Problem with crashing windows (not the OS)

[Jer]

My OS is Windows XP. The problem started a while ago, but I didn't real pay it any attention and now it is annoying me greatly.

Whenever I am browsing folders on the hard drive, I will frequently keep getting error messages saying that Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. If I choose not to close, I can continue going through the folders for a bit, then a message pops up saying that Dr.Watson's Post Mortem Debugger has encountered an error and needs to close. The first time it happened, I was pretty wary because I had never installed anything of the sort and didn't recognize it, though I now know it is part of Windows.

I have tried pretty much everything to make the crashing stop. Check Disk, Reformat, scanned with AVG/Norton/McAfee, all to no avail. Somebody said they would suggest there was a problem with the actual hard drive, but it wouldn't explain why it was happening while accessing my external drives, or why there was never any problem actually running what was on the drives.

Any suggestions?

[Correction]

This is happening to an external drive? Try using a different cable to connect it to your computer and see if the error happens again.

Check your error log (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer), both Application and System. That will generally give more info than the popup.

[Ratatapa]

get someone with another windows XP of the same Service pack / language

And copy his Explorer.exe that is in C:\windows (copy it to like a USB stick)

Then in your PC, open Task manager (right click on taskbar or CTRL + ALT + DEL) and then go to process and close Explorer.exe.


Then Still in task manager do File > open and type in c:\windows and copy your friends explorer.exe in it.

When done, Do File > open in task manager and type explorer .exe

Should work now, if not might need a Installation repair of windows XP if the problem comes from like all the PC and not just a special spot

Hope this helped

[Jer]

Thanks for the suggestions.

It's happening whenever I try to use explorer on any drive, external or not. And sure enough, as I've been trying to make it happen again as I cannot find the log in the Event Viewer, it's not happening.

I'll try the explorer.exe suggestion later, apparently I'm the only one in my circle that hasn't upgraded to Vista. <.<

[guartz]

Thanks for the suggestions.

It's happening whenever I try to use explorer on any drive, external or not. And sure enough, as I've been trying to make it happen again as I cannot find the log in the Event Viewer, it's not happening.

I'll try the explorer.exe suggestion later, apparently I'm the only one in my circle that hasn't upgraded to Vista. <.<

It seems like good ol' doc is having problems.

Goto start>run and type in drwtsn32

tell me what it says under application errors