OT: Explorer crashes all the time now
RAMWolff
Posts: 10,343
Hi,
I'm on Windows 10. I love Windows 10 so no, I'm not going to downgrade so don't go there! lol
What is happening is that when I open a folder allot of the time Explorer freezes up and then the window will shut once Explorer restarts itself.
I've looked into what I can. Cleaned up the hard drive and all the rest but still getting that constant crash. There was a notice when I was rebooting the computer stating that memory could not be written from Explorer so there is a bottle neck going on I think but can't quite figure it out. I wish I could have gotten a screen grab of that popup before the reboot, I wish MS would have a screengrab button that was right on the popup so when I rebooted I'd have it on my desktop to study. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
IF there is any suggestions or info on what I can look into please post.
Thanks so much
Richard
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Comments
Two things that should be checked...memory and hard drive. Both with test tools outside of Windows (Memtest and the drive manufacturer's diagnostics). Windows will try to work around/mask some problems and they won't show within Windows.
Sorry not written back. Busy busy busy.... I did a memory scan outiside of Windows and all checked out. I decided to try another file manager but so far nothing is really to my liking. Right now I'm running FreeCommander XE... it's OK. It's got some features I really like but others that are buggy. If you have one you like please post. I just need something stable that works pretty much like the defaut Explorer. I like BIG thumnail options so my tired eyes can see what they need to see. I have Cubic too but there have been NO updates in a couple of years so I think the programmer is bored or busy with other things....
If you want a really powerful and stable file explorer, try Directory Opus:
http://www.gpsoft.com.au/index.html
There's a lot of different icons to choose from btw, here's some large ones:
http://resource.dopus.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=18647
Thank you Taozen. I'll check those links out. Much appreciated.
WOW.. kind of expensive. YIKES. I'll have to think about that! lol
I used to use Directory Opus on my Amiga many moons ago. It's a really good program but the PC version is a bit more than I'd like to pay for a file manager.
I've been getting explorer crashes on my Windows 7 PC recently but not all the time. My computer goes for days without doing it, then explorer will crash a few times in a row and settle down again. It usually happens when I move or rename a file.
While it looks good, but considering it costs $50 for the lite version and $90 for the Pro version, that and the Windows 10 version of Explorer is far and away better than previous versions there is no real need for Dopus unless you are well off.. Since to have Dopus replace Windows Explorer you will have to pony up $90 for that privaledge and well it is a bit much no matter how much it can do..
The freezing and crashing is because of showing thumbnails for some file content and your video driver I'm pretty sure. Mine freezes and crashes sometimes too. Much more frequently crashing though is MS Edge.
tech geek opinion here
sounds like either the hard drive has some bad sectors, and is failing.
or the windows installation has become corrupted.
either one of these may not be detected by any commercial diagnostics.
If you can i'd say listen at the hard drive while accessing the explorer, if the hard drive is making weird noises.
there are two primary noises they will make when failing.
1. constant spin up noise. It'll sound like it's powering up and down
2. clicking.
If neither one of those is present i'd say then it's a corrupted windows installation.
you can either try a repair, insert installation disk, and boot from it selecting the repair option.
or you may have to do a complete reinstall of the software.
wipe the drive and start all over.
The one question i would ask is if this was an upgrade installtion, factory install or a clean install.
The last possibility is that it's due to an upgrade install, sometimes there will be fragments from the previous operating system left behind and require a clean install to clear.
just a few ideas.
I hate to jinx myself but when I started using Cubic and then switched to FreeCommander and then just this AM switched back to Explorer, for now, the crashing has stopped. I also killed one of my floating launch bars from Stardock and combined it into the tabbed bar adding a quick launch tab to that. I've had this little thing in the back of my head since this has started "Could it be the Stardock stuff?" so between all the little changes I've made things are stable, for now.... lol
Stardock or any addon like it can be a contributing factor...
Well that's some good news there.
Seems like you got into the same mess i get into periodically, too many add ons.
mostly i do that with all the license servers and general crap in the background just to use certain software i have.
Yes, I forgot about the shell addons and those can be contributors to Explorer crashes too. The crash dumps are saved if you ever ant to find out what's causing it.
I'd still do the drive diagnostics...but then again I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to hard drives
If you're not paranoid about hard drives, you've never had one crash and loose 6 months worth of work.
I'm a bit AR about my drives and backups, triple on site redundency.
Is that a bit too paranoid?
I'd say that's minimal paranoia.
Hard drive crashes...it's not a matter of 'if', but rather 'when'. (And the 'when' is usually when you can least afford it...time/money/work).
I've got my files on OS and a most things on system disk but much older data from previous upgrades is not redundant and some new not redundant too.
I really need to clean up the old data, much of it can be merged because it is redundant, some 3 or more times on same off computer disk. I hope the 2TB SSDs become affordable because then I could have everything on the computer and backed up once and do daily differences and once a month full backups and erase the differentials.
Spoke too soon. I came home from work and opened up a text folder, no images..... CRASH! Grrrrrrrrrrrr
Well $90 equals what I pay for a few DAZ items which I in many cases probably never get to use anyway. DOpus I use everyday on all my PCs (5 Pro licenses) and it saves me a lot of time and work, so I'm fine with the price.
Hmmm, after a couple of reboots things seem to be leveled out again. I'm using Nexus docking system. No crashes. You know, over the years I've used various Stardock desktop modules like their docking system and always ran into various system issues. I really like a docking system regardless of who makes it. I use RocketDock at work, Stardock here at home but now using Nexus and quite pleased with it.
It's starting to look more like you might have a piece of malware. Explorer is a POS, but it normally is a consistent POS. If you've eradicated the hardware as the cause, then I'd start looking for infections. Don't trust any *one* malware system. Even if it is kept "up-to-date"
Kendall
Is there an online malware scanner that I can use? Last time I put Malwarebytes on my system it was a little too invasive for my tastes, meaning it was constantly running in the background and while that's great for a totally stealth system when your running a medium or lower speedy system it can slow things down. I don't like that. So I removed the program.
Malwarebytes should be able to be run in 'on demand' mode only. Or as a 'portable' app.
Was that the Premium version? The free version does nothing but scan when you ask it to, no real-time protection or malicious website blocking.
Sorry, double post...
Assuming what you have is the genuine article and not a bit of malware disguised as MalwareBytes - from which address did you download it, RAMWolff?
Hi Richard. I have no idea. It's been over a year or so. I'm running an online tool right now called ESET. It's only at 17% and it's found 8 suspects so far. Scan is taking a really long time but HEY, that's good, look in every knook and cranny! lol
I believe the official address for Malwarebytes is www.MalwareBytes.org if you want to get it straight from the horse's mouth.
I don't run their Pro version but do frequently shutdown to Windows "Safe Mode with Networking" and download a fresh copy of the free version of MalwareBytes and run a full scan (after letting it get the latest malware definitons of course). I just yesterday detected an infection using that technique. That problem now seems to be gone. Yea!
I get infections only rarely.
I have pretty safe browsing habits. But recently I'd gotten curious about some of those "Taboola" links to curious information snatches usually found on edges of legitimate respectible websites. I think it was one of those ads that infected me. That hurt. 
I won't do that again. 
For me, "Taboola" links are now taboo! 