Windows Explorer Crashes Frequently

[Casperrr]

HI

Have researched this and at an end of my rope, as it were, with this issue.

The problem has become more frequent, oten happening when entering a folder inside explorer and also, when trying to save a Notepad file.
All appear to be application crashes

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Explorer.EXE
Application Version: 6.1.7600.16768
Application Timestamp: 4d688122
Fault Module Name: SHELL32.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7600.16644
Fault Module Timestamp: 4c4ef25d
Exception Code: c000041d
Exception Offset: 000000000009ab6e
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 1257
Additional Information 2: 1257d3cdb4b4ecf59b5ff995bcbbc1eb
Additional Information 3: 73b5
Additional Information 4: 73b503dad3821559494c46e4c946c9ca


Any help would be appreciated

 

[therealjustin]

I don't know the cause, but my W7 machine(clean installed in October 2010) is doing the same thing. I am getting random explorer.exe crashes and ntdll.dll crashes with no apparent reason.


I don't know for certain, but it seems likely it is being caused by a recent update. Have you updated any graphics card drivers lately? I just upgraded to nVidia's 270.61 and it seems like since then my system has gone downhill. Maybe just a coincidence but in my experience the computer world rarely has those.

 

[Nick92]

Hi there, Have you scanned your computer for any viruses i know it sounds pathetic but usually this is the case with explorer disappearing....make sure you scan in safe mode though....you may have a faulty driver like justin has just said.... if yoou updated anything lately make sure you roll back them in device manager...if not try to repair windows with you installation disk hope this helps

 

[Athene]

I don't know the cause, but my W7 machine(clean installed in October 2010) is doing the same thing. I am getting random explorer.exe crashes and ntdll.dll crashes with no apparent reason.


I don't know for certain, but it seems likely it is being caused by a recent update. Have you updated any graphics card drivers lately? I just upgraded to nVidia's 270.61 and it seems like since then my system has gone downhill. Maybe just a coincidence but in my experience the computer world rarely has those.

Hi,

I have been having a similar issue since I installed the recommended out-of-band Microsoft updates in April. One of the updates is actually supposed to fix Windows Explorer issues. I am wondering if it ended up doing the opposite:
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/159549-6-new-updates-4-26-11-a.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2515325
I have opened my own thread and have to see if the update is indeed responsible for the issue.

 

[Casperrr]

Thanks for the suggestions - will look into all.

 

[therealjustin]

I was going to create another thread but since this seems to be an issue which is becoming more and more common, I'll keep this thread going.


I am really frustrated to be honest.


After dealing with quite a few issues this past month with my W7 machine I decided to do a clean install Wednesday night. I installed all the drivers and then installed all of the updates including SP1. I turned on the machine tonight and went to install a new update and explorer.exe crashed!


I tested the RAM, tested the hard drive, my PSU is working perfectly, and my motherboard is rock solid. The problem is obviously with the software and it must be a recent update as PallasAthene said that is causing the problem. Now what can we do about it?

 

[Athene]

Hi therealjustin,

I think there are basically two things which can be done - I strongly suspect that it is KB2515325 which is causing the trouble, so maybe it has to be uninstalled. It is supposed to solve Windows Explorer crashes. I only know that I after I installed it along with the other recommended updates, my computer experienced problems with Windows Explorer.

The second possibility (which I think is better because it avoids vague guesswork and fiddling around with updates) consists of creating a dump which will be generated whenever Explorer crashes. You can then upload the dump to sevenforums and see if the problem can be pinpointed by a dump expert. More instructions are over here under step 5 (recommended to me by usasma in my own thread):
http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lo...-explorer-exe-crashing-issues.html#post903148

I've seen the dump method being used extensively and very successfully - by Andre Ziegler, who is mentioned in the link above, on Microsoft TechNet - to troubleshoot Windows Explorer issues.

The problem with my own Windows Explorer issue is that it does not occur during every computer session. It seems randomly spread across computer sessions. In other words: I cannot reproduce it at will. I have not tried out the dump method as yet since I have gone back to using my old Vista machine for the timebeing.

 

[Casperrr]

Thanks for more info.

 

[chrysalis]

I too have this issue, it seems to be recent during past month or so.

Its not very frequent, I had a explorer crash 2 mins ago and one before that about 3-4 weeks back, also one or 2 on spare machine.

Whats annoying about it is all explorer windows close when it crashes, even tho I have the use seperate process option enabled.

 

[Athene]

Hi chrysalis,

It's best to install this registry key listed under step 5 over here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lo...-explorer-exe-crashing-issues.html#post903148

The next time Windows Explorer crashes, a dump will be generated; you can upload it to sevenforums (or if it's too big you can use a file hosting service like sendspace) and have it analysed to identify the exact problem and further steps. Guesswork is no good in this case

 

[JMH]

I too have this issue, it seems to be recent during past month or so.

Its not very frequent, I had a explorer crash 2 mins ago and one before that about 3-4 weeks back, also one or 2 on spare machine.

Whats annoying about it is all explorer windows close when it crashes, even tho I have the use seperate process option enabled.

chrysalis,

*Type event viewer, in search (by start button) and look for errors that may show the cause of the problem.
Look for critical errors (they have red in the left column ).
Note critical errors that say app hang, app crash, or anything that relates to the problem.
Google for more information.

* Try a clean boot, or boot into safe mode.
Does the behavior persist?
How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html

* Run DiskCleanup
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/818-disk-cleanup-open-use.html

* How to Repair Windows 7 System Files with System File Checker
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

* Then run checkdisk (chkdsk).
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html