Not BSOD but Windows 7 Explorer.exe Crashing Randomly

[sanzen07]

Hi all,

I have been trying to track down this very frustrating problem for a very long time now (probably 1-2 years). My Windows 7 64-bit Professional install has an unrelenting explorer.exe crash issue where randomly I get the error message "Windows explorer has stopped working" and explorer.exe will restart. It appears to happen without warning and with no apparent pattern. I have tried everything I know to do. I have done multiple clean Windows 7 reinstalls, run memtest86+ for many hours, swapped out motherboards, swapped out hard drives (SSD + mechanical), systematically and methodically uninstalled pieces of software one a time in order to try and root out the cause and disabled all third party shell extensions. Still this infuriating issue persists. Is there anything else I can try? I have captured a crash dump from a recent crash and can attach if requested. Any help would be appreciated. Two entries that are logged in Windows event viewer after a crash are as follows:

Faulting application name: Explorer.EXE, version: 6.1.7601.17567, time stamp: 0x4d672ee4
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000042a0fd8
Faulting process id: 0x13ec
Faulting application start time: 0x01d1310d178ef383
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 661dc49d-9d02-11e5-8dc8-00224d844281

Fault bucket , type 0
Event Name: BEX64
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: Explorer.EXE
P2: 6.1.7601.17567
P3: 4d672ee4
P4: StackHash_c386
P5: 0.0.0.0
P6: 00000000
P7: 00000000042a0fd8
P8: c0000005
P9: 0000000000000008
P10: 

Attached files:

These files may be available here:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_Explorer.EXE_fdb9afb7cbae1f86108897d417f0f5d868924f4b_14a4e659

Analysis symbol: 
Rechecking for solution: 0
Report Id: 661dc49d-9d02-11e5-8dc8-00224d844281
Report Status: 0

My relevant specs are as follows:

Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge
Intel DZ77GA-70K Motherboard
16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 1600mhz DDR3 (CML16GX3M4A1600C9)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2048MB "Windforce 3x" 256-bit PCI-E 3.0 (GV-N670OC-2GD)
ASUS Xonar Essence ST PCI Sound Card
Intel 730 Series 240GB SSD as boot drive
WD Black 1TB as secondary drive
Samsung SH-S203N SATA DVD Writer with Lightscribe
Seasonic X-560 SS-560KM 560 Watt ATX Power Supply

 

[Callender]

Enable WER service and download the reg file from this tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lo...bleshooting-explorer-exe-crashing-issues.html

Upload the explorer crash dump (zipped)

Maybe it points to a specific dll. If it doesn't then it could be tricky to solve.

RE: Uninstalling software. If you use Add/ Remove programs to uninstall - on many occasions you'll be left with a shell extension, driver or service that has not been removed.

RE: Software. Check for updates for everything especially anything where you see an entry for that software when you right clik on a drive or folder. Then you'd need to inspect the right click menu for all types of file.

 

[sanzen07]

Explorer.exe crash dump attached.

 

[Callender]

Looks like a problem with shell32.dll

SYMBOL_NAME:  shell32!CShellTaskScheduler::_TT_MsgWaitForMultipleObjects+aa

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: shell32

IMAGE_NAME:  shell32.dll

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  55c3a0ed

STACK_COMMAND:  ~20s; .ecxr ; kb

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  SOFTWARE_NX_FAULT_INVALID_c0000005_shell32.dll!CShellTaskScheduler::_TT_MsgWaitForMultipleObjects

BUCKET_ID:  X64_APPLICATION_FAULT_SOFTWARE_NX_FAULT_INVALID_BAD_IP_shell32!CShellTaskScheduler::_TT_MsgWaitForMultipleObjects+aa

I reckon that you'll need to replace it and for good measure explorer.exe along with it.

Do you have a Windows 7 Pro installation DVD or ISO?

If you have an ISO extract explorer.exe from:

\sources\install.wim\4\Windows\

and shell32.dll from

\sources\install.wim\4\Windows\System32\

You'll need 7-Zip to extract them or 7-Zip Portable

It would also be a good idea to make a system image backup.

Let us know when you've extracted the files (extract to C:/Files) - create Files folder in root of C:/