HELP: The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Russell
  • Start date Start date
R

Russell

I noticed my computer was starting to slow up when I opened folders up. So I
made more room on my hard drive by deleting personal files ( ONLY deleted
personal files, no system items where touched). Then yesterday I got a
message I've never seen before. It said something like Windows needs to
increase the virtual memory with a yellow warning triangle in my tray. Since
then, my computer will blink and return to the desktop.
I've found this notation in Event Viewer:
Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1002
Date: 2/1/2004
Time: 4:22:49 PM
User: N/A
Computer: RUSSELL-NYDWHA7
Description:
The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Thank you,
Russell
 
I noticed my computer was starting to slow up when I opened folders up. So I
made more room on my hard drive by deleting personal files ( ONLY deleted
personal files, no system items where touched). Then yesterday I got a
message I've never seen before. It said something like Windows needs to
increase the virtual memory with a yellow warning triangle in my tray. Since
then, my computer will blink and return to the desktop.
I've found this notation in Event Viewer:
Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1002
Date: 2/1/2004
Time: 4:22:49 PM
User: N/A
Computer: RUSSELL-NYDWHA7
Description:
The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Thank you,
Russell
Click to expand...

Russell.

How long between computer restarts? Some applications leak memory,
and the only way to get the memory restored to availability is to
restart the computer. I recommend a restart weekly at least, daily
for high use, high criticality computers.

See what applications are running when this high virtual memory
utilisation is happening. Start Task Manager. Ensure Show tasks from
all users is checked. View - Select Columns - check Virtual Memory
Size. Now sort the list by VM Size (click on the column header).
Anything show up at the top of the list?

Check for parasites - spyware and viruses. Run multiple checks - no
product will catch everything. Check regularly and religiously.

For an online virus check:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

For spyware checking, use Spybot S&D, HijackThis, and expert advice at
SWI Forums (all free). See this article for instructions (follow
instructions):
http://216.180.233.162/~swicom/forums/index.php?showtopic=5187
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=5187

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
 
It's not a restart, more like a "redraw". Everything disappears except for
the wallpaper, then after several seconds, everything reappears except for a
couple of icons in my tray. This happens even after a clean reboot. I check
for spywware and viruses all the time, I'm clean. Will a "restore" help?
Russell
 
Russell said:
I noticed my computer was starting to slow up when I opened folders
up. So I made more room on my hard drive by deleting personal files (
ONLY deleted personal files, no system items where touched). Then
yesterday I got a message I've never seen before. It said something
like Windows needs to increase the virtual memory with a yellow
warning triangle in my tray. Since then, my computer will blink and
return to the desktop. I've found this notation in Event Viewer:
Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1002
Date: 2/1/2004
Time: 4:22:49 PM
User: N/A
Computer: RUSSELL-NYDWHA7
Description:
The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Thank you,
Russell
Click to expand...

You may have way too many programs/processes running in the background.
Since you say this is a relatively new problem, do the generic
troubleshooting: 1) scan with current antivirus ("current" means a
version not earlier than 2002 but using updated virus definitions); 2)
remove spyware with Spybot Search & Destroy (www.security.kolla.de) and
Ad-aware (www.lavasoftusa.com). Be sure to update these programs before
running, and it is a good idea to do virus/spyware scans in Safe Mode;
3) delete temporary and Temporary Internet Files; 4) stop unnecessary
services/programs from starting with Windows - see www.blackviper.com
for services info and www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm for
programs info.

After you know the computer is clean, if you are still having problems
please repost. Include information about your system and what you've
already done to troubleshoot.

Malke
 
It's not a restart, more like a "redraw". Everything disappears except for
the wallpaper, then after several seconds, everything reappears except for a
couple of icons in my tray. This happens even after a clean reboot. I check
for spywware and viruses all the time, I'm clean. Will a "restore" help?
Russell
Click to expand...

Russell,

A "redraw" as you call it sounds like a video driver problem. See if
there's a newer video driver for your computer.

Would still be interesting to see if this is related to what's running
at the time. Try Task Manager (as explained above), or better yet,
Process Explorer (free) from <http://www.sysinternals.com/>.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
 
It's not a restart, more like a "redraw".
Click to expand...

The shell restarting as mentioned in Event Viewer means that Explorer
crashed. A builtin failsafe loads it again so what you saw was a sort of
"soft restart." Something is crashing Explorer. Will cast my vote with
Malke that it is probably something running - perhaps, a background
program. Spyware or other malware are possible suspects too.
 
Back
Top