Windows Explorer Freezes - have to use Task Manager to kill it

[TedM]

I am having a very frustrating problem with Windows Explorer freezing and
the only way to free it is to use Task Manager to kill it. I am at a point
that my PC is becoming unusable.

I am using Windows XP SP2 with all the latest updates. My PC's basic config
is:

- Motherboard - MSI 865GM3-LS Motherboard with 1GB of RAM

- Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.40GHz

- Ultra ATA-133 PCI to IDE and RAID controller from Silicon Image

I have the following disk drives attached to the PC:

- a Seagate 150GB SATA drive which is my main (Windows) drive (with two
partitions one of which is used as the "Windows XP" drive.

- a Maxtor 300GB PATA drive with two partitions one of which has "My
Documents" folders and data. This is the one that I am having Windowns
Explorer freeze on me as I try to access my folders and files. /this drive
is connected to one of the two IDE connectors on the motherboard.

- 120GB drive (Seagate or Western Digital) attached to the PCI/IDE card

- an Emprex 16X DVD+/-RW attached to separately to the other IDE connector
on the motherboard

In terms of software:

- as I mentioned above Win XP Pro SP2 with all the latest MS updates.

- I had IE 7.0 installed which I removed after reading somethings that
raised doubt in my mind that it might be causing the problems that I am
seeing. However I still have the problems, so I am guessing that it is not
the source of the problem, though I don't know if removing IE 7.0 CLEANED up
all the things it had changed, .

- I have MS Office XP

- Firefox 1.5 and later 2.0

- Symatec/Norton SystemWorks 2006 - with all the updates

The problem with Windows Explorer is caused when I try to use it to access
my files. It usually happens after a couple of clicks to navigate my folder
hierarchy. Then it just freezes and will not respond to anything except
removing it using Task Manager.

Initially I thought it was tied to one folder hierarchy, so thinking that it
might be tied to the disk, I copied it to another drive - the one on the
PCI/IDE controller card. However I still have the same problem.

Now however I have found that the problem arises with other folder
hierarchies. It intitially seemed to be happenning to one folder hierarchy
because that was the one I happened to try to access and use at the time I
was running into this problem.

I have contacted Microsoft support thinking that I might get quick
resolution to this problem but I am still waiting for help from them. Since
it was taking too long, I decided to bite the bullet and get set up on this
News Group to post and get some help.

Thanks for any Help getting this vexing problem solved,

Ted M.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Folders with avi files?

Avi files have a bug in XP. XP thinks that it has to read through every avi
file every time that you open a folder that contains any. You also get the
locked file in use when trying to delete, rename, move, etc. avi files.

See this on the fix.

How to get rid of "Locked AVI" Bug in Windows XP
http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/...w-to-get-rid-of-locked-avi-bug-in-windows-xp/

The only down side to the above fix is that when you right click an avi file
and select Properties, the Summary page will be blank or grayed out.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[TedM]

Thanks Wesley I will try this out. How does this bug manifest itself - do I
have to be in the folder which has the AVI file for Windows Explorer to
freeze. If that is so then this might not be the cause of the problem since
the folders that I am looking at don't have AVI files....

I will try out the Register fix and see if this will fix the problem, and I
will let you know how it turns out.

Regards - Ted M.

 

[TedM]

Additional Info:

Here is what I copied from the Events Log under Applications Events Log for
the event of Windows Explorer freezing. I pasted info from two related
events that were recorded in the Applications Log under Events Log just a
few minutes ago.

=============================
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 12/3/2006
Time: 8:16:52 AM
User: N/A
Computer: ComputerName
Description:
Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2900.2180, faulting module
ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.2180, fault address 0x000111e0.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 65 78 70 ure exp
0018: 6c 6f 72 65 72 2e 65 78 lorer.ex
0020: 65 20 36 2e 30 2e 32 39 e 6.0.29
0028: 30 30 2e 32 31 38 30 20 00.2180
0030: 69 6e 20 6e 74 64 6c 6c in ntdll
0038: 2e 64 6c 6c 20 35 2e 31 .dll 5.1
0040: 2e 32 36 30 30 2e 32 31 .2600.21
0048: 38 30 20 61 74 20 6f 66 80 at of
0050: 66 73 65 74 20 30 30 30 fset 000
0058: 31 31 31 65 30 0d 0a 111e0..

====================================================================

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 12/3/2006
Time: 8:16:57 AM
User: N/A
Computer: ComputerName
Description:
Fault bucket 127112966.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 42 75 63 6b 65 74 3a 20 Bucket:
0008: 31 32 37 31 31 32 39 36 12711296
0010: 36 0d 0a 6..
=====================================