Windows Explorer not responding

[webb666]

Sorry if this is an FAQ but I'm new to W2K and this problem is causing me grief.

I'm logged on as the Administrator and I've setup an entry in the Administrator's "Send To" folder for notepad.

From Explorer if I right click on a .txt file and send it to Notepad all appears well - Notepad appears and the file is displayed.

Now, leaving Notepad as-is, close the Explorer window. This is the part that doesn't work for me. What I get is the Notepad window disappearing and replaced by "white space" and the system is effectively locked. Task Manager says that Explorer is not responding - well, that bit's right!
The same thing happens if I send a .mp3 file to WinAmp.

The system is at SP3 level. It did have all the post SP3 fixes applied but I backed out of all those in order to fix the slow shutdown issue. Should I consider backing out of SP3?

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

 

[webb666]

I don't know quite what to make of this but I logged on to the Windows Update site to review the updates I had applied and was surprised to see that the SP3 update had failed.
Well that's very odd because when I check with "My Computer" it tells me SP3 is installed!

Is it safe to re-install SP3 or should I uninstall it first?

How do you uninstall SP3?