the last week or two, I am still holding onto
the fantasy that if I don't just blow away everything that we MIGHT
have a chance of actually figuring out what the problem REALLY is and
thus help who knows how many other folks who are having the same problem.

 

[D.R.]

At the moment, well for the last week or two, I am still holding onto
the fantasy that if I don't just blow away everything that we MIGHT
have a chance of actually figuring out what the problem REALLY is and
thus help who knows how many other folks who are having the same problem.

Exactly. Please post back here if you discover what the fix is. I will keep
looking. Many thanks.
D.R.

 

[Guest]

I had this problem, manifesting at various times & for various reasons.Any
use of COntrol Panel or Computer Management or System Tray would
occasionsally cause the shell to hang. In response to a separate problem with
USB devices, I updated the chipset INF file which I got from Intel website,
and refreshed XP. This fixed both the USB problenm (all well in Device
Manager but no USB devices!), and appears to have sorted the SHell problem.
This may be because the INF file contained instructions for the Display
adapter as well (since this is integrated on the laptop motherboard). It may
be worth checking into display/chipset updates. Good luck

 

[Dennis]

Try to disable the Firewall service !!!
It worked for me..

Dennis

 

[Malke]

Try to disable the Firewall service !!!
It worked for me..

Dennis

Dennis, since you are not creating a Master installation and just
Ghosting all your computers, I assume that the hardware is radically
different on each computer. Is the troubled computer one you built
yourself or OEM? If so, which OEM? Post back with more details about
the system.

Malke

 

[Guest]

I am having the exact same problem. Did you ever find a solution?

I have installed SP2 in safe mode, updated drivers, checked for
viruses/spyware, run SFC /scannow, turned off DEP, no divx is installed on
the system.

Everytime I uninstall SP2 the problem goes away. I have installed it from
download and twice on disk. Nothing appears to resolve the problem.

I also ran shexview and disabled all items to no avail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.