Windows Explorer stops responding

[PieEater 10]

The program explorer.exe version 6.1.7601.17567 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed.

I've googled this and It seems its a pretty generic message that indicates a software issue that is causing explorer to crash. One culprit that cropped up on a number of occasions was Norton anti virus and someone else posted that it was their NVidia drivers.

 

To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.

Would be worth checking this to see if there is any more detail that would identify the exact software causing the issue. Just type Action Centre into search and check out the options under Maintenance.

 

I would still be inclined to roll back your Nvidia drivers to 350.12, as I said a lot of people are having similar problems with versions after this one. At least it would identify / eliminate this as the culprit.

 

You could check your startup tab in MSConfig eliminating any strictly unnecessary programs from starting up with Windows as it is likely something you have running in the background causing the issue.

 

If you are unable to replicate the issue in Safe Mode then this would be a good indication that the issue is driver / startup program related.

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Just tells me about the app hang when winexplorer crashed... nothing great.  Oh well it was worth a shot.

 

I never had 350.12 - I had 347.52... maybe I could try that.

 

I've looked at msconfig and it all seems normal.

 

I could try safe mode.  But it's difficult to tell... it usually occurs after running software, but not always.

[PieEater 10]

I never had 350.12 - I had 347.52... maybe I could try that.

 

The latest version is 353.06, I was under the impression all your drivers were up to date so you would be using something post 350.12. Did you have the issue when you were using 347.52? If so then this is obviously not the problem, if the issue started happening after you upgraded past 350.12 then I would suggest rolling back to 350.12 or even 347.52 to confirm whether or not the NVidia drivers are the issue.

 

I've looked at msconfig and it all seems normal.

 

Checking MSConfig to see if it looks normal isn't what I suggested. From the research I have done for you the issue appears to be with an unknown piece of software causing explorer.exe to become unresponsive. This software will have to be running in the background in order for it to cause the issue. What I suggested was that you try eliminating as many of these background pieces of software as possible through selectively disabling anything unnecessary in the startup tab of MSConfig. It's not unusual to see 20+ startup items selected with only 2 or 3 of these actually being required. if this doesn't help you can just put the ticks back in the boxes assuming you want to.

Edit:/ Do you use CCleaner at all? You might find it an easier way to manage your startup options plus using it to run a registry scan / fix would be a good idea at this point. If you check out the Tools section you'll find the startup utility which allows you to select and disable the items that are starting up by default.

[ryanbatc 12,857]

I ran ccleaner, it screwed up some of my programs in the C Program files directory. It deleted some exe's. But I fixed that.

 

I can try a selective startup.

 

I have the latest video driver, but I skipped 350xx, my point is if I roll back it will have to be to that 347. Or I could go download the 350xx

[ryanbatc 12,857]

For CCleaner...  I did a registry fix I believe I wrote that on page 1.  I did look at startup items...  disabled some pesky things as defined by bleepingcomputer.com's database.  But some of those pesky items still startup... ie Adobe ARM, I can't seem to disable that.

 

Here's pics of the screens...  seems you know more than I about CCleaner.  Honestly I've done a lot of searching.  It very well may be a dying drive.  CHKDSK turned up normal last night however.

 

 

 

 

 

[magnetite 38]

Have you tried doing a non-destructive repair install of Windows? Might be worth trying. Only downside is having to re-download all the latest Windows updates again. Still keeps all your programs and settings.

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Nope I haven't thought of that.  How do I run that?

[magnetite 38]

Read this guide

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Alright.... my troubleshooting time went from about minimal to nil...  lots of stuff going on in life.

 

I'll get back with flight sim in a few months hopefully!

 

Thanks everyone for your help!

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Read this guide

 

Was going to do this in between the kids' nap time but I realized my SP1 Win7 install is NOT just the kb listed.  It's multiple kb's and I don't know which one is which.  For the repair to work I need to uninstall SP1 because my original Win7 disc is NOT SP1.

 

Any ideas on how to do this or is it just a waste of time?  IOW will uninstalling SP1 screw up win7 install anyway?  If it does I'll need to do a reinstall anyway.

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Meh - disregard - found a win7 sp1 copy laying around

[magnetite 38]

Sounds good. Let me know how it goes.

 

I don't think uninstalling SP1 will cause any issues. It will just revert Windows back to the RTM state which you installed it.

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Worked fine... just had to repair some .NET stuff.

 

Time will tell if it fixes the Windows issue.  BF4 has a different stutter now.... it could just be a recent patch that is causing it for some users.  Instead of a 1-2 sec freeze in BF4 I just get bad stutters....  (almost worse for gameplay though!).  Going to try an older driver from March of this year.

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Unfortunately this did not fix the freeze issue in Win7.  Strange!

 

Could be my SSD I guess.  Doubt I'll change anything for a while... money is tight hehe, got a new baby in the NICU.