Windows Explorer has Stopped Working

[bearcat22]

Yes, I am aware that Win 7 is out of date.
I cannot afford to upgrade, and this machine would not run an upgrade.

Machine is HP p6710f, running Win 7.
Problem: constant crashes when I am running a computer game, and streaming Amazon Prime video at that same time.

The Windows key sometimes will switch me back and forth between the movie and the game, but frequently does nothing.

I then have to hit CTL ALT DEL and hit "switch to" to change.


SFC scannow found no errors


FFFF
Ff
F


Extremely frequently, the game and/or the video freeze up. I extremely frequently get the error message "windows explorer has stopped working".

Well, I've tried a bunch of "fixes" listed on Google, and I still get this error. What is windows explorer, and WHY does it keep crashing my game?

Game is downloaded from Steam website, and is named "Company of Heroes Tales of Valor"

I've tried updating the drivers, and nothing will update.

I am aware that with many computer games, you are supposed to ONLY run the game and turn off all background processes. I don't care. I want to switch back and forth between the game and Amazon Prime streaming video. Frequenly. Without these constant crashes.

I've tried using Firefox instead of Chrome. I've tried going into processes and it always shows that I have a HUGE amount of free RAM, even with the game and the streaming running.

And no, there is ZERO support for this game.

 

[Megahertz07]

Run check disk
Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
chkdsk c: /f
It will say your disk is in use and if you want to schedule to next start = Yes

Pay attention on the results, specially bad blocks, bad clusters, bad sectors...

 

[GoldenDog]

Can you put more specs (HDD/SSD, RAM, Video card etc) Windows explorer is what you use to browse your files and it runs your taskbar

 

[bearcat22]

Can you put more specs (HDD/SSD, RAM, Video card etc) Windows explorer is what you use to browse your files and it runs your taskbar

• ATI Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics(16) Up to 1919MB Total Available Graphics Memory as allocated by Windows 7
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - makes everyday tasks simple—and makes new things possible
• 4GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM memory(3) (2x2GB) (expandable to 16GB)
• AMD Athlon II 640 Quad-Core Processor. Monitor sold separately.
• 1TB (Terabyte) [7200RPM Serial ATA] hard drive
• AMD Athlon II 640 Quad-Core Processor
• 4GB PC3-10600 DDR3

• 1TB (7200RPM) SATA, SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology
• ATI Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics.
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

 

[Megahertz07]

For future use, edit your profile with all your hardware specs
User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

Did you ran check disk?

 

[bearcat22]

For future use, edit your profile with all your hardware specs
User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

Did you ran check disk?

That will take quite some time. I will have to do it overnight and report back tomorrow.

 

[Megahertz07]

chkdsk c: /f will take less than 5 minutes

 

[bearcat22]

chkdsk c: /f will take less than 5 minutes

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\beatcat>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is OS.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
678656 file records processed.
File verification completed.
18787 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
0 EA records processed.
76 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
801008 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
678656 file SDs/SIDs processed.
Security descriptor verification completed.
61177 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
36506736 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

963120127 KB total disk space.
876254864 KB in 598556 files.
334704 KB in 61178 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
816767 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
85713792 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
240780031 total allocation units on disk.
21428448 allocation units available on disk.

C:\Users\beatcat>
C:\Users\beatcat>

 

[Mike8615]

Try an elevated command prompt and run sfc /scannow

 

[bearcat22]

Try an elevated command prompt and run sfc /scannow

I do not know how to save or copy the results.
SFC /scannow says:

"Windows Resource Protection did not find
any integrity violations"

 

[Mike8615]

I do not know how to save or copy the results.
SFC /scannow says:

"Windows Resource Protection did not find
any integrity violations"

That shows there is no system file corruption which is good. From my experience with Win 7 its always some poorly written software or driver that causes Explorer problems. I've had luck using third party software like Windows Repair (All In One) Tweaking.com - Windows Repair Free/Pro

 

[bearcat22]

That shows there is no system file corruption which is good. From my experience with Win 7 its always some poorly written software or driver that causes Explorer problems. I've had luck using third party software like Windows Repair (All In One) Tweaking.com - Windows Repair Free/Pro

thank you for the advice. My experience has been that third-party software such as this contains malware, spyware, adware, trojans, etc

something I notice inside Task Manager is that certain things turn themselves back on after I "End Process". Most notably Adobe stuff.

Malwarebytes says nothing is wrong

 

[Megahertz07]

Probably there is another program conflicting with explorer.
Try a Clean boot.
Run msconfig:
On service, select hide MS services, than disable all others.
On Startup disable all and reboot.

Use a clean boot for some time to see if the problem is gone.

 

[bearcat22]

Probably there is another program conflicting with explorer.
Try a Clean boot.
Run msconfig:
On service, select hide MS services, than disable all others.
On Startup disable all and reboot.

Use a clean boot for some time to see if the problem is gone.

Thank you. Could you please clarify?
"for some time" is vague.
Did you instead mean to say "several times"?

 

[Megahertz07]

A clean boot runs Windows without third party services and startup programs.
For some time I mean for some days.
If it runs without freezing, then you enable half services and half startup programs. If the problem returns, you will know that is in that half, if it doesn't it's on the other half.
On the problematic half, you disable half etc till you find witch service / program is the bad guy.

 

[torchwood]

Hi

dont forget to run KB947821, SURT.

Roy

 

[bearcat22]

A clean boot runs Windows without third party services and startup programs.
For some time I mean for some days.
If it runs without freezing, then you enable half services and half startup programs. If the problem returns, you will know that is in that half, if it doesn't it's on the other half.
On the problematic half, you disable half etc till you find witch service / program is the bad guy.

Thank you for that very easy to understand explanation, it is greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately, suppose I were a heroin addict. And I got sick.
You said, Stop using for several days, then start up again and see which batch made you sick.
I'm not kidding.
Several days without the internet?
No.
That would be like saying "several days without breathing"

 

[bearcat22]

Hi

dont forget to run KB947821, SURT.

Roy

Thank you for the suggestion, but you appear to think that I would know what that is.

 

[torchwood]

Its the windows system repair tool

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20858

Roy

 

[bearcat22]

Its the windows system repair tool

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20858

Roy

Thank you. Will this erase my data?

It just sits there saying it is doing something, but nothing ever happens.