Running certain games on fullscreen crashes explorer.exe

ThatEnglishDude · 14 Sep 2010

So I've looked around the forums and various internet sites looking for someone who has a similar issue but have yet to find the exact same. My situation is as follows:

When I try to launch 'some' games in fullscreen which it does by default - within seconds I will see my Windows mouse cursor and a box that has appeared behind the game saying Windows Explorer has crashed. Here is the log:
--------------
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: explorer.exe
Application Version: 6.1.7600.16450
Application Timestamp: 4aebab8d
Fault Module Name: explorer.exe
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7600.16450
Fault Module Timestamp: 4aebab8d
Exception Code: c000041d
Exception Offset: 000000000002cc2b
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 9d35
Additional Information 2: 9d352eeb48f756eef3e09921a012e0a8
Additional Information 3: ca2c
Additional Information 4: ca2c069770e7f64d60f91ac290056ba5

Read our privacy statement online:
Windows 7 Privacy Statement - Microsoft Windows

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt
--------

I've tried rolling back to older drivers but with no luck. Thing is - it was perfectly fine a few weeks ago. I will try uninstalling AVG and see if that does the trick, you never know. The only games I've noticed so far are Chronicles of Riddick and the newly released Amnesia: Dark Descent however some games will work fine. When I load the games in windowed mode, it works perfectly fine. Bizarre.

Has anyone else experienced this?

System:

Intel Core i5 750 Stock
GeForce GTS 250 OC BFG
6GB DDR 3 Ram
HT Striker 71 Sound Card
Windows 7.

If any further information is needed, I will provide it :)

Thank you for your time.

AstaLaVista · 14 Sep 2010

What monitor are you using? Are you using native resolution for your monitor while ingame? Try finding x64 bit drivers for monitor as well, if not... find manufacturer drivers and uninstall the windows default drivers.

Uninstall/Install fresh drivers for Video and Audio... make sure you have specific driver from manufacturer and for your OS.

ThatEnglishDude · 14 Sep 2010

I run at 1440x900 @ 75. The native for my monitor.

I run a diagnostic startup and the games loaded ok. So I thinned down my options by enabling audio w/ diagnostic...run ok. 3 hours later, I run a normal startup and disabled Aero. The games run perfect. So the problem lies down to the 3D Aero interface.

Any suggestions from here? I'd like to enable Aero of course as it worked fine a few months ago.

In addition - I just tried installing newest Direct X (which it turns out I already have) and Windows Update caused Explorer.exe crashed. So it's not just games it seems.

ThatEnglishDude · 14 Sep 2010

For the record I also done a sfc /scannow on my computer and sure enough it found explorer.exe (among other files) corrupt. But it didn't seem to repair. I can post the log if needed.

FIXED:

I restarted my PC after running sfc /scannow and tried using Windows Update with Aero enabled and it installed the updates necessary. I then loaded in my games and sure enough, they loaded in just fine.

FIX - used sfc /scannow