FREEZE when opening, deleting, right-click (Windows XP)

[suppenhuhn]

I'm experiencing the following strange Problem

SYMPTOM: Freeze
Most times (approx. 80% likelihood) when I try to delete a file in
(Windows) Explorer (using the DEL key), or when I right-click a file
(to view its context menu) or when I double-click a media file (in
order to open it in media player) ... then my computer freezes for
about 5-20 seconds; The corresponding (Windows) Explorer Window is
displaying 'not responding'. During this freeze the computer itsself is
not 'blocked', as I'm still able to open new Explorer Windows (from the
desktop) or to work in applications already opened (such as MS Word,
Excel etc.) Looking at the Task Manager there are no processes using
large portion of cpu time during this freeze. Neither are there any
errors listed in Event Manager I could relate to the problem above.

QUICK FIX / SOLUTION: Shutdown the service 'Workstation'
Its very meaningful how I manage to fix the problem in short term: If
I shutdown the service called ' WORKSTATION' (ex-ante), then the
mentioned freeze won't occur at all. If the 'Workstation' Service was
already running and then the freeze occurs, the moment I stop (shutdown
service) the freeze is gone and everything is fine.

THOUGHTS & GUESS: deadlocks ?
- To me it sounds like a deadlock caused by conflicting resources,
maybe cache memory. Unfortunately I cannot disable the 'Workstation'
Service constantly because my computer needs

access to other network computers (Network shares) and somehow Netbios
only works if the 'workstation' service is started.
- I have already tried to 'repair' the Windows XP (reinstall using
'repair'), but no success.
- There are no other (potentially conflicting) applications running in
the background (such as Antivirus programs)
- The computer is clean of virus and spyware


Is anyone experiencing the same symptoms or have any hints how to
resolve the problem ?
Thanks in advance for your help!

Specs: Windows XP Professional SP2 (up-to-date), 512 MB RAM, > 2GHz
Processor

 

[Jake]

I dont know if this will help but I got the same problem a few months ago.
I dont know if when you get these freezes you are online. But when I got
the same symptoms as you I was always online. I have zonealarm. When I let
"windows explorer" access the internet the freeze ups stopped.

 

[Peter Sumner]

I'm experiencing the following strange Problem

SYMPTOM: Freeze
Most times (approx. 80% likelihood) when I try to delete a file in
(Windows) Explorer (using the DEL key), or when I right-click a file
(to view its context menu) or when I double-click a media file (in
order to open it in media player) ... then my computer freezes for
about 5-20 seconds; The corresponding (Windows) Explorer Window is
displaying 'not responding'. During this freeze the computer itsself is
not 'blocked', as I'm still able to open new Explorer Windows (from the
desktop) or to work in applications already opened ....

QUICK FIX / SOLUTION: Shutdown the service 'Workstation'

....
Have you got a reference, a shortcut or an icon, to an unavailable
network resource? Sounds like a network timeout as windows tries to
resolve this.