Windows Explorer (file manager) freezes repeatedly

[Peter]

Hi,

I usually take good care of my system and more or less know what goes on, in
and out. If not, I can usually detect the source of problems by myself. This
time however, I am at a loss.

I use the Explorer file manager a lot, for starting and moving and handling
files on my computer between my various HDs. I have the folder pane open to
the left and the files/folders on display to the right. I do quite a lot of
file management (geek=me) and on a regular day Explorer is almost always open
and heavily used.

Since a week or so, Explorer is acting up on me though. Without any increase
in the number of files on my system it hangs/freezes very easily when I click
folders to see its contents. I used to be able to blaze through my directory
trees to the folder I wanted and visualize the contents, but now I almost
always get stuck on the way. When this happens the contents of a folder
refuses to visualize and sometimes it appears after a minute or so but most
of the time it never does and I have to shut down Explorer from the Task
Manager in order to be able to launch a new and working Explorer window.
Which may well freeze after ten seconds or minutes.

I have the impression that if I click slowly and leave a few seconds in
between clicks when going into a directory tree or moving between disks, it
freezes less often, but it will still freeze annoyingly often.

I have also noted that lately, files that I want to delete are often "being
busy, and used by the system". Even upon reboot, they remain locked and can't
be deleted. All kinds of files. Even 50Kb text files, so it can't be that
they are being defragmented and thus can't be deleted which I thought at
first.

After a couple of forced shut downs of frozen Explorer windows or maybe a
reboot or two, those files can always be deleted.

All disks are extremely well defragmented by Diskeeper 12 which is running
resident and is doing its work all the time. I am well protected from malware
and Kaspersky scans have revealed no intrusions.

I am fearing that all my harddrives (3 (with a total of 6 partitions)) are
dying simultaneously or something.

Or maybe my (admittedly weighty) Windows installation is beginning to be too
heavy and simply needs reinstalling?

Does anyone recognize these symptoms?
Is there a log where I can see why Explorer is acting up on me?

Thanks a lot!

/peter

 

[Leonard Grey]

What process uses the majority of CPU resources when the delay occurs?

Any clues from Event Viewer?

Second opinion on malware (or a third or fourth)?

 

[Gerry]

Peter

I use Windows Explorer in a similar way to you. Set out below are some
observations based on what you have said.

Accessing USB drives is slower than internal hard drives. If an internal
drive reverts to using PIO mode rather than UDMA mode the system
noticeably slows. Also if the drive has bad sectors the system can
freeze. HD Tune is a useful freeware utility to monitor hard drives.

Download and run it and see what it turns up. You want HD Tune
(freeware) version 2.55 not HD Tune Pro (not Freeware) version 3.00.
http://www.hdtune.com/

Select the Info tabs and place the cursor on the drive under Drive
letter and then double click the two page icon ( copy to Clipboard )
and copy into a further message.

Select the Health tab and then double click the two page icon ( copy to
Clipboard ) and copy into a further message. Make sure you do a full
surface scan with HD Tune.

Over heating can causes problems. Check that all fans are working.
Remove dust and hair from inside casing using Air Duster?
..
You need a minimum of 20 / 25 % free disk space on a partition for good
performance. Defragmenting without cleaning up beforehand is in my view
pointless. You need to run either Disk CleanUp or cCleaner before
defragmenting. The better utility is cCleaner but if you use cCleaner
you need to use the option on the More Options tab of Disk CleanUp to
remove all but the latest System Restore point. You can set Diskeeper
not to run continuously. You will release memory and CPU if you do so
for the benefit of other activities.

Do you have overlong file paths and overlong file names?

You need to make sure your system is free from error by regularly
checking the Application and System logs in Event Viewer for Warning and
Error Reports.

Have a look in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for
Errors and Warnings and post copies here. Don't post any more than 48
hours ago.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.Microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

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.

You need to watch to see whether your system is using the pagefile
rather than RAM.

How much RAM does the computer have? Right click on the My Computer icon
on ther Desktop and select Properties to get this information.

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?


--


Hope this helps.

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