Windows Explorer is not responding - Is SP1 the fix?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chuck
  • Start date Start date
C

Chuck

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide, and sorry in advance for
the tome. I have searched the forum but have been unable to find an issue
closely related to mine as far as I can tell.

PC:
I have a stock Dell Dimension DXPO61, 3GB Memory (RAM) (I did add 2GB when I
bought it May 2007): Intel Core 2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz, 250GB drive with 144GB
free, 32-bit Operating System (Vista Business). I have PCcillin IS 2007. I
feel I should install SP1 but I've been leery about doing so with all the
prep and precautions I've read. Maybe that’s all I really need to do.
Everything else up to date. I haven’t added any software lately that would
seem to fit a time window for the following symptoms.

Symptoms:
I have recently (since early October) been experiencing Windows (Vista
Business no SP1) Explorer hangs whenever I create or rename a subdirectory.
When it does, I cannot do anything with that window, it appears as if I
haven't hit the return key other than the pointer and wheel spinning. I
cannot open another Explorer window to work with the new or renamed
directory, as the one opened to do the renaming or creation is just hung with
the little wheel spinning. Only way to close it is through task manager. When
I do so I get "End Program - Documents" with the standard warning about
losing documents and the choice to end now or cancel. Only 'end now' works.

If I have another Explorer window opened when I rename or create a
directory, although the one that is renaming or creating hangs, I can see and
work with the change in the other explorer window. If I choose to close the
hung one through task manager, I get the "Windows Exporer is not responding"
and they both close. I've even left the hung one open and "running" for two
hours or more. Doesn't seem to be an impact on CPU usage.

If I download a file and create a subfolder to put the file in before
downloading, it hangs. I can go right back to the file and tell it to
download again, and put it in the new subfolder, but the other one is hung as
if I haven't hit the enter key to create the folder. Again, no performance
issue, other than the hung explorer window. If I right click on the recycle
bin and tell it to empty, that hangs and I get an Explorer not responding via
the task manager when I force it to close.

I have run sfc /scannow, and it said it had fixed things but not all, and
told me to go to the CBS.log file, which is 18MB. I searched and found the
only error it appears it couldn't repair is the tcpmon.ini file, which I
wouldn't expect to cause Windows Explorer to hang.

Sample error reports from the Maintenance app indicate I had 3 of these
errors in August 2007, and it began again in October 2008 and has occured
about 10 times:

Description
A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: AppHangXProcB1
Application Name: explorer.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16549
Application Timestamp: 46d230c5
Hang Signature: ad7d
Hang Type: 6208
Waiting on Application Name: SearchIndexer.exe
Waiting on Application Version: 0.0.0.0
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.6
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Hang Signature 1: 3558838a68df63747b3611f1e4d29e11
Additional Hang Signature 2: f1ed
Additional Hang Signature 3: a9638ac8c868ea3f3f2839944aafbc02
Additional Hang Signature 4: ad7d
Additional Hang Signature 5: 3558838a68df63747b3611f1e4d29e11
Additional Hang Signature 6: f1ed
Additional Hang Signature 7: a9638ac8c868ea3f3f2839944aafbc02

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 110972462

Previous Bucket IDs have been 140985073, 96857809, 93636584 for the
SearchIndexer.exe, and the following report indicating dllhost.exe:

Description
A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: AppHangXProcB1
Application Name: Explorer.EXE
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16549
Application Timestamp: 46d230c5
Hang Signature: 4a93
Hang Type: 6208
Waiting on Application Name: dllhost.exe
Waiting on Application Version: 0.0.0.0
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.6
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Hang Signature 1: 368721e5fa07403564d8aece2c5d0188
Additional Hang Signature 2: e3f8
Additional Hang Signature 3: 8fc32c163811dacd3f93e3b74ce23237
Additional Hang Signature 4: 4a93
Additional Hang Signature 5: 368721e5fa07403564d8aece2c5d0188
Additional Hang Signature 6: e3f8
Additional Hang Signature 7: 8fc32c163811dacd3f93e3b74ce23237

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 120897157

If anyone can provide insight and help regarding this issue, I would
certainly appreciate it. Thanks folks!

Best-

-Chuck
 
Thanks Dan. I tried chkdsk /f three times with no change. I disabled the
search service and it remedied the problem. I assume disabling it will
undermine Vista's indexing and search integrity.

I never had this problem on XP, and used Google desktop in XP. Perhaps this
will be a suitable solution to search in Vista.

On another note, it has taken me a day to sign in and respond. The only way
I was able to do so was from an e-mail I received indicating a response had
been made. I have never had so much difficulty signing in to a site as I have
this one... a persistent problem.

Thanks again.

- Chuck
 
Chuck said:
Thanks Dan. I tried chkdsk /f three times with no change. I disabled the
search service and it remedied the problem. I assume disabling it will
undermine Vista's indexing and search integrity.

I never had this problem on XP, and used Google desktop in XP. Perhaps
this
will be a suitable solution to search in Vista.

On another note, it has taken me a day to sign in and respond. The only
way
I was able to do so was from an e-mail I received indicating a response
had
been made. I have never had so much difficulty signing in to a site as I
have
this one... a persistent problem.

Thanks again.

- Chuck

:
Click to expand...
All disabling the search service will do, is result in longer times to
perform
searches. For those who do infrequent searches, it's a non-issue.

I guess it's like having piles of paperwork on your desk. If you try to
keep it in order, it takes time. If not, it takes longer to find something.
 
Hi Ian,

FWIW, my PC CPU Usage had been running consistently at 50-52% with close to
2GB memory usage with Windows Search running, even with no applications
running. Since turning off Windows Search, (and installing Google Desktop),
CPU Usage now runs from 2 - 4% with a steady 1.21GB memory usage, with
Outlook, 4 IE Windows with multiple panes, and Task Manager running.

Maybe I'm nuts, but I'm thinking Windows Search was not doing anything
beneficial, and was creating Explorer errors described in my previous e-mail,
not to mention sucking 48%+/- CPU cycles and 800MB ram up. I've found Google
search to be much faster and less resource intensive with my XP boxes. So
far, it appears to be true for my Vista Business OS as well, by quite a long
shot at that.

Almost like those piles of paper were constantly being stacked, shuffled and
restacked, while preventing me from creating folders to organize and keep
them in. =)

Best Regards,

- Chuck
 
We had a very similar problem on Vista. Explorer would hang when we would
try to delete or rename files. Disabling the Windows Search Service solved
the problem for us as well.

We could not stop the service even when we were logged in as an
administrator. However, we disabled it on start up and then rebooted the
computer. The service was stopped once rebooted and the problems disappeared.
 
Back
Top