Windows Explorer crashes when viewing certain folders 10

[BooYaKaSha]

I have this bizarre problem that keeps popping up and is really starting to annoy me:

I have all my documents and my backup files on a D: drive. When I open and view certain folders in Explorer, suddenly that Explorer window quits and I can't access any of the files in there. Usually, but not always, this occurs in a folder in which I have Images.

In the case of my backup files, I can open and view the folder, but when I try to run the installation program, it fails.

And yet still when I try to do any of the above, I get a "Windows Explorer has encountered an error and needs to close..." error, then all of my explorer processes close, including my start menu, and I have to manually restart explorer.

When I copy the parent folder to the desktop and run/open it from there is works fine. I've run Scandisk many times and it never found any problems.

Is there some sort of a limit on the amount of characters in a path & filename that would be causing this error?

Thanks

 

[joemck2004]

Have you tried chkdsk-ing the drive? That usually fixed it for me. Failing that, try copying the files out with a command prompt, deleting the folder, re-creating it and copying the files back in.

 

[BigDud]

Mr. ZapRowsdower: you said you found a fix but I don't understand it. Where's the place to turn off thumbnails?

BTW, your description fits my situation EXACTLY. But I'm not sure whether or not Photoshop has anything to do with it. I've been struggling with this for weeks now. Does Microsoft have anything to say?

 

[ZapRowsdower]

BigDud - In Windows Explorer, go to a folder containing images. Right click on any image name. Click on the "PhotoShop Image" tab and UNCHECK "create thumbnails."

Let me know if you need anymore help!

 

[BigDud]

Z.-

I don't have a tab that says Photoshop Image. I have Preview, Edit, Open With, etc., but not Photoshop Image.

I have PS 7.1 installed, but my default viewer for .jpg files is Windows Picture & Fax Viewer. You must have PS as your default viewer, right?

 

[ZapRowsdower]

I don't think you need PhotoShop as your default viewer. I switched mine to Windows Picture & Fax Viewer also when I was first trying to troubleshoot this problem. I still have WP&FV open images to this day and I still see the Photoshop Image tab.

See here:

http://www.netcot.com/printscreen.gif

 

[bcastner]

You can decide on viewers, the tech details:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...ell_basics/shell_basics_extending/context.asp

 

[LewfromTampa]

I have been following this thread since May 2003. Like many others, I too have found "fixes" that turned out to be only temporary. The problem always reoccurred. Finally, out of desperation I tried an experiment. I kept opening the same folder (containing image files) and it kept crashing. Until suddenly it didn't. Without changing anything, it worked. That was when I discovered that any time the problem crops up, I can just sit patiently crashing Windows Explorer until it finally opens up and everything is OK. My conclusion is that there probably is some kind of critical timing thing going on that causes the error to sometimes occur and sometimes not, without changing anything. I was hoping for SP2 salvation, but apparently that wasn't to be.... Now what Microsoft?

 

[bcastner]

There are some hidden problems in the whole process for what are called "Shell Extensions."

XP Service Pack 1 did some fiddling, and SP2 has done some fiddling.

. the process of doing the extension is well described and documented, but quickly proves complex

. there is no gaurantee that other handlers are not in fact screwing up your perfectly valid handler

. Details:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...ell_basics/shell_basics_extending/context.asp

Personally I am using Irfanview to handle all associations that have proved in the thread above troublesome.

http://www.irfanview.com/

So I reduce my number of handlers to essentially: Irfanview, notepad, and the Windows Picture and FAX Viewer. I have always had issues when adding any additional handlers to the mix.

 

[BigDud]

I think I've got it...

I've been rummaging around in some Photoshop forums and this problem is well known. It's described by one user as a "known Photoshop problem"

The suggestion I followed was to rename psicon.dll to something else and reboot the system. After this I no longer had the problem. I then assigned PS to be the viewer for only .psd files. I unchecked the 'generate thumbnail' box for these files and renamed psicon.dll back.

So far, so good. XP may even be exonerated. I think it's finally fixed. Amen.

 

[pete2eat]

It was a pleasure meeting you all on this forum, thank you!
The "problem" never came back (since april 28, 2003), although I don't know what I really did to fix it. Hope BigDud's advise solves the thing for those who are still suffering.

 

[vegitta]

This is a very interesting thread for this issue but i have some new information that may be of some help, here are the common issues that i have

1. The error occurs in one of my partitioned drives both when partioned with xp and with other partitioning software
2. Its the same type of memory can not be written error
3. I've tried reformatting and reinstalling xp and changing views and renaming folders

Here is where it differs these are with video files specificly .avi extentions i've tested this by isolating the avi files to another folder and keep getting the error message. Other video files are ok only the avi's. Does not matter how many there are but as soon as you view the contents of the folder the error appears sometime imediatly or in a couple of minutes. I also do not have photoshop installed or ever had it installed so it is not related to photoshop. It seems to only be an issue with certain media extentions more likely avi and tiff from what i read in forums all over the net. I'm working on a fix for the avi's by converting them all to mp4 format with Nero 6 I hope that it works. Any information at all will be of help.


AMD 2500+ @2190MHz
Abit nf7 v2
512 ddr400 dual chanel
Ati saphire 9600 256mb
Xp pro SP2

 

[linney]

vegitta. Just some general AVI links.

Select a file - windows stops.
Thread779-422825

822430 - Windows Stops Responding When You Click a Large AVI File in Windows Explorer

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822430&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

 

[vegitta]

Thanks for the information i went to the first link you posted and performed these steps

It has been suggested to correct this behavior in Windows XP, remove the following registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32

This will prevent Explorer from loading shmedia.dll in response to file property queries on these files.

This is what i've been looking for for about 3 months now and it has immediatly perfomed the results i was looking for which was no errors. It will now be easier to use my pc as a media center with the error taken care of thanks again I've obviously stopped in the right place. I would also like to thank you for the quick response usually i wait a week or so for a response from other places.

 

[dgmni]

Thanks all for the help above. It is a very frustrating and disappointing there is no help on this in Microsoft Support.

I am running XP Pro SP2

My variant of the issue is:
Started occurring after XP SP2 upgrade. When viewing a folder of jpg and/or mpeg files, Windows Explorer Crashes / Dies after ~30 seconds and the PC continues running fine.

Efforts to resolve over past few months:
- Removing Photoshop completely: worked for a day
- Earlier Regedit change: No luck
- Vegitta's Regedit change: No luck (

 

[dgmni]

I should also add another failed attempt:
I uninstalled XP SP2 and it kept crashing ((
Reinstalled XP SP2 (((

Next step maybe reinstall entire PC with XP... or maybe it's time to learn linux?

 

[bcastner]

Error message?
What does the Event Viewer show, if anything?

 

[dgmni]

Thanks bcastner - good question.

I replicated the error under my admin account by viewing a folder with ~140 jpegs and ~25 small mpegs.

Event Viewer shows:
----------------------------------------
Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1002
Date: 12/24/2004
Time: 12:51:09 PM
User: N/A
Computer: HOME
Description:
The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

----------------------------------------

So I clicked on the link and...

----------------------------------------
Details
Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 1002
Source: Winlogon
Version: 5.0
Component: Application Event Log
Symbolic Name: EVENT_SHELL_RESTARTED
Message: The shell stopped unexpectedly and %1 was restarted.

Explanation
The shell was stopped and then restarted. By default, the shell is explorer.exe; however, you might have a customized shell.

User Action
No user action is required.

Version: 5.2
Symbolic Name: EVENT_SHELL_RESTARTED
Message: The shell stopped unexpectedly and %1 was restarted.

Explanation
The shell was stopped and then restarted. By default, the shell is explorer.exe; however, you might have a customized shell.

User Action
No user action is required.

Currently there are no Microsoft Knowledge Base articles available for this specific error or event message. For information about other support options you can use to find answers online, see

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx.

----------------------------------------

Sadly I'm still stumped

 

[vegitta]

Here's something to try i've done it once before for some other explorer.exe errors

1.Boot to the recovery console then rename explorer.exe to explorer.old
2.Then type "expand d:\I386\explorer.ex_ c:\windows\explorer.exe"
3.Then reboot but explorer will not load when you start so bring up the task manager and use the new task to perform an sfc /scannow. I have had positive results with this while SP2 is installed.

 

[linney]

The later posts in this thread may be worth a look.

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1071237898

FREEZE or Application hang - near 98%
thread779-896179

 

[JustThinkin]

If thumbnails form very slowly and Windows Explorer seems to hang, with the processor running at nearly 100% when opening a graphics folder, here is the problem and the fix (and it’s a simple one).

If Adobe Photoshop is installed (and I'm using version 7), when you right-click on a graphic file, and select Properties, the second tab is "Photoshop Image" with a "Generate Thumbnails" checkbox. If *.TIF files are associated with Photoshop, that checkbox will be enabled for ALL common graphic files and Photoshop will be called upon by Windows XP to generate the Windows Explorer thumbnails for most graphic files (even without an intentional association). In fact, you may notice that the graphic icon may be a Photoshop type icon.

To disassociate that link, right click on any *.TIF file and from the pop up list, select "Open With" and then "Choose Program". Select the "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer" and check the box in front of "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file".

Click OK. That will remove the "Generate Thumbnails" check from the box of all graphic files.

Now see if opening folders is much snappier. . Processor utilization should drop to nearly nothing when opening up graphic laden folders now and the Windows crash error should go away.

You can leave the association with *.JPG and other graphic file types to Photoshop intact, so that when you open a digital camera file, it will open in Photoshop.

Thanks to LewFromTampa for starting me on the road to discovering the reason for this problem and the fix.
LewfromTampa (TechnicalUser) Apr 19, 2003
pete2eat & others:
Yes. Getting rid of the file association between .tif and PS7 DEFINITELY fixes the Windows Explorer crash problem with image files and folders. I had been saving a particular folder and file that always crashed just so I would have a baseline to test any "fix" against. I can replicate the problem AND the fix over and over.