Strange Vista problem- help

[fiksi]

Ok,
so my rig is e6600, 4gig crosair ram, gigabyte mobo and 8800gtx, Vista ultimate 64bit...

The problem i had with Vista is explorer crashing- and then restarting. For no apparent reason.
I also had a problem where i would get corrupted icons in taskbar and some strange graphical issues, but if i restarted explorer- it would be fine again. gfx card is working flawlessly, memory too, afaik... in games i tortured the rig, and it works flawlessly.

Today it froze soon after logging in, for no reason... after few restarts, it seems to work now.

What the hell is this? I did nothing to my rig, temp is ok, no OC or anything...


All this problems started for no apparent reason, i didn't change anything.


I would like to do a repair of installation, but it doesn't seem possible... i started installation from windows, and then again upgrade seems greyed out(read that i could actually reinstall without losing data if i do upgrade on Vista)


And one more thing... is it possible to somehow transfer registry & settings, for all the software, and do a clean install, and bring it back so that i don't have to do everything from scratch?

I am clueless here... seems like ghosts in Vista

 

[cprince]

did you check event viewer to see if it logged anything when explorer failed?

 

[fiksi]

Yes, i found this...

Faulting application Explorer.EXE, version 6.0.6000.16386, time stamp 0x4549bacb, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x00000000, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x0000000000000001, process id 0xb44, application start time 0x01c7be2dbbde13e9.

Now, exception codes always seem the same... there are more logs. I don't know if this is any help... Also, the comp is working fine right now. It froze like 5 times today, but now it seems to be ok. usually, when windows explorer crashed, it would restart. But this morning, as i said, the whole comp froze.

Any ideas??

 

[Smilin]

Remember software executes the same set of instructions every time so will behave the same way every time. If it's broke, it stays broke and doesn't sway.

If you are having problems with odd behavior shortly after boot that varies you should look into hardware issues. Random freezes are also indicative of hardware problems. If your rig is remaining relatively stable once you have it going you might want to take a peek at your PSU which gets some unique loads during boot.

Regarding the backup/wipe/restore.. you can do a file and settings transfer to yourself. Hit start and type "transfer" and it should pop right up. Sucker works quite well.

 

[fiksi]

Thx, Smilin...
But why could i be running a game which pushes system to FULL load, for hours-and works ok(i guess PSU would be pushed by 8800gtx working in games), and then just open few folders in windows, try to find something etc. or EVEN do nothing, and it crashes? That's what's bugging me... also, freezes in Vista are new.

Thx for the transfer tip, guess i could try that if all else fails...

 

[JonnyBlaze]

Originally posted by: fiksi
Thx, Smilin...
But why could i be running a game which pushes system to FULL load, for hours-and works ok(i guess PSU would be pushed by 8800gtx working in games), and then just open few folders in windows, try to find something etc. or EVEN do nothing, and it crashes? That's what's bugging me... also, freezes in Vista are new.

Thx for the transfer tip, guess i could try that if all else fails...

Does it seem to happen when you point explorer to a folder with video files in it?

 

[fiksi]

Unfortunately, not exclusively... i've explored many folders with video files, and it seemed fine. I mean, that does not seem to be an exclusive trigger...
This is something else, and what's bugging me is that i don't know what it is.
This morning, machine didn't freeze, and seems to work nicely. I am sure, however, that explorer will crash sooner or later, i'll re-run it... And that's the closed circle.

Th log from event viewer didn't seem very helpful to me, does anyone else see anything else in that?

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Smilin
Remember software executes the same set of instructions every time so will behave the same way every time.

Hahahaha. No, seriously, haahhahahahahahah

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: fiksi
Yes, i found this...

Faulting application Explorer.EXE, version 6.0.6000.16386, time stamp 0x4549bacb, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x00000000, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x0000000000000001, process id 0xb44, application start time 0x01c7be2dbbde13e9.

Now, exception codes always seem the same... there are more logs. I don't know if this is any help... Also, the comp is working fine right now. It froze like 5 times today, but now it seems to be ok. usually, when windows explorer crashed, it would restart. But this morning, as i said, the whole comp froze.

Any ideas??

It's most likely a shell extension that is loaded into explorer crashing. Many programs from winzip to adobe add shell extensions, so since there is no module name listed I have no guess as to which one. However, you may want to walk thru your installed list and see if you have any oddballs which you know to extend the shell. If you do, try removing them and see if the problem clears up.

 

[fiksi]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: fiksi
Yes, i found this...

Faulting application Explorer.EXE, version 6.0.6000.16386, time stamp 0x4549bacb, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x00000000, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x0000000000000001, process id 0xb44, application start time 0x01c7be2dbbde13e9.

Now, exception codes always seem the same... there are more logs. I don't know if this is any help... Also, the comp is working fine right now. It froze like 5 times today, but now it seems to be ok. usually, when windows explorer crashed, it would restart. But this morning, as i said, the whole comp froze.

Any ideas??

It's most likely a shell extension that is loaded into explorer crashing. Many programs from winzip to adobe add shell extensions, so since there is no module name listed I have no guess as to which one. However, you may want to walk thru your installed list and see if you have any oddballs which you know to extend the shell. If you do, try removing them and see if the problem clears up.

Thx, i might try that... but like i said, the problem is that it still doesn't list a module name, so i am kind of left in the dark. I'll see what happens. Does anyone else seem to have this problem, or had this problem? I would hate to think i'm the only one.

 

[montag451]

Try a copy of total commander (free trial), or powerdesk, or Universal Explorer.

See if you can use them to surf your hdd.

 

[bsobel]

Thx, i might try that... but like i said, the problem is that it still doesn't list a module name, so i am kind of left in the dark. I'll see what happens. Does anyone else seem to have this problem, or had this problem? I would hate to think i'm the only one.

The lack of a module name generally indicates the stack is just thrashed at that point, so yea unfortunately its gonna be a PITA to figure out which extension.