Explorer.exe keeps crashing

[NickThissen]

Hey,

Yesterday, something seems to have gone wrong with my computer...
When I try to do things with files or shortcuts on the desktop, explorer.exe keeps crashing and restarting.
I have only seen it happen on the desktop yet...

For example, I installed some game, then made a shortcut to the desktop, then I needed to add a few parameters to the shortcut goal, but as soon as I rightclicked the shortcut to go to Properties, explorer.exe failed...
Ok after it restarted I tried again, no problems.
Then I wanted to move the file into a folder. Again, explorer.exe failed.
Restarted it, tried again and this time no problems...

It seems as if it keeps failing once for every thing I do but as soon as I try again it suddenly works again...?

Any idea what could be wrong?


BTW I'm running windows Vista Ultimate 32bit

[dclamp]

have you tried defragging your computer?

[Lord Orwell]

explorer.exe is extremely sensitive to memory problems. run a memory scanning program. Also you did not specify where this game came from. If you downloaded it, it might have a virus in it.

[NickThissen]

The game can't be the cause, I just choose it as an example when it went wrong. I had this problem before I installed the game already...

I'll try defragging tonight... Will take some time I guess right?

[Nightwalker83]

I'll try defragging tonight... Will take some time I guess right?

Depends on the size of the hard drive.

Edit:

Also going on from what Orwell said try re-booting your computer first! That might help clear the memory.

[Lord Orwell]

just mentioning possible causes. If you have overclocked anything explorer is always the first program to crash. I had an issue years ago when i was playing baldur's gate. it just locked up and after that i had all kinds of crashes with explorer. turns out one of my memory chips developed a fault on it and needed to be replaced.

[dclamp]

You might need to look into getting some more RAM, it will make your computer run faster then it currently is.

EDIT:
I see you have Vista, do you have the recommended amount of ram? i think it is like 1 or 2 gigs of ram recommended....

[NickThissen]

Thanks for your replies...

I have 2 GB of Ram so that should be sufficient I hope, lol?
I deffinately have the recommended specs for Vista, since it rates me a 5.2.
Quoted from their website:
"A computer with a base score of 4.0 or 5.0 is able to run all new features of Windows Vista with full functionality, and it is able to support high-end, graphics-intensive experiences, such as multiplayer and 3 D gaming and recording and playback of HDTV content. Computers with a base score of 5.0 were the highest performing computers available when Windows Vista was released."

I have not overclocked anything (that I know of..)

I have tried rebooting a couple of times.

I will try to defrag it tonight, see if that helps...

On a better note, I haven't had the problem in the last few hours so it might be gone! Not sure though... lol... We'll see.

[Lord Orwell]

another thing to check: make sure you have plenty of clearance all around your computer for air flow or it may have overheated.

[eranga262154]

Sometime virtual memory crashing with explorer.exe try to increase the virtual memory. May be helpful.

[Lord Orwell]

he really shouldn't have a problem with that considering he has 2 gb of regular ram. However now that you brought it up, it is perfectly possible for a flash drive to crash vista in thta manner due to the way it automatically uses them as virtual memory.

[eranga262154]

due to the way it automatically uses them as virtual memory.

Actually this is the firs time I heard this, I've never work with vista. On XP this is a normal situations in games.

[Lord Orwell]

xp doesn't contain software to do this. It's just something microsoft thought was a good idea for Vista. But in reality all it does is wear out your flash drives. It can be turned off.

[eranga262154]

xp doesn't contain software to do this.

Ya. You say that in XP or Vista that flash drive is turned off. I don't know what happened on Vista, but in XP it wont happened all the time. May be depends on some settings, BIOS?

[Lord Orwell]

i said XP does not automatically steal the space off of a flash drive as virtual memory. Vista will do this automatically and not even tell you about it.
XP is in fact incapable of doing it without 3rd party software but frankly REAL memory is comparable to price to flash memory and is much faster.