explorere.exe not responding

[Guest]

An XP Home Edition desktop (explorer.exe) stops responding about 5 seconds
after the tool bar appears (both in normal boot mode & safe mode). At first
I suspected adware/spyware, but after several Spybot scans, explorer still
hangs. I've also gotten as far to run a disk cleanup, but the symptoms
remain.

Getting this far was an effort. If I am not able to find and start a
program in this 5 second time frame, no programs will launch. There will be
no response from the toolbar or desktop icons. Task manager will work and I
am able to logoff and restart the cpu from this point, but that is all the
functionality I can get. The next steps I am going through are a defrag and
chkdsk. I don't want to re install XP unless absolutely necessary, but I'm
wondering if I have a corrupt explorer.exe.

Any thoughts?

 

[Guest]

Try the options to recover XP on this page, starting from the easiest and
then going on to the more involved options:

http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/RecoveringXP.htm

Eric,
PC Buyer Beware!
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/

 

[Malke]

An XP Home Edition desktop (explorer.exe) stops responding about 5
seconds
after the tool bar appears (both in normal boot mode & safe mode). At
first I suspected adware/spyware, but after several Spybot scans,
explorer still
hangs. I've also gotten as far to run a disk cleanup, but the
symptoms remain.

Getting this far was an effort. If I am not able to find and start a
program in this 5 second time frame, no programs will launch. There
will be
no response from the toolbar or desktop icons. Task manager will work
and I am able to logoff and restart the cpu from this point, but that
is all the
functionality I can get. The next steps I am going through are a
defrag and
chkdsk. I don't want to re install XP unless absolutely necessary,
but I'm wondering if I have a corrupt explorer.exe.

From your description of the problem, it appears that your computer is
not clean. Spybot Search & Destroy is a good program, but it is not an
antivirus (you do have a current version av with updated definitions,
yes?) nor is it sufficient alone to remove stubborn malware. Go through
these general malware removal steps systematically:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

You will note that you should do all work in Safe Mode. If you are not
able to work with the machine even in Safe Mode, take it to a
professional computer repair shop (not your local version of
BigStoreUSA).

Malke

 

[Malke]

An XP Home Edition desktop (explorer.exe) stops responding about 5
seconds
after the tool bar appears (both in normal boot mode & safe mode). At
first I suspected adware/spyware, but after several Spybot scans,
explorer still
hangs. I've also gotten as far to run a disk cleanup, but the
symptoms remain.

Getting this far was an effort. If I am not able to find and start a
program in this 5 second time frame, no programs will launch. There
will be
no response from the toolbar or desktop icons. Task manager will work
and I am able to logoff and restart the cpu from this point, but that
is all the
functionality I can get. The next steps I am going through are a
defrag and
chkdsk. I don't want to re install XP unless absolutely necessary,
but I'm wondering if I have a corrupt explorer.exe.

From your description of the problem, it appears that your computer is
not clean. Spybot Search & Destroy is a good program, but it is not an
antivirus (you do have a current version av with updated definitions,
yes?) nor is it sufficient alone to remove stubborn malware. Go through
these general malware removal steps systematically:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

You will note that you should do all work in Safe Mode. If you are not
able to work with the machine even in Safe Mode, take it to a
professional computer repair shop (not your local version of
BigStoreUSA).

Malke