Solved Crashes while playing Witcher 2 and other explorer.exe crashes.

I'd really consider to do a Villain Installation.
You can't really go wrong with it, so there's no reason to be nervous about it, it's peace of cake. All you need to avoid, is step number 19.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

Remember to save all the files you'd need on an external harddisk for instance.

Best Regards,
Frederik.

So if i choose to do this then what? Just determine if the problem still exists and if it doesn't then install the drivers?

The biggest thing im worried about is the part where i will have to install the drivers eventually if i want to continue to play games. Mainly the mobo drivers and things of that nature since certain games can be unplayable or very unstable without current drivers.

What people fails thinking is that their system cannot run without the newest drivers available. It's nonsense. Things like motherboard drivers won't necessarily need to be installed. The most important drivers you can get, is the Graphic Driver, and the Sound driver, also for gaming. Windows Update will take care of the rest. Windows Update will also choose the WHQL drivers for devices and such, only. WHQL means that Microsoft has proven that it'll work with Windows 7 without issues.
Windows Update will detect if it needs the drivers. For the time being after a clean install, just disable Windows Update. If the system is stable for 2-3 days, enable Windows Update, and let it choose what to install for you. You do not have to do anything yourself, isn't that great?
I've been running games with only the Graphic driver, and the sound driver as an additional driver installation, without problems. Device drivers, hardware driver and so on and so forth, will Windows Update take care of.

And remember, we're here to help you if you get in trouble, and on this one - you really can't.

Rule #1 is: Go for the WHQL drivers, but not too old.

Best Regards,
Frederik.

Well that makes me feel a bit better then. Next week i think ill pick up a flash drive and make sure i can put the drivers on them just in case. Got really worried about installing stuff like mobo drivers and such since i have read some real horror stories about updates crashing during a bios flash or power going out and then the machine is kinda screwed.

It seems that as long as i avoid going directly to control panel directly after a reboot there really doesn't seem to be any problems.

The crashes with the Witcher 2 are really making it seem like it may be just a bad power supply or maybe the power supply got damaged during one of the thunderstorms where i lost power since i dont have a UPS yet.
I had played The Witcher 2 fine when it first came out then experienced crashes once one of my Memory sticks started to fail and kept giving me BSODs and crashing the game. Or it could be a problem with my GPU but since when it does crash i get "DVI No Input" and the monitor just kinda goes into standby while the computer stays on. The game is apparently extremely demanding regardless of what settings it is on so i might just need a better quality power supply.

Your BIOS is up-to-date, of course it won't downgrade when you're reinstalling Windows 7.
The Windows files may be broken on some areas, in your case the Control Panel, that'll explain it.
I don't know about Witcher but hopefully we'll get some conclusions on your new copy of Windows. Also remember to enable dump files on the new system.

Go to Start, then Run, then type in "sysdm.cpl" (without the quotes) and press Enter
Click on the Advanced tab
Click on the Startup and Recovery button
Ensure that "Automatically restart" is unchecked
Under the Write Debugging Information header select "Small memory dump (64 kB)" in the dropdown box
Ensure that the Small Dump Directory is listed as "%systemroot%\Minidump" (without the quotes)
Click OK twice to exit the dialogs, then reboot for the changes to take effect.

Click to expand...

Best Regards,
Frederik.

When i had the bad stick of ram could that have potentially damaged explorer.exe or the control panel files? Or maybe the blackouts that i had during a storm? I am just trying to think of things that could have caused it so i know if it could happen again.

ether3 said:

When i had the bad stick of ram could that have potentially damaged explorer.exe or the control panel files? Or maybe the blackouts that i had during a storm? I am just trying to think of things that could have caused it so i know if it could happen again.

Click to expand...

No, I wouldn't think so. It's usually worms and malware that's causing explorer.exe to crash, or background running processes. It could also be broken registry, but do not use registry cleaners. They do more harm than good.

Best Regards,
Frederik.

Oh wow i didn't know reg cleaner could do that. I run CCleaner daily or whenever i uninstall something. Didn't know that could happen at all!

ether3 said:

Oh wow i didn't know reg cleaner could do that. I run CCleaner daily or whenever i uninstall something. Didn't know that could happen at all!

Click to expand...

Do you use Reg cleaners? Certainly good I came across that!
I do NOT recommend using those.

Best Regards,
Frederik.

Yes unfortunately. Literally one of the first things i installed when i got this machine was CCleaner and RevoUninstaller. CCleaner has a reg cleaner and Revo has advanced uninstalls that remove reg entries after an uninstall.
If you didn't mention it i would have installed those right away again!

CCleaner and Revo are fine themselves, but using CCleaner's registry cleaner, or any other registry cleaner for that matter, shouldn't be done really. It's not necessary, Windows 7 is good "doing things itself", and manages files as it wants and should.

Also remember you shouldn't install anything else the first couple of days with the Villain Windows. I can make a little list if you desire, of what you'd need when your system is up and running again.

I believe your BSODs errors are partly caused by your use of this type of software. But we all learn from experience of course!

Best Regards,
Frederik.

That list would be great! I had never really thought it could break the registry itself so im glad i learned that and i have definitely used registry cleaners many many times so that could really be one of the potential issues.

ether3 said:

That list would be great! I had never really thought it could break the registry itself so im glad i learned that and i have definitely used registry cleaners many many times so that could really be one of the potential issues.

Click to expand...

I think so! Registry is hard to recover, so it might be a good idea to grab a new Windows copy.

I will go to the grocer and buy some cream, and I'll be back.

Best Regards,
Frederik.

Yea i don't think i even have any saved registry entries so i wouldn't know where to begin in trying to repair or restore it.