Photos will not open and cause Windows Explorer to shut down.

[Guest]

Please help! My wife is so frustrated! Her laptop has suddenly developed
this problem where she cannot view thumbnails of her *.jpg pictures, or
sometimes even open the folder where the pictures are kept, without crashing
Windows Explorer. There is an error that references trying to access a
memory location that could not be "read", but there are no options for
continuing on to open the pictures. It's crash or nothing.

This problem just started. She has had this laptop since November last year
with no picture problems before now. Her laptop is a Toshiba M115-S3094 with
Windows XP Media Center 2005. The picture files were associated to Adobe
Photoshop, but I changed the association to Windows Picture and Fax Viewer
with no change in the end results. Explorer still crashes.

I cannot get the picture files to open from an Explorer window, let alone
get the Explorer windows to stay open, and this problem is not occurring on
other file types.

Any suggestions? I am suspecting the thumbnail creation process, or maybe
the "thumbs.db" file located in each folder (hidden).

Help me help my wife!!

 

[John Inzer]

Please help! My wife is so frustrated! Her laptop has suddenly
developed this problem where she cannot view thumbnails of her *.jpg
pictures, or sometimes even open the folder where the pictures are
kept, without crashing Windows Explorer. There is an error that
references trying to access a memory location that could not be
"read", but there are no options for continuing on to open the
pictures. It's crash or nothing.

This problem just started. She has had this laptop since November
last year with no picture problems before now. Her laptop is a
Toshiba M115-S3094 with Windows XP Media Center 2005. The picture
files were associated to Adobe Photoshop, but I changed the
association to Windows Picture and Fax Viewer with no change in the
end results. Explorer still crashes.

I cannot get the picture files to open from an Explorer window, let
alone get the Explorer windows to stay open, and this problem is not
occurring on other file types.

Any suggestions? I am suspecting the thumbnail creation process, or
maybe the "thumbs.db" file located in each folder (hidden).

Help me help my wife!!

=================================
Maybe the following steps will stop the crashing.

1) Open a folder that contains .jpg files...

2) Right click a .jpg file and choose Properties...

3) Click the Photoshop Image tab...

4) Uncheck the "Generate Thumbnails" button...

5) Click OK...

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Jim]

Please help! My wife is so frustrated! Her laptop has suddenly developed
this problem where she cannot view thumbnails of her *.jpg pictures, or
sometimes even open the folder where the pictures are kept, without
crashing
Windows Explorer. There is an error that references trying to access a
memory location that could not be "read", but there are no options for
continuing on to open the pictures. It's crash or nothing.

This event can be caused by faulty memory, and it is fatal (continuing is
not possible). You should try running one such as
the often mentioned memtest86. Sorry, that name may be incorrect. You
should search
for "memory test", and you will surely find lots of hits.
Jim

 

[John Lewis]

I am having the exact same problem with a system I have. There are quite a few photos on the machine and certain directories shut down explorer when they are opened. I can't seem to figure out what is going on. Anyone have any suggestions?