Windows Explorer crashes repeatedly

[Nick]

When I log in to my computer (Windows XP Professional), explorer.exe will
start up, then immediately freeze (desktop icons are unclickable, the
hourglass is displayed when I hover the mouse over the taskbar, etc.)

After about 5 minutes, Dr. Watson will open, explorer.exe will briefly shut
down, then start up again. This is repeated ad nauseam until I open the task
manager and kill the explorer.exe process.

When I run in safe mode, explorer.exe works fine. I tried a "clean boot" and
the problem persisted, so it doesn't seem to be caused by any startup
programs / services that I have installed. I ran HijackThis and the log
didn't show anything unusual either.

I realize that's unfortunately not a lot to go on... Does anybody have any
idea what I could try next, or how I could repair my Windows installation?

Thanks!

 

[Leonard Grey]

Look at Event Viewer for additional information.

 

[Nick]

This is the only thing I see in the event viewer:

The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.

Unfortunately it's a pretty vague error and I can't find much (useful)
information about it online... Maybe it's a helpful starting point, though?

 

[Leonard Grey]

No error ID?
---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

This is the only thing I see in the event viewer:

The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.

Unfortunately it's a pretty vague error and I can't find much (useful)
information about it online... Maybe it's a helpful starting point, though?

 

[Nick]

No, it shows up as "Information" in the event viewer.

I've uploaded a screenshot of the viewer here, maybe you'll spot something I
didn't ?

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9308/eventviewers.png

 

[db]

see if the issue exists
in the safe modes as
well.

if it does not crash in
safe modes, then you
might initiate a clean
boot to begin the process
of elimination.
--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- Microsoft Partner
- @hotmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~"share the nirvana" - dbZen

 

[Gerry]

Nick

Explorer.exe is constantly opening and closing i.e. the report you
hihlight is occuring every 40 seconds or thereabout. This is not normal
behaviour.

This link gives examples of how others have solved their version of the
problem. Given the unusual extra log in Event Viewer makes me wonder
whether the post by Mustapha regarding the Ace Mega codec is the cause
of your problem. Googling found a number other reports of the same
problem.
http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=1002&eventno=826&source=Winlogon&phase=1

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Nick]

Hi db,

I had booted into Safe Mode and explorer didn't crash, but when I tried
doing a clean boot (only Microsoft processes running on startup) explorer
still crashes.

 

[Nick]

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for the link - unfortunately, I think I've tried most of the
suggestions posted, but I will keep digging.

I don't believe I have the ACE codec (or anything similar) installed. I also
tried running ShellExView and disabling all of the non-Microsoft shell
extensions, but still got the same problem (unless I missed something).

The only thing I can remember doing was running the Uxtheme Multipatcher,
but I was running fine for a while after that without any crashes.

One other thing that may or may not be related - I was seeing a problem
where multiple instances of iexplore.exe (Internet Explorer) were running,
and after a few attempts I managed to get that fixed by uninstalling Internet
Explorer 8 and then reinstalling IE6 from the Windows disc (I rarely use
internet explorer, and I definitely haven't run it since this started). If I
remember right, though, this started happening pretty shortly after I
reverted to IE6.

Not sure if that's relevant or not... anyway, thanks again for the link, I
will keep digging and (fingers crossed!) hopefully find a fix.

- Nick

 

[db]

ok, well since explorer
didn't crash in safe mode,
then your windows core
files are entact.

the trick now is to figure
out what you installed
in windows that is crashing
explorer.

one thing to keep in mind
is that the file explorer depends
on two things,

indexing and memory
space.

things that would inhibit
the explorer are anti virus
scans that are trying to
scan while the explorer

or some of program that
enhances the explorer like
a file and folder size add
on.

my suggestion is to
go into add/remove and
uninstall any "search"
type programs, like
search4.0.

next disable msdefender,
if installed and disable
all your startups via the
msconfig.

then double check your
indexing service and try
cycling it to the opposite
setting for a couple of days.

for example, if indexing is
enable, then disabled
it.

after you modify the above
then reboot and take
another look at the explorer.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- Microsoft Partner
- @hotmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~"share the nirvana" - dbZen

 

[Gerry]

Nick

Watch the activity of the children of explorer.exe in Process Explorer
to see if that gives a clue, Which child is switching showing constant
activity?

Check Process Explorer and post details of the children of explorer.exe.
Tell us if you are aware of any that do not work properly.

Download Process Explorer.
For further information about Process Explorer see here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Nick]

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for the tip! I hadn't used Process Explorer before, it looks pretty
handy.

Unfortunately the only child process for explorer.exe is Dr. Watson, which
(I think I mentioned before) only pops up after explorer.exe has already died.

After explorer.exe freezes, Dr. Watson pops up, sites for a while, then
exits (turns red in Process Explorer) and explorer.exe vanishes. After a
couple of seconds, explorer.exe pops back up and the same thing happens again.

 

[Gerry]

Nick

Normally I would expect to see more children. Currently I have 10
including proc.exp. Of course on demand applications like Internet
Explorer and Process Explorer appear and disappear. Permanent features
here are my anti-virus, anti-spyware and fax software.

Have you looked in the Dr Watson log -Drwtsn32.log?
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...proddocs/en-us/drwatson_logfile.mspx?mfr=true

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Nick]

Hi Gerry,

Thanks - I found the Dr. Watson log, nothing too suspicious is jumping out
at me but maybe you will spot something I missed?

I've pasted the log entry below; I am working through Googling the listed
DLLs to see if anybody has reported a similar problem with any of them as
well.

Thanks!

Application exception occurred:
App: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe (pid=3340)
When: 6/8/2009 @ 12:51:36.206
Exception number: 80000007
()

*----> System Information <----*
Computer Name: <XXXX>
User Name: <XXXX>
Terminal Session Id: 0
Number of Processors: 2
Processor Type: x86 Family 15 Model 75 Stepping 2
Windows Version: 5.1
Current Build: 2600
Service Pack: 3
Current Type: Multiprocessor Free
Registered Organization: <XXXX>
Registered Owner: <XXXX>

*----> Task List <----*
0 System Process
4 System
760 smss.exe
812 csrss.exe
840 winlogon.exe
884 services.exe
896 lsass.exe
1080 svchost.exe
1144 svchost.exe
1312 svchost.exe
1412 svchost.exe
1480 svchost.exe
1684 spoolsv.exe
1824 svchost.exe
1932 mysqld.exe
2012 svchost.exe
192 synergyc.exe
1096 alg.exe
264 TSVNCache.exe
1336 Everything.exe
1732 ctfmon.exe
2224 salamand.exe
2408 firefox.exe
2452 thunderbird.exe
816 MultiMon.exe
2168 GoogleUpdate.exe
2300 idea.exe
3048 fsnotifier.exe
160 WinSCP.exe
1436 notepad++.exe
2860 MySQLQueryBrowser.exe
172 taskmgr.exe
3340 explorer.exe
2080 drwtsn32.exe

*----> Module List <----*
(0000000000400000 - 0000000000409000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\Normaliz.dll
(0000000000ce0000 - 0000000000d37000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\loapiripdo.dll
(0000000000e50000 - 0000000000f18000: C:\Program
Files\TortoiseSVN\bin\TortoiseSVN.dll
(0000000000f50000 - 0000000000f62000: C:\Program
Files\TortoiseSVN\bin\intl3_tsvn.dll
(0000000001000000 - 00000000010ff000: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe
(0000000001480000 - 0000000001745000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\xpsp2res.dll
(00000000018e0000 - 00000000018ee000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\eappprxy.dll
(0000000001a10000 - 00000000024a1000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ieframe.dll
(0000000002700000 - 0000000002728000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\OneX.DLL
(0000000005940000 - 000000000594e000: C:\Program
Files\TortoiseSVN\bin\TortoiseStub.dll
(0000000005960000 - 0000000005977000: C:\Program Files\Common
Files\TortoiseOverlays\TortoiseOverlays.dll
(0000000010000000 - 000000001000f000: C:\Program Files\MMTaskbar\shellhook.dll
(000000001a400000 - 000000001a532000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\urlmon.dll
(00000000478c0000 - 00000000478ca000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\dot3api.dll
(000000005ad70000 - 000000005ada8000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\UxTheme.dll
(000000005b860000 - 000000005b8b5000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\NETAPI32.dll
(000000005ba60000 - 000000005bad1000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\themeui.dll
(000000005cb70000 - 000000005cb96000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ShimEng.dll
(000000005d090000 - 000000005d12a000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\comctl32.dll
(000000005dca0000 - 000000005de88000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\iertutil.dll
(000000005fc10000 - 000000005fc43000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\msutb.dll
(0000000063000000 - 00000000630e6000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WININET.dll
(000000006ee60000 - 000000006ee8e000: C:\Program
Files\TortoiseSVN\bin\libaprutil_tsvn.dll
(000000006eec0000 - 000000006eee2000: C:\Program
Files\TortoiseSVN\bin\libapr_tsvn.dll
(000000006f880000 - 000000006fa4a000: C:\WINDOWS\AppPatch\AcGenral.DLL
(0000000071a50000 - 0000000071a8f000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSWSOCK.dll
(0000000071aa0000 - 0000000071aa8000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WS2HELP.dll
(0000000071ab0000 - 0000000071ac7000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WS2_32.dll
(0000000071ad0000 - 0000000071ad9000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wsock32.dll
(0000000071bf0000 - 0000000071c03000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SAMLIB.dll
(0000000071d40000 - 0000000071d5b000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\actxprxy.dll
(00000000736d0000 - 00000000736d6000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\dot3dlg.dll
(00000000745b0000 - 00000000745d2000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\eappcfg.dll
(0000000074720000 - 000000007476c000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSCTF.dll
(00000000754d0000 - 0000000075550000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\CRYPTUI.dll
(00000000755c0000 - 00000000755ee000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\msctfime.ime
(0000000075cf0000 - 0000000075d81000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\MLANG.dll
(0000000075f80000 - 000000007607d000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\BROWSEUI.dll
(0000000076080000 - 00000000760e5000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSVCP60.dll
(0000000076360000 - 0000000076370000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINSTA.dll
(0000000076380000 - 0000000076385000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSIMG32.dll
(0000000076390000 - 00000000763ad000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\IMM32.DLL
(0000000076400000 - 00000000765a5000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\NETSHELL.dll
(0000000076780000 - 0000000076789000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHFOLDER.dll
(0000000076980000 - 0000000076988000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\LINKINFO.dll
(0000000076990000 - 00000000769b5000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntshrui.dll
(00000000769c0000 - 0000000076a74000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\USERENV.dll
(0000000076b20000 - 0000000076b31000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ATL.DLL
(0000000076b40000 - 0000000076b6d000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINMM.dll
(0000000076c00000 - 0000000076c2e000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\credui.dll
(0000000076c30000 - 0000000076c5e000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINTRUST.dll
(0000000076c90000 - 0000000076cb8000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\IMAGEHLP.dll
(0000000076d60000 - 0000000076d79000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\iphlpapi.dll
(0000000076e80000 - 0000000076e8e000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\rtutils.dll
(0000000076f50000 - 0000000076f58000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WTSAPI32.dll
(0000000076f60000 - 0000000076f8c000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WLDAP32.dll
(0000000076fd0000 - 000000007704f000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\CLBCATQ.DLL
(0000000077050000 - 0000000077115000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\COMRes.dll
(0000000077120000 - 00000000771ab000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\OLEAUT32.dll
(00000000773d0000 - 00000000774d3000:
C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.2600.5512_x-ww_35d4ce83\comctl32.dll
(00000000774e0000 - 000000007761d000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ole32.dll
(0000000077920000 - 0000000077a13000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SETUPAPI.dll
(0000000077a80000 - 0000000077b15000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\CRYPT32.dll
(0000000077b20000 - 0000000077b32000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSASN1.dll
(0000000077b40000 - 0000000077b62000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\apphelp.dll
(0000000077be0000 - 0000000077bf5000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSACM32.dll
(0000000077c00000 - 0000000077c08000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\VERSION.dll
(0000000077c10000 - 0000000077c68000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcrt.dll
(0000000077dd0000 - 0000000077e6b000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ADVAPI32.dll
(0000000077e70000 - 0000000077f02000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\RPCRT4.dll
(0000000077f10000 - 0000000077f59000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\GDI32.dll
(0000000077f60000 - 0000000077fd6000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHLWAPI.dll
(0000000077fe0000 - 0000000077ff1000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\Secur32.dll
(0000000078480000 - 000000007850e000:
C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.VC90.CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.1_x-ww_6f74963e\MSVCP90.dll
(0000000078520000 - 00000000785c3000:
C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.VC90.CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.1_x-ww_6f74963e\MSVCR90.dll
(000000007c800000 - 000000007c8f6000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll
(000000007c900000 - 000000007c9b2000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntdll.dll
(000000007c9c0000 - 000000007d1d7000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHELL32.dll
(000000007d1e0000 - 000000007d49c000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\msi.dll
(000000007e290000 - 000000007e401000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHDOCVW.dll
(000000007e410000 - 000000007e4a1000: C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll

 

[Gerry]

Nick

Interpreting the DrWtsn32.log File to Identify Program Crash Data
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/246084

Are there any explorer.exe errors in the Event Viewer Application log or
other errors in the system log?

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.



--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~