Windows Explorer Not Responding

Gloob · Oct 3, 2014

Hey, so I have this really annoying where programs will just lock up on me and eventually I'll get "Windows Explorer is Not Responding" This is especially annoying when I'm trying to play video games (ex. Starcraft) and it just locks up and drops me. It happens most with Skype, Spotify, Firefox, and Starcraft (those are also just the programs I use most). I ran the sfc scan and it said one file was corrupt / unfixable, then I ran the SFCFix and it said "All detected corruptions were successfully repaired." Today things started locking up again. If anyone could help that would be super helpful.

Thanks a bunch

View attachment CBS.zip

View attachment SFCFix.txt

Gloob · Oct 5, 2014

update: just ran sfc/scannow (first time since after sfcfix) and it says theres nothing wrong... not sure if the problem is gone though...

TomasD · Oct 6, 2014

Hi,

let's try this:

Download Process Monitor tool.
Extract the downloaded archive to C:\ProcMon directory.
Start Process Monitor. It will begin capturing the data.
While Process Monitor is still running, wait until you get "Windows Explorer is Not Responding" message.
Return to Process Monitor window and stop the capturing, either by pressing CTRL+E or clicking the magnifying glass icon in the toolbar.
Click CTRL+S or select File -> Save... from the menu.
Select All events under Events to save section.
Select Native Process Monitor Format (PML) under Format section.
Confirm the path the log will be saved and click OK.
Compress the PML file.
Upload the compressed file to a file sharing service (e.g. OneDrive or DropBox).
Share the download link here.

Thank you.

Koza Nozdri · Oct 6, 2014

show system log entry windows

Koza Nozdri · Oct 6, 2014

to avoid translation errors:

GetSystemInfo report

Gloob · Oct 6, 2014

@TomasD, I think I did this right? Thank you very much! :)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8lssi24z4lnqztz/Logfile.zip?dl=0

TomasD · Oct 7, 2014

Gloob said:
@TomasD, I think I did this right? Thank you very much! :)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8lssi24z4lnqztz/Logfile.zip?dl=0

Thanks, thank seems right. I'm going to take a look into this either later today or tomorrow.

Meanwhile, could you please also do the following?

Download Autoruns tool.
Extract the downloaded archive to C:\Autoruns directory.
Start Autoruns (right-click on the icon and select Run as administrator) and wait for it to finish scanning the system.
Click CTRL+S or select File -> Save... from the menu.
Confirm the path the log will be saved and click OK.
Compress the ARN file and attach it here.

Thank you.

Gloob · Oct 7, 2014

Here it is! I noticed there were some yellow highlighted selections that said "file not found" and also red highlighted selections

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b68nzlk5plkptco/AutoRuns.zip?dl=0

Thanks a bunch :)

TomasD · Oct 8, 2014

Thanks.

I see there are quite a lot Symantec DLLs injected into Windows Explorer process:

Since Norton AV (and other related products from Symantec) are known for causing performance and stability issues, I would suggest you to complete remove this AV and use some other free alternative (e.g. Microsoft Security Essentials)

Gloob · Oct 8, 2014

Wait, so that's it? It's that easy? Amazing! Thanks a bunch! Hopefully this fixes it!

Gloob · Oct 9, 2014

Oh wait it still happens

TomasD · Oct 9, 2014

Gloob said:
Oh wait it still happens

Don't worry, we can keep looking into this. I need you to do the following:

Repeat Process Monitor procedure again. This time, once you see Not Responding message, click End now button. Wait until Explorer restarts and then stop the trace in Process Monitor.
Repeat Autoruns procedure again. I want to be sure there are no leftovers from Norton.
Do the following so I could take a look into a memory dump of Explorer:
1. Download ProcDump tool.
2. Extract the downloaded archive to C:\ProcDump directory.
3. Open Task Manager and navigate to Details tab.
4. Sort processes by Name and make sure there's only one explorer.exe process in the list. If there are few, kill the ones having a larger PID.
5. Open an elevated Command Prompt by right-clicking on CMD.EXE shortcut in your start menu and selecting Run As Administrator from the context menu.
6. Type the following command:
  Code:
```
C:\ProcDump\ProcDump.exe -h -ma explorer.exe C:\ProcDump
```
7. Compress the DMP file, which was newly created (this should happen when you see Not Responding message.) in C:\ProcDump directory.
8. Upload the compressed file to a file sharing service (e.g. OneDrive or DropBox).
9. Share the download link here.

Gloob · Oct 10, 2014

Hi again! okay so I have the AutoRuns file here. I just realized it has been saying "Microsoft Windows" is not responding sometimes and not "Windows Explorer" though I'm not sure if that matters? Also, the past few times stuff has locked up (Spotify, Starcraft, and Firefox mostly) I haven't gotten a message for something not responding, it has just locked up without one. I was running the ProcDump thing during this and nothing came back (because I never got the not responding message I guess)? As far as I've seen there's only one Explorer.exe running at any time. I've been thinking of just doing a factory reset of Windows 8.1? Would that help? I don't have the disc or key for Windows because Lenovo didn't provide it, so I don't think I can do a clean install but maybe the "remove everything and reinstall windows" option will help?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tht7u6e80mngucz/AutoRuns2.arn?dl=0

TomasD · Oct 10, 2014

OK, if there are multiple programs that stop responding, it changes the case a bit. "Remove everything and reinstall windows" might help, but it also might not (in case there are hardware issues or a problem with some Lenovo driver/application that will be loaded from the image after resetting windows again).

If you have time and want, we can continue looking in to this. Since you said there are multiple applications affected, I would need you to do the following:

Download Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows and run the setup.
Select Windows Performance Toolkit feature (all the others can be unchecked) and proceed with the download/installation.
Once the installation finishes, launch Windows Performance Recorder from the start menu.
Select the following:
- First level Triage
- Resource Analysis: CPU usage
- Detail level: Verbose
Click Start.
Wait until at least one of your applications stops responding or you see any message about Explorer/Windows or something else not responding.
Click Save.
Compress the ETL file.
Upload the compressed file to a file sharing service (e.g. OneDrive or DropBox).
Share the download link here

Thank you.

Gloob · Oct 13, 2014

Hello! Sorry I have not responded in a few days. I am currently taking midterms and haven't spent much time on the computer having issues (I use that one mostly for playing games). In a few days I should be able to put more time into running the diagnostics and sending over the files.

Gloob · Oct 19, 2014

So things have actually been going fine for the past few days. No crashes... I'm not sure if it was the uninstalling Norton or some other random thing that I did along the way but it has been working out great. Thanks again, man, I'll definitely keep all these diagnostic tools around in case this ever happens again. For now, I hope things will be okay.

Thanks again!

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Windows Explorer Not Responding

Gloob

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TomasD

Sysnative Staff, BSOD Kernel Dump Senior Analyst

Koza Nozdri

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TomasD

Sysnative Staff, BSOD Kernel Dump Senior Analyst

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TomasD

Sysnative Staff, BSOD Kernel Dump Senior Analyst

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TomasD

Sysnative Staff, BSOD Kernel Dump Senior Analyst

Gloob

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TomasD

Sysnative Staff, BSOD Kernel Dump Senior Analyst

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