Re: Windows explorer constantly frozen

On Mar 19, 12:02 am, Bruce <parcx...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
ryan.externaldri...@xxxxxxxxx wrote innews:1174194726.340359.241810@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:



On Mar 17, 6:19 pm, ryan.externaldri...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Mar 17, 2:19 pm, Bruce <parcx...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

ryan.externaldri...@xxxxxxxxx wrote in
news:1174151482.337857.141890 @y66g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

I do not know what is wrong. My computer (which has been running
Win XP SP2 fine for ~3 months) is suddenly having problems. I am
NOT new to windows, or computers, and realize there is something
wrong with windows. My problem below:

This problem just appeared randomly a few days ago with no
warning, and no "fade into it". my system is actually perfectly
fine, except explorer (and only explorer) is unfathomably slow.
Anything to do with file browsing, task bar, start menu, is all
hung constantly. For short periods, it will suddenly jump to
life and act normally until I issue a command, or a random (and
short) amount of time has passed, then it will freeze again,
trying to execute my command (in the event I gave it one).

What is strange about this is the rest of the OS is acting
completely normally, and I can view all my files fine through
Firefox (luckily).

Please let me know if you have ever heard of this problem and/or
know what to do.

Note: Two points of info:
A. I've noticed when I first login, it seems normal, except:
1. explorer is not started (but it's trying, and accomplishes
starting in about ~30mins.)
2. the memory consumption is ~270 megabytes, instead of the
normal idle of ~ 380 megabytes (I suspect some services that are
also having trouble because of explorer are not yet started, or
are very slow to acquire their required resources).

B: I HAVE turned off the windows imaging thing, so don't suggest
that (I just see that a lot, so don't in advance)

Once again, please help me, and thank you in advance if you have
an idea or solution. I can try to provide more info if
necessary.

I had this problem once. It turned out that a networked pc to
which I had once mapped was no longer on the network (I had
decomissioned the networked pc). Since the pc was no longer on the
network, my working pc's windows explorer would spend lots of time
trying to find it, which it never could. And, since the pc was
decomissioned, I could not disconnect the network drive.

To test if this is your problem, disable your network connection so
that you can't hunt for any mapped drives. If the problem goes
away, I suspect this is your problem.

Next, the fix was to find every instance in my registry that
pointed to the decomissioned pc. Here's how I did that:

I donw loaded RegScanner, and looked in HKCR for anything pointing
to "\\". I found plenty that pointed to two machines that were
wipped clean a while ago. I deleted these lines in the registry,
and my problem was fixed.

Let us know what you find.

HTH,
Bruce

Ok, I'll see if that's the problem, but I don't think I ever tried to
connect to a drive somewhere else, but the problem could quite
possibly have to do with something similar to this.

New Post:
I would still appreciate any advice, but I'm changing the priority of
mt problem from "I'm going crazy! Please help!" to "this is odd, but
oh well"

Reasoning: I found a semi-solution that's good enough for me for now
- Explorer and all file browsing used to be almost constantly locked
up, but I can get around that like this (and if you don't mind not
having a task bar, this is for you!)

First make a copy of explorer but don't do anything to it or the
original

When I boot up and log on, I kill explorer and start the copy. This
allows me, in short, to have completely functional system (and normal
speed too! :D) just with no task bar and no desktop icons. But this
is actually better in my mind! I get the extra ~1cm of extra height
back the task bar was using, and I can still minimize and restore
windows normally, and I never liked all those icons cluttering my
desktop anyways!

To conclude: *My system is back and better than ever, but a little odd
(but I like it!)

To both of you who helped, thanks a alot! That task viewer is sweet!
(hard to believe micro$oft came up with it :) and I believe the
network is a likely problem many might have and they should consider
it for themselves. I never did actually find the cause, but I'm OK
with this (see above*).

Glad you found a suitable workaround. Let me suggest another possible,
easy fix.

Have you tried doing a system restore to point in time just before the
problem started?

Bruce

I thought of that, but two things stopped me:

1. Last time (a long time ago) I tried that for something else, it
moved files around to where they used to be (but not all of them 0_o),
and
2. I don't remember where to do that, but if I had, I don't think I
could have navigated to that point in less than ~2 hours! :)

but I'll give it a go and tell you what happens

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Empty My Network Places
    ... Windows + E to open Explorer. ... Entire Network displayed. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web)
  • Re: Windows explorer constantly frozen
    ... NOT new to windows, or computers, and realize there is something ... except explorer is unfathomably slow. ... Anything to do with file browsing, task bar, start menu, is all ... network, my working pc's windows explorer would spend lots of time ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Windows explorer constantly frozen
    ... to windows, or computers, and realize there is something wrong with ... explorer is unfathomably slow. ... Since the pc was no longer on the network, ... I deleted these lines in the registry, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Windows explorer constantly frozen
    ... NOT new to windows, or computers, and realize there is something ... except explorer is unfathomably slow. ... Anything to do with file browsing, task bar, start menu, is all ... network, my working pc's windows explorer would spend lots of time ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Windows explorer constantly frozen
    ... to windows, or computers, and realize there is something wrong with ... explorer is unfathomably slow. ... Since the pc was no longer on the network, ... you can't hunt for any mapped drives. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)