Windows Explorer Driving Me Nuts!

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by kevalin, May 2, 2011.

  1. kevalin

    kevalin MDL Novice

    Jun 19, 2010
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    Hey, Folks,

    I'm on a Gateway P7805u FX with no overclocking, extra ram or anything else. Until recently, it was running beautifully, and until night before last, was only mildly annoying. That is to say, Internet Explorer would periodically stop working for no apparent reason, requiring me to close it and start it back up.

    Over the last few weeks, however, the computer has often run slow enough that I did several (and several kinds of) virus scans to make sure there wasn't something hijacking the system. They've all come up clean, whether they've been online scans, scans from within the system (Nod 32 and Malwarebytes), or through a bootable disc (both Kaspersky and BitDefender).

    Night before last, things got completely out of hand: "Windows Explorer has quit working" seemed to be popping up 10 minutes. At that time, I did a complete strip and reinstall of the OS (W7 x64). Things froze up right from the beginning, but it got really bad when I updated Java, so I uninstalled it. I also updated NVidia's latest driver, but don't know if it's had a negative effect or not.

    Unfortunately, that hasn't helped. Not only is Windows Explorer prone to quit suddenly, but now it sometimes hangs when I try to open folders. The window opens, but it goes into a "search state", and doesn't show me the files in the folder unless I log off then log back on. That is, if it doesn't freeze to the point where I have to do the five-second sledgehammer to turn off the computer.

    Out of desperation, and because the fan seems to me to be running medium high during most of this, I installed GPU-Z and SpeedFan, following the advice of a thread on this forum. At this very moment, with the browser on and nothing else, the GPU temperature is ranging between 48-53C; the CPU numbers are as follows:

    GPU: 49C
    HD0: (the one that's running) 53C
    HD1: 51C
    Temp1: 61C
    Temp2: 60C
    Core 0:53C
    Core 1: 53C

    These temperatures drop or rise a degree or so every few seconds, but as I freely admit to having no clue of what they signify, I don't know if that’s good or bad.

    Any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated; I've googled "Windows Explorer has stopped working and tried several of the suggestions. I even turned off most of the shell extensions using a program called Autorun, since it initially seemed to happen when I messed with the right-click context menus, but it hasn't helped.

    So, is something mechanical at fault? Is this something I can remedy with... I can't imagine what? This is my work computer, so I really need some answers as soon as possible.
     
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  2. zahnoo

    zahnoo MDL Senior Member

    Feb 2, 2011
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    #2 zahnoo, May 2, 2011
    Last edited: May 2, 2011
    First, and immediately, backup all you data.

    Temps don't look to be causing any problems. If by "complete strip" you mean you wiped the disk I'd think you may have a damaged (or dirty) installation disk or your drive may be faulting. Generally a complete drive wipe and reinstall fixes everything. Do you have a system image you can restore?
     
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  3. kevalin

    kevalin MDL Novice

    Jun 19, 2010
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    Hi, zahnoo,

    Thanks... and yes, with the exception of a few things I've added since I reinstalled, and as those things are all in the photo variety, I can easily update the few folders that might need help.

    I've used this installation disk before, but now that I think about it, it was not the original RTM disk I used when I originally loaded 7 on my computer (I prefer the RTM version because, whatever people say, my observation is that MS did indeed make other changes between it and the Retail release, and the Retail release is buggier). Perhaps I'll see if I can find a different RTM than what I had (my original RTM disappeared) and see if it makes a difference. Also, I'm going to give my fans a good cleaning. Turns out they're an absolute travesty.
     
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  4. starams5

    starams5 MDL Member

    Feb 5, 2010
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  5. kevalin

    kevalin MDL Novice

    Jun 19, 2010
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    Happily, it appears that a registry change and good fan cleaning may have done the trick... especially the good fan cleaning. Over 24 hours with some fairly heavy context menu use, and no "Windows Explorer has stopped working," notice.

    We'll see how it goes, but thanks, all for your help and suggestions. Should things go southish again, I'll give a look to taking more drastic measures.
     
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