Windows Explorer has stopped working

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tae Song
  • Start date Start date
T

Tae Song

Anyone having this problem? Windows Explorer has stopped working and then
closes and restarts. It doesn't happen initially after booting up. But
after a short period of usage like 3-10 mins, every time I open up Explorer
or Control Panel, Windows Explorer crashes and has to restart.
 
Tae said:
Anyone having this problem? Windows Explorer has stopped working and then
closes and restarts. It doesn't happen initially after booting up. But
after a short period of usage like 3-10 mins, every time I open up
Explorer or Control Panel, Windows Explorer crashes and has to restart.
Click to expand...

Look in Event Viewer for clues. Also check out Vista's built-in
troubleshooting tools.

Built-in Diagnostics -
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/builtindiagnostics.mspx

Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor (TechNet) -
http://tinyurl.com/2mlbws

Event Viewer How To (TechNet) - http://tinyurl.com/2jejzc

Report back with what you find/results.

Malke
 
Tae Song said:
Anyone having this problem? Windows Explorer has stopped working and then
closes and restarts. It doesn't happen initially after booting up. But
after a short period of usage like 3-10 mins, every time I open up
Explorer or Control Panel, Windows Explorer crashes and has to restart.
Click to expand...

I've seen it from time to time when mal-formed media files were present on
the harddrive, especially video files, or if there was a problem with an
installed CODEC. Also, just lately, there is an apparent conflict when both
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 and C++ 2005 redistributables are installed at the
same time, which causes random Explorer restarts. In that scenario playing
media files also seems to be implicated in causing the Explorer crash, or
possibly switching between different players. Removing one or the other C++
redistributable solves the problem, at least until some 3rd party software
update/installer re-installs the second C++ version again.
 
I downloaded ShellExView and disabled Video Thumbnail Extractor and it seems
to have stopped crashing Windows Explorer.

It's possible there is a mal-formed media file or bad codec on the hard
drive, but you would think that would be taken into account and MS would
make Explorer more fault tolerant. I think it more likely it is buggy code
in the way Explorer handles media metadata.
 
That solution is pretty much the same as was prescribed to fix the same
issue in XP. I prefer to isolate then either repair or delete the culprit
file. Not so sure about building in fault tolerance for malformed files. I'd
rather have Explorer crash than something worse happening after the file is
opened. OTOH a user friendly warning pop-up like "This file is FUBAR,
Quarantine or Delete?" would be more to my liking.
 
RalfG said:
That solution is pretty much the same as was prescribed to fix the same
issue in XP. I prefer to isolate then either repair or delete the culprit
file. Not so sure about building in fault tolerance for malformed files.
I'd rather have Explorer crash than something worse happening after the
file is opened. OTOH a user friendly warning pop-up like "This file is
FUBAR, Quarantine or Delete?" would be more to my liking.
Click to expand...

Bluetooth is also causing a problem, but I think it's Broadcom's WIDCOMM
software/driver.
 
Really not trying to cause trouble. Just curious if that might be related to the problem. For example if removing that stopped the crashing, then you would definitely want to look for an updated version. =\

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--\


I have problems with Broadcom's WIDCOMM 6.1 and SP2 Bluetooth support. I think it's mainly on Broadcom's side, but I can't use BT anymore without Explorer stop working and restarting.
 
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