When Im running Windows (XP Professional) explorer every so often my explorer windows will vanish and the screen will reset. Programs still continue running. My event log shows the following messages:
Winlogon: The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.
Sometimes I get:
Faulting application spybotsd.exe, version 1.2.0.8, faulting module spybotsd.exe, version 1.2.0.8, fault address 0x00003f0a.
The time service has not been able to synchronize the system time for 49152 seconds because none of the time providers has been able to provide a usable time stamp. The system clock is unsynchronized.
Messages might be unrelated.
Whats up ? Thanks for your help.
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Hmm ok...
Check drive space first.. make sure you have plenty.
Does it seem that it possibly happens when one part of your system is being taxed?? Say playing music or video?
Things I would do
1) Update all your drivers (esp Video and sound) to the latest versions
If it doesnt resolve then I would disable startup programs
Start -> run
msconfig
Go to the startup tab
uncheck everything and restart your system
3) do a complete virus scan with updated virus definitions
4) run a spyware removal tool like Adware mentioned above.
Test between each step to see if the problem resolves itself.
Happens even when there is no activity or media files playing - system is inactive
Plenty of disk space
Only explorer.exe crashes - other programs work ok so I do not suspect RAM (DIMM) problems. However I will run memcheck86.exe since a previous inquiry of this type was due to DIMM problems.... dosent sound likely here
Ran sfc /scannow - nothing reported
Disabled norton AV Auto-Protect - no effect
Ran virus scan and chkdsk - no problems.
Ran Lavasoft and Spybot SD - no problems
I will try to disable startup programs as you suggested - perhaps a few at a time
Is there a debugger (e.g. Dr Watson) I can run to see whats happening ? I have MS Visual Studio 6
There is a Dr Watson for XP, described in this MSKB article:
http://support.microsoft.c
Description of the Dr. Watson for Windows (Drwtsn32.exe) Tool
Lee,
I found DrWatson, but need to figure out how to use it. I guess I should only start it after I get the reset.
I have found out that the reset happens a lot more often when there is file copying activity, which usually crashes the copying.
Turning off the non-microsoft services and startup programs does not make a difference
The article isn't very informative. This is at the bottom:
If a program error occurs, Dr. Watson for Windows starts automatically. To configure Dr. Watson, follow these steps:
Click Start, and then click Run.
Type drwtsn32, and then click OK.
By default, the log file created by Dr. Watson is named Drwtsn32.log and is saved in the following location:
drive:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINNT\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson
There is built-in help documentation that should be of help in using it.
Thanks for the help regarding DrWatson Lee,
Today I ran WinDoctor from Norton SystemWorks which found a lot of problems including broken links to recent documents due to a folder I just moved from one drive to another drive (tsk tsk Microsoft .. sounds like a bug). There also was a xcom error.
Ive fixed all the problems and not yet seen the explorer.exe reset. Im going to wait 24 hours to make sure its gone....
I thought I had this figured out by uninstalling all of the symantec utilities, but the problem *crept* back. I am not kidding.
Now it has also affected my Wiondows 2000 notebook which does not share any hard drives or apps but is on the same network.
The symptom again is that Explorer windows keep shutting down. The system log just says that the shell was unexpectedly shut down.
My only current soluton is to use something other than windows explorer for file browsing (e.g 2x explorer).
If anyone figures out a solution, lemme know
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by: blohrerPosted on 2003-08-27 at 12:11:26ID: 9234945
Spybots sounds like a piece of spyware/scumware on your system.
You should go and download something like adware and run a scan against your system.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com
I don't believe the time service issue is related to your explorer issue, but the spybot may be.
Once you download and install Adware, make sure you click the "Check for Updates Now" link to make sure you are using the latest definitions.
Once completed you will get a screen with items for removal, check all the objects and delete them.
See if your problem gets better
Bill