Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)
I'm running XP Pro w/SP2 and all the recent MS patches on a new DELL 8400.
The system is protected by a hardware firewall/router, NAV 2005, and WebRoot
SpySweeper. Full system scans by both products revealed no viral or spyware
intruders.
Here's my problem:
With no discernable cause, 2 or 3 hours after a system boot, explorer.exe
stops functioning.
When this happens:
1. An attempt to start it by any means elicits a 3 or 4 second hourglass,
then nothing - doesn't open, no messages, no nothing.
2. My Computer will do the same thing.
3. Sometimes I can get a folders view of my C drive by opening a desktop
folder and going to C:\, but I can't access anything within C:\.
4. When I reboot I get a brief message that says explorer.exe DLL failed to
initialize because the Window (sic) Station is shutting down, then an
abnormally slow shutdown that sometimes hangs at the point where XP says
it's shutting down.
Windows couldn't process any of the system restore points it created before
this problem appeared.
A Dell service rep told me to refresh the copy of explorer.exe in
Windows\System32 by expanding explorer.ex_ in the XP installation i386 DVD.
I did that and the problem persisted.
I found another copy of explorer.exe (version 6.00.2900.2180
xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) in the Windows folder, and rewrote it by expanding
the i386 folder copy from the installation DVD, which is version
6.00.2800.1106 xpsp1.020828-1920. Almost immediately after I did this I
found that the copy of explorer.exe I had written in the Windows folder had
been replaced by a copy of the 6.00.2900 version referred to in the
preceding sentence.
I put a copy of the xpsp1 version of explorer.exe in C:\, which is the copy
I normally run from a shortcut on my desktop. This is the copy that
randomly quits working as described above.
I've found other copies of explorer.exe in Windows\system32\dllcache (the
6.00.2900 version), in an uninstall folder (the 6.00.2800 version), in
windows\servicepackfiles\i386\ (the 6.002900 version), and several copies in
Windows\Prefetch\ (these have strange alphanumeric suffixes on the .exe file
extension). There's also an i386 folder on my hard drive with a compacted
copy of explorer.ex_.
I'm assuming that something in my system is replacing the good copy of
explorer.exe in my windows folder with a corrupted copy from some other
source, which I'm so far unable to identify, and that it's the corrupted
copy that quits working sometime after a re-boot. It also seems possible
that explorer.exe sometimes can't find a DLL it needs to load when it's
started and then quits loading without telling me why.
After all this, Dell's advice now is reformat C and reinstall XP. I can do
that if I must, but I would really like to know what's going on before I do.
Any ideas?
I'm running XP Pro w/SP2 and all the recent MS patches on a new DELL 8400.
The system is protected by a hardware firewall/router, NAV 2005, and WebRoot
SpySweeper. Full system scans by both products revealed no viral or spyware
intruders.
Here's my problem:
With no discernable cause, 2 or 3 hours after a system boot, explorer.exe
stops functioning.
When this happens:
1. An attempt to start it by any means elicits a 3 or 4 second hourglass,
then nothing - doesn't open, no messages, no nothing.
2. My Computer will do the same thing.
3. Sometimes I can get a folders view of my C drive by opening a desktop
folder and going to C:\, but I can't access anything within C:\.
4. When I reboot I get a brief message that says explorer.exe DLL failed to
initialize because the Window (sic) Station is shutting down, then an
abnormally slow shutdown that sometimes hangs at the point where XP says
it's shutting down.
Windows couldn't process any of the system restore points it created before
this problem appeared.
A Dell service rep told me to refresh the copy of explorer.exe in
Windows\System32 by expanding explorer.ex_ in the XP installation i386 DVD.
I did that and the problem persisted.
I found another copy of explorer.exe (version 6.00.2900.2180
xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) in the Windows folder, and rewrote it by expanding
the i386 folder copy from the installation DVD, which is version
6.00.2800.1106 xpsp1.020828-1920. Almost immediately after I did this I
found that the copy of explorer.exe I had written in the Windows folder had
been replaced by a copy of the 6.00.2900 version referred to in the
preceding sentence.
I put a copy of the xpsp1 version of explorer.exe in C:\, which is the copy
I normally run from a shortcut on my desktop. This is the copy that
randomly quits working as described above.
I've found other copies of explorer.exe in Windows\system32\dllcache (the
6.00.2900 version), in an uninstall folder (the 6.00.2800 version), in
windows\servicepackfiles\i386\ (the 6.002900 version), and several copies in
Windows\Prefetch\ (these have strange alphanumeric suffixes on the .exe file
extension). There's also an i386 folder on my hard drive with a compacted
copy of explorer.ex_.
I'm assuming that something in my system is replacing the good copy of
explorer.exe in my windows folder with a corrupted copy from some other
source, which I'm so far unable to identify, and that it's the corrupted
copy that quits working sometime after a re-boot. It also seems possible
that explorer.exe sometimes can't find a DLL it needs to load when it's
started and then quits loading without telling me why.
After all this, Dell's advice now is reformat C and reinstall XP. I can do
that if I must, but I would really like to know what's going on before I do.
Any ideas?
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