Windows Explorer is FUBAR

[ledbetter]

Last night, while logging some hours on my desktop, a thunderstorm promptly shut me down. (No lightning strike was close, though.) After about 15 minutes the power was restored and I restarted my modem and rig to resume wasting time. After restart, I noticed my desktop was CRIPPLED! Everything seemed to boot but speed was none existent. Just pulling up firefox took about 10 minutes.

I tried to right-click a desktop icon and that's when I saw " Windows Explorer has stopped working." Followed by "Windows Explorer is restarting." The screen flickered and returned to normal, but the problem persists.

I'm assuming the abrupt shutdown has left me with a corrupt file that Explorer is trying to access, but I have no idea what it is. Has anyone had this issue before?

[Thrax]

Run memtest and boot to the Windows recovery console and run checkdisk.

[ledbetter]

Ok, memtest was not recognized, but I did find Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool. It booted to a blue screen with a status bar that seems to be working. Is this heading in the right direction?

Edit: Diagnostics is complete with no memory errors.

[ardichoke]

Memtest is a bootable CD diagnostic. I personally wouldn't trust Windows Memory Diagnostics... I've seen it miss blatantly bad memory before.

http://www.memtest.org/

Also, I agree with Thrax... run a chkdisk from the recovery console.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000627.htm

[ledbetter]

Downloaded memtest and ran from boot and finished check disk (after about 3 hours!), and the problem still persists. CPU boots just fine but running applications and internet are agonizingly slow. Right-clicking any icon on my desktop still gives me the "Windows Explorer" routine.

I've usually been successful with troubleshooting, but I'm at a loss. A couple of threads I've read suggest back up, format, reinstall. I really don't want to go down that road.

[Thrax]

Have you run checkdisk in the windows recovery console yet?

[ledbetter]

Forgive me, but I'm not sure what the recovery console is. I ran checkdisk through OS (C:) Properties (right-clicking C: drive in "My Computer"), then selecting tools. That gave me the option to run checkdisk upon restart, which it did for just over 3 hours. If you meant something else I'll gladly try it, but you might have to tell me how.

[Thrax]

That'll work, but you need to use "chkdsk c: /f" -- not just chkdsk. It otherwise won't repair issues without /f.

The last thing you can do is run physical disk scans. Pardon the copy and paste:

HitachGST's <a href="http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT" target="_blank">Drive Fitness Test</a> (DFT) CD image
Seagate's <a href="http://download.seagate.com/seatools/registration.nsf/eula/desktop" target="_blank">SeaTools for DOS</a> CD image

Evaluate the condition of your hard drive by testing it with <a href="http://icrontic.com/articles/hard_drive_diagnostics">Drive Fitness Test</a>. Should DFT fail to correctly function on your system, <a href="http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=201271" target="_blank">perform a long scan</a> with SeaTools.

[ledbetter]

Thanks, Thrax! Your help is greatly appreciated. I've got a new GPU and PSU on the way so I would be thrilled to get this solved before they arrive.

Also, I don't know if it matters but while I was playing Mass Effect, it showed absolutly NO performance isssues. Apperanly whatever is freezing my desktop has no impact on my video card. Hope that helps.

[Thrax]

That narrows it down. Before running any scans, perform this command from a cmd prompt that has been run as administrator:

SFC /SCANNOW

[ledbetter]

Slight problem. Click Start. Type Command. Right click Command Prompt to open properties and I get "Windows Explorer has stopped working.......". Is there another way to run cmd prmt as administrator?

[Thrax]

CTRL + ALT + DEL. applications tab. Click "new task." Go to "browse," find cmd.exe in c:\windows\system32. Right click, run as administrator.

[ledbetter]

How do you take a screen shot and post it on the thread? Task Manager just crashed and said it would "notify me if a solution is found." WTF!

[Thrax]

Give checkdisk a shot, then DFT or Seatools, and if those come back clean, you're in for a reformat.

[ledbetter]

Reformatting. :grumble:

I guess it's times like these when a battery backup would be helpful. Thanks for the help, sir!

[ledbetter]

Problem solved!!! I refused to give up and resort to a reformat, so after reading about a thousand treads, I found a common theme to this problem.

Shell extensions.

One in particular:
Code:

Name : CmdLineContextMenu Class
Type : Context Menu
Description : SecuROM context menu for Explorer
Version : 1,1,224,0
Product Name : (none)
Company : Sony DADC Austria AG
Filename : %SystemRoot%\system32\CmdLineExt.dll
File Extensions: .exe, exefile
File Size : 107.888

For future reference, You can use ShellExView v1.37 for a very quick solution should you encounter the same problem.

[IKoN]

REFORMAT IS MY BEST FRIEND

[ardichoke]

Ah yes... good old shell extensions always screwing life up. Never even thought to ask about that. I guess I've spent too much time in Linux-land lately. I hate that SecuROM BS too... game copy protection goes too far these days. I'd much rather deal with the Steam system of copy protection than the SecuROM system of screwing up your computer to make sure you don't dare copy a game, even if you legally own it.

[Thrax]

That would explain why I've never run into the issue. SecuROM? What's that? ;)