explorer hangs up after entering folder with wave-files

[Hedge]

I experience this issue on one PC with RC installed and on another one with RTM.

Whenever I enter a special folder with 5 or 6 wave-files, explorer.exe uses 100% cpu-power and it's memory usage goes up to 2 gigs.

It takes a long time to get to the taskmanager and kill the process.

I've found some forum-posts of users who experience the same issue on Vista and Win 7 but never an answer.

 

[zigzag3143]

I experience this issue on one PC with RC installed and on another one with RTM.

Whenever I enter a special folder with 5 or 6 wave-files, explorer.exe uses 100% cpu-power and it's memory usage goes up to 2 gigs.

It takes a long time to get to the taskmanager and kill the process.

I've found some forum-posts of users who experience the same issue on Vista and Win 7 but never an answer.

You should go to event viewer (type event viewer in search) go to windows logs>apllication tab and see what errors are listed. using the built in snipping tool (snip in search) take a screenshot and upload it to us.

Ken

 

[SquonkSC]

I experience this issue on one PC with RC installed and on another one with RTM.

Whenever I enter a special folder with 5 or 6 wave-files, explorer.exe uses 100% cpu-power and it's memory usage goes up to 2 gigs.

It takes a long time to get to the taskmanager and kill the process.

I've found some forum-posts of users who experience the same issue on Vista and Win 7 but never an answer.

Hi Hedge,

And please fill in your systems specs as detailed as possible.

At Ken. jk

 

[Hedge]

And please fill in your systems specs as detailed as possible.

I have PC. It's block-shaped and has a power-button.

j/k I doubt specs matter that much because it is happening on a PC and on my Thinkpad T61.
I'll post the log when I'm at home.

Thanks for the help in advance.

EDIT: I just discovered my PC also has a reset-button.

 

[Hedge]

There are no errors in the log.
Is there anything else I can do to provide some information.

I experience this issue on one PC with RC installed and on another one with RTM.

Whenever I enter a special folder with 5 or 6 wave-files, explorer.exe uses 100% cpu-power and it's memory usage goes up to 2 gigs.

It takes a long time to get to the taskmanager and kill the process.

I've found some forum-posts of users who experience the same issue on Vista and Win 7 but never an answer.

You should go to event viewer (type event viewer in search) go to windows logs>apllication tab and see what errors are listed. using the built in snipping tool (snip in search) take a screenshot and upload it to us.

Ken

 

[H2SO4]

There are no errors in the log.
Is there anything else I can do to provide some information.

I had to laugh at your "system specs" response

Does the same symptom happen in safe mode? If not, MSCONFIG may be a relatively simple way to find the specific difference (between normal and safe modes) which is the cause.

There are far more sophisticated tools for this sort of thing but it's important to rule out the simpler stuff first.

 

[Hedge]

Just tried safe-mode, the problem still occurs there.

explorer.exe's and dllhost.exe's CPU-usage go up to 50% each.

 

[H2SO4]

Just tried safe-mode, the problem still occurs there.

explorer.exe's and dllhost.exe's CPU-usage go up to 50% each.

B####r.

Perhaps more "simple" troubleshooting is called for. What's so special about that folder and those "5 or 6 WAVs"? Do all folders with WAVs in them behave the same way, even if the WAVs are not from that group of 6?

I'm trying to understand whether it's enough for any WAV files to be present in a folder (even if there's other stuff?), or whether the symptom is specific to a certain folder and/or a certain WAV file.

 

[Hedge]

I've got some new information:

I tried moving all the WAVs of that folder into another folder.
2 wave-files remained in the old folder.

I can view the new folder without any issues.

Old folder is called "Hedgehog"
New folder is called "Hedgehog2"

Now I deleted "Hedgehog" because I still have a backup of these 2 files.
The I renamed "Hedgehog2" to "Hedgehog".
When I open the folder now it goes back to 99% cpu usage of explorer.exe.
When I rename it "Hedgehog2" again, it works as expected.
There are no hidden files btw.

I have other folders containing wave-files, but only "Hedgehog" (which is the most important one b/c it contains my own stuff) makes such trouble.

 

[H2SO4]

That suggests a very different codepath depending on whether the folder name matches a particular string.

What created the "hedgehog" folder originally? Was it an app? It seems likely that app has sunk some sort of buggy plug-in into Explorer.

 

[Hedge]

I created it by hand.
Can I fix it somehow. I want it to be named "Hedgehog"

 

[H2SO4]

I created it by hand.
Can I fix it somehow. I want it to be named "Hedgehog"

Unless Explorer has suddenly and inexplicably developed a dislike for folders named after animals, we're missing something important

Can you tell me more please about the way you use that folder? Is it in any way linked to a particular app? Perhaps the app has been configured to monitor the folder, even though you created the folder manually? (Why do you need it to be called "hedgehog"?)

I'm looking for some sort of configuration reason why the name of that folder would be of particular significance to one or more of your apps.

 

[Hedge]

There was a time when accessing the folder was no problem.
It could have started after I started syncing it to my notebook via Microsoft SyncToy.

It's called Hedgehog b/c that's my pseudonym.

 

[zigzag3143]

HH

there you go microsoft sync toy is the culprit. try disabling it and check for cpu usage

ken

 

[H2SO4]

There was a time when accessing the folder was no problem.
It could have started after I started syncing it to my notebook via Microsoft SyncToy.

It's called Hedgehog b/c that's my pseudonym.

I'm familiar with what SyncToy does, but not the finer points of its configuration. Can you make sure you completely deactivate SyncToy, preferably after first severing all of its associations with the "hedgehog" folder, and then test again?

The meaning of the name is irrelevant; the point is that the behaviour is vastly different whenever any folder assumes a certain name. That suggests that a component running inside the Explorer process is watching out specifically for that name. Fixing this issue means finding the Explorer add-on which is looking out for a folder called "hedgehog". Perhaps that's SyncToy.

 

[Hedge]

I run SyncToy only manually from my home-pc.
It's not even installed on my notebook and I experience the problem there as well.

 

[H2SO4]

I run SyncToy only manually from my home-pc.
It's not even installed on my notebook and I experience the problem there as well.

Alright, if you can't think of why the specific name might be significant, can you try this:

- Fire up Task Manager
- Find and highlight the Explorer process on the Processes tab
- Repro the problem
- As soon as you can after the abnormal processor utilisation starts, right-click Explorer in TM and select "create dump file". It'll dump some Explorer memory into a DMP file and pop up a window with the path info.

If you upload that dump to RapidShare or someplace similar (compress it as tightly as possible please), I or others here can take a look and perhaps tell you what's making Explorer chew the processor.

 

[SquonkSC]

Sorry to break in, but I read the posts in this thread and the synctoy story.

I think that is the way to go.

Even though the OP thinks he starts it manually, it might be running a background service.

Synctoy syncs two folders with the same name over the network.

That's why changing the name will stop the sync.
That's why two files couldn't be moved.
They were locked by a process, and what else could it be than synctoy?

Good luck fellas.

Greetz

PS. I wonder what happens when both the hedgehog folders are changed to hedgehog2.
Will they start sync again, or is synctoy not that smart?

 

[Hedge]

Synctoy isn't even installed nor was ever on my Thinkpad, so that really CAN'T be the reason.

As you already said SyncToy syncs via network, so there is no need to run it on my notebook.

 

[SquonkSC]

Synctoy isn't even installed nor was ever on my Thinkpad, so that really CAN'T be the reason.

As you already said SyncToy syncs via network, so there is no need to run it on my notebook.

But synctoy wants to sync the hedgehog on the PC with the hedgehog on the laptop.
They are connected through a network are they not?

For troubleshoot purpose, please completely uninstall synctoy from the PC.

If the problem remains, you can always install it again.

Greetz