Re: Explorer.exe not responding (need to end/start it)
From: Steve Go (SteveGo_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 01/10/05
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Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 21:17:03 -0800
Thanks Don -- I will try some of the suggestions you summarized.
I did try creating a new account -- no change.
I did notice an odd service that starts automatically: DGZEFEMAY.EXE on the
SYSTEM32 folder. I never heard of it, could find nothing on it via google so
disabled it -- but no change in behaviour. Ever heard of DGZEFEMAY?
More trial and error to come I see...
"Don Taylor" wrote:
> "=?Utf-8?B?U3RldmUgR28=?=" <SteveGo@discussions.microsoft.com> writes:
> >I have XP PRO, SP2 with all current updates. Recently Explorer.exe (not IE)
> >is unresponsive. If I watch it in task manager, it just consumes memory up to
> >about 28k or so and levels off. However, if I try to click on MY COMPUTER,
> >CONTROL PANEL or anything that is not a direct shortcut to an application, I
> >get an hour glass for a while and then nothing.
>
> >If I kill EXPLORER.EXE and start it again from task manager (Run
> >explorer.exe), the problem occassionally does not reappear and everything is
> >fine until a reboot.
>
> >However, it seems that on booting, if I click on MY COMPUTER quickly --
> >before all items are on the task bad and the entire start up is not complete
> >-- I do not seem to have a problem.
>
> >I am at a loss as to how to debug this...any ideas? I am leaning towards
> >thinking that there is a sequence issue and something that is being started
> >'later' at start up is conflicting with something started 'sooner' but I
> >can't tell what and am leery at trying all permutations -- assuming there is
> >someway to identify the order in which things get started!
>
> >Thoughts?
>
> >Thanks much
>
> New developments listed at the bottom of this, but still no fix, yet.
>
> If you have recently installed SP2 on your computer then
> there have now been over 200 people reporting very similar problems
> to what you are reporting. Some find that anything which uses
> Windows Explorer (Recycle bin, folder shortcuts, control panel,
> search, etc) all have a similar problem. Some find that right
> clicks are their major problem. Some find any click. Some find
> it crashes on open. Some find it refuses any clicks. Some claim
> they know how to fix this but I've read the tens of thousands of
> postings on SP2 and I don't think you will find any with "the fix"
> for this, at least not yet. Less than a dozen people ever reported
> finding a solution for this.
>
> But, some find it will work when you boot in safe mode.
>
> And, some find it will work when you create a new user and switch
> to that user to try it.
>
> One of those might be a temporary work-around till you get an answer.
>
> Some claim it is all spyware and viruses but I haven't seen any
> posting that confirmed this for the Windows Explorer problem. I
> carefully and repeatedly checked, no viruses or spyware and my
> windows explorer locks up every time. <<<Late breaking news, after
> hundreds of people reporting this problem, ONE person did let me
> know that trendmicro actually found a WORM_SDDROP.A virus/worm, he
> removed that and it appeared to solve his problem, so that's 10,000
> times people chanting "it's all viruses and spyware" and one correct
> diagnosis>>>
>
> Some claim it is all "bad applications" like Divx or Spy Sweeper
> being installed that is responsible for this, a very few people
> have confirmed this appeared to be the source of their problem but
> others have these installed and have no problem, most reporting the
> problem don't have these installed and still have the problem. I
> don't have either and it locks up every time. And unfortunately
> there is still no list of specific files known to cause this.
>
> Some claim it is all "ShellExtensions", little accessory gadgets
> that sort of script extra cute features. The advice for that is
> to install free ShellExView and to try (carefully) disabling these
> features one at a time, if turning one off doesn't do anything then
> turn it back on and try again. I did that with all 75 at once and
> it made no difference at all. Two people have reported that disabling
> one extension they had did appear to fix their problem.
>
> Some claim it is all "corrupted user profiles" that are the
> cause of this but I've never been able to track down a tool that
> would check a user profile to see if it was corrupted. There was
> one web page that Microsoft had which described a way of reporting
> errors found in this but this doesn't appear feasible for XP.
>
> You can try to uninstall SP2, there are various descriptions of how
> to do that, using Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs or using a
> Restore point or doing a Repair Install of Windows or reformatting
> your hard drive, each of those is a bigger hammer than the previous
> method, but a number of folks have reported having various problems
> when they try to remove SP2 or after they do so. To be fair, SP2
> probably fixes thousands of small and massive bugs in Windows XP
> and if you can get it to work it is probably a good thing to have.
>
> You can escalate to Microsoft, go to
> http://support.microsoft.com/windowsxpsp2 and give them all the
> details and clues and patterns you can find. There is no guarantee
> that their analysis or directions will be correct or even not make
> it worse. They told me I must "have some corrupted files, repair
> windows back to install state and then reinstall SP2 twice while
> in Safe mode." Before I did that someone posted the "switch user"
> workaround that let me get by temporarily. I sent email saying
> that if it worked for one user then it seemed less likely it was
> "some corrupted files" and asked if they still wanted me to blow
> windows away. They have not reponded to that in a number of days
> now. But I can imagine what it is like inside now.
>
> You can try each one of these things and see if any one of them
> helps, but don't expect a fix.
>
> <<<New Developments>>>
> I just spent another two hours in chat with Microsoft Support, he
> changed his diagnosis a dozen times, going back to things we had
> already concluded had nothing to do with this, he thought that a
> file might have been corrupted during installation and this would
> leave an error message in /windows/setuperr.log, that file is empty,
> so he thought there might be answers in /windows/setupapi.log but
> he said he was not trained to know how to interpret that file, and
> the final conclusion was that he didn't know how to fix this one
> and I was "escalated", again.
>
> So the next guy had me run msconfig, in the startup tab disable all
> items, in the service tab hide all Microsoft services and disable
> all, reboot the machine, tell it not to show or launch the config
> window... If the problem had disappeared after this was done then
> the instructions were to begin enabling these items one at a time
> until the one was found that made this fail. My Windows Explorer
> problem was unchanged and I was "escalated" again.
>
> So the next guy had me download a copy of Process Explorer and dump
> out all the dll's that are connected with Windows Explorer and mail
> them to him. Just like the situation with shell extensions, I see
> that all but a couple of these are Microsoft supplied. After he had
> seen the list he asked that I rename some of the non-Microsoft dll's
> and reboot, likely to see if they were responsible. The problem was
> still there and I've restored the original names. Now we seem to be
> back to square one and he's asking again if this happens in Safe
> mode, which we have already repeatedly covered.
>
> Now we've sent him HijackThis logs, 3 megabytes of ntuser.dat, he
> keeps claiming they DO have a process for figuring this out but
> there just isn't anything that can diagnose what the problem is and
> they just keep trying things until the problem seems to go away.
> And he asks me to send him HijackThis logs again. He admits that
> lots of people have problems with Windows Explorer and that usually
> they can figure something out but that there is no list of known
> file names/sizes/dates/version numbers that fail, there is no list
> of steps a person can follow to track this down. And they spent a
> billion bucks making Sp2 more secure and bug free! But that doesn't
> put anything in the event log for Windows Explorer failures and the
> flood of error reports send to them when people have this happens
> apparently doesn't give them any clue what the cause is either.
>
> Another week goes by before he responds... and he didn't find
> anything in the HijackThis logs this time either. And he didn't
> find anything in ntuser.dat. Now he has me back to msconfig,
> turning everything off in msconfig for selective startup and
> rebooting, with a cute little note that doing this isn't recommended
> for anyone but a pro to do. The problem is still there. As a
> bonus, his directions have now blown away my Windows activation and
> it is telling me that the computer has changed and I have to
> reactivate, even though nothing has changed in months.
>
> That didn't do solve the problem so now he concludes it must be one
> of the hardware drivers and he tells me to start disabling those
> until we find the culprit. But this is senseless, we have already
> ruled that out because switching to a freshly created new user makes
> the problem go away. He hasn't answered whether he still wants me
> to disable the drivers yet.
>
> Can you say "clueless groping, hoping for a miracle"? 3 1/2 weeks
> of playing this game with them and no sign that any progress has
> been made.
>
> So I have repeatedly told them I don't just want to randomly change
> things until we don't notice the problem anymore, I'm going to track
> down the real root cause of this one and we are going to get a fix
> for this.
>
> I hope something in this helps someone. But it appears that the
> large majority of people never get a fix for the "Windows Explorer"
> problem. If someone tells you to try something and it doesn't help
> then please make a posting so we can start accumulating what
> suggestions don't do any good. And if someone tells you something
> that does work then please report it.
>
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- In reply to: Don Taylor: "Re: Explorer.exe not responding (need to end/start it)"
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