"Windows Explorer has stopped working" - help!

[Marty McFly]

Please can someone help!

My problem:
I keep getting the message: "Windows Explorer has stopped working". I click "Restart the program" but the error keeps coming back. Safe Mode works fine, but when I boot normally, none of the desktop icons appear and I just get this error message.

Error details:
Problem Event Name: InPageError
Error Status Code: c000009c
Faulting Media Type: 00000003
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3

Processes currently running in Task Manager:
dwm.exe
explorer.exe
WerFault.exe
taskhost.exe
taskmgr.exe
winlogon.exe
atiedxx.exe (my video card)
SaiVolume.exe (volume monitor for my keyboard)
csrss.exe

My specs:
Windows 7 Home Premuim 64bit
CPU: Intel Quad Core i7 860 2.80GHz
MB: ASUS P7P55D iP55 — 8 channel audio ATX
RAM: 3x2Gb (PC3-10600 1333MHz RAM CL9 Unbuffered NON-ECC 1.5V 256Meg x 64)
Graphics card: Sapphire ATI Radeon 4670 HD 750Mhz 512MB PCI-Express DVI (Ultimate Edition)

What I've already tried doing:
My first instinct was to do a System Restore. I tried doing this with several restore points, but I kept getting this error:

"System Restore did not complete successfully. Your computer's system files and settings were not changed. Details: System Restore failed while mounting the registry from the restor point. Unspecified error (0x800703f8)"

I also tried uninstalling the camcorder's software. But after a successful uninstallation, the problem still persists.

I also removed just about every unnecessary Startup item on the list (using msconfig).

Cause of the problem:
It's probably something to do with the my new Panasonic camcorder (either the camcorder's software or the video files). I recently installed the bundled software and copied a few video files over. The files are large m2ts files (4GiB each) and there's about 60GiB in total.

If I simply went into one of the folders containing these files, the Explorer window would often stop responding (the blue "progress" bar would move along the address bar, like it was processing something). Sometimes it recovered and sometimes it didn't. Also, the camcorder software would sometimes cause my PC to responding, forcing me to reset my machine.

After a day or two of these problems, I decided to stop using the camcorder software. Instead, I tried playing the m2ts video files using my regular media player (KMPlayer, which I've never had any problems with before). One of the video files opened and started playing, but that's when I first got this error which has persisted ever since.

This is the first time I've had any problems with Windows 7 since I installed it. Although (this may be unrelated) I have noticed lately that the "Welcome" screen (after login) seems to be taking about 30 seconds to disappear now, while it used to be just a few seconds. This change happened a couple of weeks ago and was a mystery to me as I didn't install anything new at the time.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[richc46]

Works in safe mode but not with clean boot (Msconfig)
Probably a driver
Go to search
device manager
Look for any yellow warning markers
Make sure that all the drivers are up to date for the newly installed software.

 

[Marty McFly]

device manager
Look for any yellow warning markers

No, there aren't any warning markers on any of them.

Make sure that all the drivers are up to date for the newly installed software.

Not entirely sure what you mean. There's no new hardware (my camcorder uses SD cards which plug into a USB port). When I installed the camcorder software I made sure I checked for the latest version of the software. But I've uninstalled that now anyway.

Thanks for the quick response by the way!

 

[richc46]

ME Bad. The word "the" should not have been there. I merely suggested to check the driver for any newly installed software.

You said that you had done this before, just try again to be sure of the situation. If this does not work, I really lean toward a driver.
How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

 

[Zeplash]

Does it restart after failing or do you manually restart explorer.exe?

 

[Marty McFly]

Does it restart after failing or do you manually restart explorer.exe?

I manually restart it.

It actually gives me two options:

• Check online for a solution and restart the program
• Restart the program

Both result in the error dialogue disappearing for about 2 seconds and the Task Bar being briefly useable… before the error pops up again and Explorer won't work at all.