Laptop problem - explorer.exe crashes/freezes - FIXED!
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I tried both modes. But, as I said, Firefox is having trouble starting, and when it finally does, I get limited connectivity so I can't access the web. Might as well try to plug a cable in it and see if I can get to run HouseCall. Another thing is that Windows Security Center reports that my AV is disabled - the definitions are a couple of days old, but the AV itself is running and active.. :confused: ^ Never mind that - the Security Center is in fact complaining about the old definitions :-O
:bob: Kristian Sixhoej Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. - Chili Davis
My latest tip/trick: Dragging a Borderless Form[^]
You sure it's the real Security Center? I've seen this nasty virus going around lately that pretends to be the Security Center and an Anti-Virus and it messes with your computer like crazy (e.g., prevents you from opening stuff) and I think it even runs in safe mode. Also, you could try Internet Explorer instead of Firefox. Run "iexplore.exe -extoff" to run it without addons (in case one of them is a virus).
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You sure it's the real Security Center? I've seen this nasty virus going around lately that pretends to be the Security Center and an Anti-Virus and it messes with your computer like crazy (e.g., prevents you from opening stuff) and I think it even runs in safe mode. Also, you could try Internet Explorer instead of Firefox. Run "iexplore.exe -extoff" to run it without addons (in case one of them is a virus).
I also did run IE, but as I said, limited connectivity... :( Anyway, I guess I'll just have to clean the vents and keyboard, try the Autoruns thingy suggested below, and try to run HouseCall to see if anything helps. I should go to bed now, I'm getting up in 6.5 hours :zzz: Thanks for your time so far.
:bob: Kristian Sixhoej Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. - Chili Davis
My latest tip/trick: Dragging a Borderless Form[^]
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I've considered overheating, but shouldn't the problem occur in failsafe mode as well then? Anyway, I'm gonna clean it tomorrow morning before I go to school to see if it helps.
:bob: Kristian Sixhoej Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. - Chili Davis
My latest tip/trick: Dragging a Borderless Form[^]
Sorry missed that part. Always a good idea to clean it out anyway, but it sounds like a driver issue then. You could try disabling all startup programs via msconfig first. See what if that does anything. Then try disabling all non Microsoft services. Lastly try disabling devices one by one if all that fails. [edit]This is assuming you aren't infected with malware/rootkit/whatever.
// Steve McLenithan
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Sorry missed that part. Always a good idea to clean it out anyway, but it sounds like a driver issue then. You could try disabling all startup programs via msconfig first. See what if that does anything. Then try disabling all non Microsoft services. Lastly try disabling devices one by one if all that fails. [edit]This is assuming you aren't infected with malware/rootkit/whatever.
// Steve McLenithan
I'm going to be busy tomorrow with all those things I have to do :-D But yeah, I'll clean it tomorrow morning before I go to school and then try the other suggestions when I get there.
:bob: Kristian Sixhoej Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. - Chili Davis
My latest tip/trick: Dragging a Borderless Form[^]
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Hello everyone, Today I started having a problem with my laptop which more or less makes it completely impossible for me to use it. Explorer.exe (and any other programs as well) freezes and won't allow me to close it/them in any way. The titlebars are still responsive, so I can still move the windows around and minimize them, but not close them. I can't do ANYTHING. I tried opening task manager to see if some cr@p was running, but I couldn't open it! No wait, I could, but it took more than twenty minutes before the window showed up. And nothing suspicious was running, and CPU usage seemed to be normal. Everything is fine in failsafe mode, so I tried doing a couple of system restores from there, but didn't help at all. I am completely lost on this one, and I would really like to get this fixed soon, or I will be facing a really long day at school tomorrow (with good ol' paper and pencil, yay...) :sigh: Thanks in advance. EDIT: The problem has been fixed! I ran a test to check for memory errors and that fixed the problem right away! Woohooo! :-D Thanks to everyone who tried to help, I really appreciate it.
:bob: Kristian Sixhoej Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. - Chili Davis
My latest tip/trick: Dragging a Borderless Form[^]
modified on Thursday, August 12, 2010 11:04 AM
just out of curiosity, you aren't running anything like AMD's Performance Analyzer on an Intel box are you? It is known to to fail in ways from blue screen to lockups.... As others said, check DLL's especially anything that adds to the explorer menus. You can also use MsConfig.exe to set to a VERY clean startup and then re-enable things one at a time.... time consuming, but if you find out it is a loaded product that is causing the headache, you'll find it with some time.
_________________________ John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." Shhhhh.... I am not really here. I am a figment of your imagination.... I am still in my cave so this must be an illusion....
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just out of curiosity, you aren't running anything like AMD's Performance Analyzer on an Intel box are you? It is known to to fail in ways from blue screen to lockups.... As others said, check DLL's especially anything that adds to the explorer menus. You can also use MsConfig.exe to set to a VERY clean startup and then re-enable things one at a time.... time consuming, but if you find out it is a loaded product that is causing the headache, you'll find it with some time.
_________________________ John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." Shhhhh.... I am not really here. I am a figment of your imagination.... I am still in my cave so this must be an illusion....
El Corazon wrote:
re-enable things one at a time
I recommend a binary search (enable half the stuff, then either disable half that or enable half the remaining, depending on if the issue occurs again). That can cut off the time considerably.
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Hello everyone, Today I started having a problem with my laptop which more or less makes it completely impossible for me to use it. Explorer.exe (and any other programs as well) freezes and won't allow me to close it/them in any way. The titlebars are still responsive, so I can still move the windows around and minimize them, but not close them. I can't do ANYTHING. I tried opening task manager to see if some cr@p was running, but I couldn't open it! No wait, I could, but it took more than twenty minutes before the window showed up. And nothing suspicious was running, and CPU usage seemed to be normal. Everything is fine in failsafe mode, so I tried doing a couple of system restores from there, but didn't help at all. I am completely lost on this one, and I would really like to get this fixed soon, or I will be facing a really long day at school tomorrow (with good ol' paper and pencil, yay...) :sigh: Thanks in advance. EDIT: The problem has been fixed! I ran a test to check for memory errors and that fixed the problem right away! Woohooo! :-D Thanks to everyone who tried to help, I really appreciate it.
:bob: Kristian Sixhoej Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. - Chili Davis
My latest tip/trick: Dragging a Borderless Form[^]
modified on Thursday, August 12, 2010 11:04 AM
I came across something similar a few eeks ago on a HP laptop with Win 7. It was caused by AVG (free version). Removed it, replaced with another AV and problem was cured. Rich
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Hello everyone, Today I started having a problem with my laptop which more or less makes it completely impossible for me to use it. Explorer.exe (and any other programs as well) freezes and won't allow me to close it/them in any way. The titlebars are still responsive, so I can still move the windows around and minimize them, but not close them. I can't do ANYTHING. I tried opening task manager to see if some cr@p was running, but I couldn't open it! No wait, I could, but it took more than twenty minutes before the window showed up. And nothing suspicious was running, and CPU usage seemed to be normal. Everything is fine in failsafe mode, so I tried doing a couple of system restores from there, but didn't help at all. I am completely lost on this one, and I would really like to get this fixed soon, or I will be facing a really long day at school tomorrow (with good ol' paper and pencil, yay...) :sigh: Thanks in advance. EDIT: The problem has been fixed! I ran a test to check for memory errors and that fixed the problem right away! Woohooo! :-D Thanks to everyone who tried to help, I really appreciate it.
:bob: Kristian Sixhoej Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. - Chili Davis
My latest tip/trick: Dragging a Borderless Form[^]
modified on Thursday, August 12, 2010 11:04 AM
ran into a similar problem with my desktop recently...I even went as far as completely wiping the hard drive and installing new...didn't help (even the windows install took about 6hrs to complete). Eventually just replaced/upgraded the mobo/ram/cpu and all was fine so one of the 3 was causing the problem...probably the mobo since I've since used the ram in another machine
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ran into a similar problem with my desktop recently...I even went as far as completely wiping the hard drive and installing new...didn't help (even the windows install took about 6hrs to complete). Eventually just replaced/upgraded the mobo/ram/cpu and all was fine so one of the 3 was causing the problem...probably the mobo since I've since used the ram in another machine
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Hello everyone, Today I started having a problem with my laptop which more or less makes it completely impossible for me to use it. Explorer.exe (and any other programs as well) freezes and won't allow me to close it/them in any way. The titlebars are still responsive, so I can still move the windows around and minimize them, but not close them. I can't do ANYTHING. I tried opening task manager to see if some cr@p was running, but I couldn't open it! No wait, I could, but it took more than twenty minutes before the window showed up. And nothing suspicious was running, and CPU usage seemed to be normal. Everything is fine in failsafe mode, so I tried doing a couple of system restores from there, but didn't help at all. I am completely lost on this one, and I would really like to get this fixed soon, or I will be facing a really long day at school tomorrow (with good ol' paper and pencil, yay...) :sigh: Thanks in advance. EDIT: The problem has been fixed! I ran a test to check for memory errors and that fixed the problem right away! Woohooo! :-D Thanks to everyone who tried to help, I really appreciate it.
:bob: Kristian Sixhoej Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. - Chili Davis
My latest tip/trick: Dragging a Borderless Form[^]
modified on Thursday, August 12, 2010 11:04 AM
Kristian Sixhoej wrote:
EDIT: The problem has been fixed! I ran a test to check for memory errors and that fixed the problem right away!
Ram errors or hard drive errors? I'm having trouble understanding how either could be causing your problem.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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Kristian Sixhoej wrote:
EDIT: The problem has been fixed! I ran a test to check for memory errors and that fixed the problem right away!
Ram errors or hard drive errors? I'm having trouble understanding how either could be causing your problem.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
I pressed F8 to get to the boot menu. I actually wanted to boot in safe mode, but then I saw the 'Repair' option in the menu, and from there I got to another menu where I could choose between System Restore, some things I don't remember, and the mentioned test. As far as I understood, it tested the RAM, and said that the results would be shown when I logged on - that didn't happen, but it seems to have fixed the problem.
:bob: Kristian Sixhoej Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. - Chili Davis
My latest tip/trick: Dragging a Borderless Form[^]