Windows XP Pro SP2 "Explorer issue"

[izatech]

Hello Everybody,

Hope someone here has run into something like this before.

I have a PC that us running Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2.

I can reboot the computer and access the desktop and interact gernerally with the computer. BUT when I right click my computer and click explorer the app starts, but when it goes to display the list of folders it just sits there in never never land.

Yet when I right click the start menu and select explorer it works fine, I can navigate files and everything works. it's only when I try to launch explorer from r-clicking my computer.

another possible symptom, or it could be totally unrelated. I went into the "control panel\Administrative Tools" to
access the disk administrator the app hangs. In both situations I end up having to use Ctrl alt & del to get out of it...


HELP!!!!!

regards

 

[electronicsfreak]

My first guess is malware. Download avg anti spyware from the link below and do a full system scan with it. Delete anything it finds.

http://www.ewido.net

Another useful program to empty out all temp garbage from the computer is ccleaner.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

(if you have nero burning rom, uncheck it from the application part of this program)

Also when is the last time you ran chkdsk and defrag?

Might also reccomend running system file checker. Put your windows xp cd in the drive, close out anything it loads. Go to start, run, type cmd and hit enter. Now type sfc/scannow

When it finishes you wont see any report it just closes. When its done restart the computer.


There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[izatech]

I will try what you've suggested, but I would like to point ou that IE internet access is disabled, so I very much doubt that it is malware, I will of course run the check though.

that surprises me about nero, I shall try that since nero is installed on this pc.

The last defrag ran was when it was installed two months ago.

at this moment i can not run the defrag from the visual interface, I'll have to initiate it from the command line.


If none of the above work can you think of ne thing else that might be the cause?


thanks again

 

[electronicsfreak]

If those dont work my next guess is failing hard drive however before drawing that conclusion id wait on Linney to see this. Im sure he will have a few links and suggestions lol.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[electronicsfreak]

The reason I said uncheck nero from ccleaner applications is every program ive seen that trys to clean things up from nero causes Nero to mess up next time you burn a cd. I let spybot clear out some temp stuff on it once, I had to reinstall nero afterwards. After that I do not trust any program touching Nero lol.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[wahnula]

To make sure all critical files are in place, place your XP CD in the CD tray and START->RUN sfc /scannow

This simple fix starts System File Checker, I've fixed a lot of wonky behavior with this trick. Also System Restore is a good catch-all for problem behavior...just restore to a date before this started happening.

Tony

 

[WyldeCarde]

Have you installed or uninstalled Winzip recently?

 

[firewolfrl]

You are right Linney loves these type of problems to solve...It is just a matter of time before he posts here

Ok the first thing you need to do is get Process Explorer

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/processesandthreads/processexplorer.mspx

This will give a good idea if anything has tagged into the explorer.exe and is running

you can try to re-register the shell32.dll though I don't think it will fix your issue.
regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

something else is if your network is hanging with a mapped drive or the explorer is trying to find a computer or drive within your network and has issues logging into it it may cause explorer to hang or not open at all

As for internet access? has this computer had internet acess in the past? is this computer up to date with all the patches?

If it has been online in the past I would not rule out malware


Is the computer throwing any errors that you can post?



you can try this ...save the file in notepad as repair.bat or repair.cmd


---------cut-----------

regsvr32 Shdocvw.dll
regsvr32 Shell32.dll
regsvr32 Oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 Actxprxy.dll
regsvr32 Mshtml.dll
regsvr32 Urlmon.dll
regsvr32 msi.dll
regsvr32 Shdocvw.dll
regsvr32 Shell32.dll
regsvr32 Oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 Actxprxy.dll
regsvr32 Mshtml.dll
regsvr32 Urlmon.dll
regsvr32 /i shell32
regsvr32 sendmail

---------cut-----------


wish you luck