Windows 7: Win7 Explorer Hangs While Accessing Shared Homegroup Folders

I have three computers all running Windows 7 Ultimate x64, one of which functions partly as a media center (hosting music etc), the second and third being my office workstation and laptop respectively. The media center has a hard line to my cable modem (via Trendnet wireless-N router) while the latter two connect via wireless; the workstation via a wireless ethernet hub and the laptop via it's integrated wireless.

I currently have all of my media folders shared via homegroup on the media center.

My laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad W500) can access all of the shared folders.

My office workstation, while I can "see" the shared libraries/folders on my media center, hangs (the explorer window appears to be perpetually loading) whenever I attempt to open any of the folders. Sometimes when this happens I can kill/restart explorer but ever so often explorer itself will be unable to restart and I will have to reboot the entire machine.

I have Windows Security Essentials running on both machines - all three are almost identical with respects to the installed software.

I have tried reconfiguring the homegroup multiple times, flushing the dns cache, resetting and cycling the router, and have even swapped out wireless adapters (on the problematic workstation) to no avail.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

One other piece of info - I have a wireless printer that all three computers (media center, workstation, and laptop) can connect (and print) to with no problems.

The workstation and media center were installed with the same Windows 7 installation disk (supposedly good for two installs) however the workstation's "genuine" windows certificate had to be updated (via phone if I recall) after I swapped out a couple of the components (motherboard & graphics card).

Any thoughts?

For clarification:

By "reconfiguring" I meant that I had deleted and recreated the homegroup with a new password, etc. I don't believe the problem to be a router issue - I have (now two) other computers connecting to the homegroup successfully...

Indeed, the new computer I added is connecting to the same wireless adapter hub as the old workstation; in other words, I have two workstations (old & new) using the same wireless hub, the former can see the directories/libraries but hangs when I attempt to access the shared files, the latter can access all directories/libraries with no problems.

I have reset/cycled the router numerous times since this issue began but the issue persists.

Anyone out there have any suggestions?

Have you tried running check disk on the main drive for this machine with the problem.

Right click the drive usually C: choose properties then click the tools tab, click on the check button to run check disk, a small window will appear, there are two options select both options click ok. Than previous window click apply and ok.

After this you need to restart and 5 stages of check disk will run.. don't press any keys otherwise check disk will be skipped.

If that can't be done you might try running the sfc/scannow command.

I'm not sure what you mean by about this workstation with the access problem being connected to a Wireless Ethernet Hub?

Is this the same as a Wireless network bridge or access point? You mentioned resetting the router but have you tried to reset this hub or bridge or access point?

Well I guess it's technically a "wireless media bridge" but you're right - it's essentially an access point that I can connect up to three computers to (instead of each needing it's own wireless adapter):

Amazon.com: TRENDnet 300 Mbps Wireless N 4-Port Media Bridge TEW-640MB (Piano Black): Electronics

I have a Trendnet wireless N router as well for what it's worth.

Anyways - the problem isn't the wireless bridge since I've been able to connect another computer to it (and to the homegroup folders) successfully. For some reason my primary workstation is only able to see the shared folders/libraries but hangs when it tries to access them.

I can run chkdsk on the main drive but I was thinking this was a problem with the networking setup - I have an SSD boot drive so running chkdsk is a bit more costly in terms of the wear/tear however if this could reveal the problem I'm willing to give it a shot...

I wouldn't dismiss the bridge as a possible problem just yet, just because one machine works through this bridge doesn't mean the other one should be able to.

Is DHCP disabled on the Media Bridge? Have you tried connecting some place else besides the bridge with this problematic workstation?

I can't think of anything in the network set up "besides the bridge" that would prevent one machine from accessing a folder other than A/V software but with Security Essentials that shouldn't be a problem.

So in the process of trying to find some sort of failure log/trace for explorer I ran "sfc /scannow" and received the following:

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 27% complete.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of th
em.
Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

C:\Windows\system32>

... the prevalent advice online is for me to dig up my (Win 7 Ultimate 64) installation disc and do an "in place upgrade" but I thought I'd try a repair first and see if that handles the problem?

I'm sure my current installation is at least a few service packs ahead of my original Windows 7 install disc - is there any way for me to get a more up to date system files?

You can try running a start up repair a few times of run the sfc/scannow command a few more times but when it stops at 27 percent and says there are problems, that means there are big problems which is pretty much what I expected to see.

So I guess I need to do a repair/install - is there a better (more up-to-date patch wise) way to do this or should I just bite bullet and grab my Windows 7 installation CD?

Well the install CD has all the advanced repair options so the CD is your best bet either way.