Explorer.exe & Acmon.exe APPCRASH at start-up ->blank screen w/ cursor

Background - I only know enough about troubleshooting to make me dangerous, but I have decent-enough Google-fu.

Computer - ASUS G Series G53SW-XN1 running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Issue - The computer wasn't reading a SDHC card inserted into that slot, so I restarted. Upon restarting, Explorer.exe stopped responding and closed (APPCRASH) x2, followed by Acmon.exe doing the same (once). After that, the screen remains blank with a cursor. I can still access task manager, but I can't start a new instance of Explorer. The computer just sits there (on one occasion, some Adobe tool also crashed after like 20 minutes of sitting there).

The same thing happens (Explorer crashes twice and Acmon crashes and the computer sits on the blank screen with the cursor) each time I restart, regardless of whether it's in safe mode or normal mode. I never see my desktop and presumably can't run any programs (at least none that I've tried).

Troublehooting thus far - I've tried starting in safe mode multiple times with the same result. I've tried System Restore, but unfortunately I had that disabled. I tried Repairing Windows, it said there were no issues to repair. I tried doing a Memory Diagnostic, but when the computer restarted, this same thing happened, so I never saw the results.

I restarted once in Safe Mode w/ Command, and ran chkdsk, with no errors being reported. I also used Command to uninstall the "Splendid" utility (at least I think I uninstalled it...never uninstalled a program this way, and I'm still getting the Acmon.exe message, which doesn't make sense to me if I uninstalled Splendid) as I read that can fix the Acmon.exe issue in Asus machines.

Not really sure what to do next. I've been trying to fix this issue myself for the past two days by searching Google and trying to use solutions to problems that aren't the same as mine, but I've had no success. When I left for work this morning, I left the computer on the blank screen just to see what happened while I was away, as I heard Acmon can cause "really slow" startup...so I'm hoping that maybe my startup is just really, really slow with this issue (I've previously let it sit on the blank screen for ~1 hour). I'm expecting to see a blank screen when I get home, though.

As a bit of further background, frequently, when I leave the computer on for 1-2 hours without using it, I get a BSoD. I've had various issues with the graphics package in the last year or so that I've (probably poorly) fixed on my own as they've arisen, and it sounds like Acmon errors are common with the Asus graphics package. So that makes sense. I probably should have been more pro-active with figuring out the graphics card issue before I had this big of a problem, but I wasn't...

Any thoughts/ideas/steps to take from here? Help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm pretty lousy at troubleshooting, so please don't assume I know too much with your response. However, I can read tutorials and FAQ as necessary, so links to info can suffice instead of a long written explanation.

Arc said:

Welcome aboard.

You cannot boot into safe mode, too; other than safe mode in command prompt? I hope you have the windows 7 installer disc, or at least the repair disc? If so, follow SFC /SCANNOW : Run in Command Prompt at Boot.

Also, boot in the safe mode with command prompt, type "msconfig" (without quote) and Follow the tutorial Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup, step one only, upto now.

Let us know the results. Con you boot into windows now, or not?

Hi Arc, thanks!

If I attempt to boot into Safe Mode, it does the exact same thing as normal mode--Explorer and Acmon crash, and it gets stuck on the blank screen.

I don't have any discs. I purchased the computer (shudder) refurbished from Newegg.

However, by pressing F8 during startup, I already accessed a mode (I don't recall what and the computer isn't in front of me--I just did whatever I read about on Google) that gave me a screen like #6 on your first link. I also did sfc /scannow in Command yesterday, and that found nothing that needed to be repaired. I only tried once, though, so it appears I should try again.

I will follow the steps in the second tutorial and report back.

I'm not really sure whether Windows is booting. I think so? It gets past the blue "Welcome" screen, and then explorer and acmon crash. At that point, if I press Control/Alt/Delete, it brings up the blue screen with Task Manager, etc., options. I can open Task Manager, but it won't let me restart Explorer. So I assume Windows is booting (I think). I just can't use it to do anything. It's stuck at that black/blank screen with the cursor and nothing else.

Sorry if I'm missing something or didn't answer your questions completely. I'm only a step up from a moderately skilled chimpanzee when it comes to this stuff. I can usually follow troubleshooting steps I read, but don't know anything about the "why" or "how" part of those steps. (If that makes any sense.)

Thanks for your help!

Arc said:

bricker85 said:

I will follow the steps in the second tutorial and report back.

Waiting for it :)

So tonight when I tried to perform SFC/scannow (which worked last night), I get a message saying "Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service."

The first time I ran msconfig from Command, System Configuration Utility stopped working (don't know if it makes a difference, but the fault module name is SHELL32.dll). The second time, I was able to run it, but when it restarted in that mode, Explorer immediately crashed again, just like it does in every other mode. I've tried it again since, and it immediately crashes each time I press enter on msconfig in Command.

I also made an AVG disc and it found a Trojan, which I renamed, but the same problem persists.

I've again tried just about every other safe mode and upon each startup, Explorer crashes. When I press the power button to restart, Windows logs me off and prepares to shut down, so it seems like windows is loading...just not displaying anything besides a cursor.

Could this have something to do with my ASUS video drivers? That seems to be a "theme" among similar problems I'm reading online, but no one else seems to be having the same issue as me...

Thanks for the help!

Arc said:

OK, I haven't expected it to be that bad And now I think it will be the best for you to start fresh.

Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

The point1 will provide you a link from where you will be able to download windows 7 installer disc, and point5 will provide you the ways to get the product keys of your programs installed.

After getting the installer disc ready, before strting the installation, first try to recover your data .... Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console . Save them in another partition/hdd or external storage.

I hope it will be the easiest way for you in this situation.

Let us know your thoughts?

After receiving the same result over and over again (that explorer crashing regardless of what I did), I got frustrated and took a break before doing the clean install.

When I came back, I did one last Google search regarding my problem, and saw that someone recommended creating a new user profile in command because the existing profile might have become corrupted. I didn't have much hope that it would work...but it did. At least it worked well enough to get me to the desktop, where I could move some files that hadn't been backed up to an external drive.

I still have to figure out what the problem is and how I can repair that other user account or migrate over the files, but it's a start and the first positive step in a few days. Any tutorials you can point me to for this sort of thing?

I'm not out of the woods yet, but I'm no longer discouraged. Thanks for all the help so far, you've been great!!!