Grr. The last time this happened... oh... about a month ago, it was quite annoying and ended with me turning the computer off and finding something to beatup on outside. It's started up again just now.

Here's what it's doing. I'll open a folder, which opens a window. Any folder, doesn't matter. About 1 minute or so afterwards, Windows throws a "explorer.exe has performed an illegal operation and will be shutdown" message on screen. 30 seconds later (literally, it's faster if I just use task manager to kill it after it does it and then restart it) Explorer has finally refreshed itself. Then the process repeats. As you can no doubt guess, this gets very old, very fast, and gets very annoying, very fast as well.

Rebooting had little effect before, and had little effect this time. Shutting down had little effect before and had little effect this time. This is leading me to wonder if it's heat related. I can't tell you how long it was on the last time it happened, but this time I had a uptime of 10 days or so, but it's been in standby when not in use. So far today it'd only been on maybe 4 or 5 hours. That's somewhat normal for it. And I've never had heat issues before...

Is this just windows being vastly stupid? Or is there a cause behind it? I know for a fact that if I shut this sucker down now and come back in the morning, it'll be just peachy and nothing will be wrong. I'm just glad I'm using Firefox right now becuase I'm pretty sure IE would be triggering this thing all over the place. Only system things do it... nothing else...

It's a very bizzare problem. Enough of my rant, anyone have an idea?

------------------
Frogblast the Vent Core!

--End of Line--

Is that even possible? I wouldn't think so. If it was overheating windows might become bogged down, like games do for me when I have my cpu overclocked too high and the heat negatively effects performance, but causing errors like that seems unlikely.

I doubt heat would do that to the hard drive, especially system components.
Did you try virus scans? If that doosn't work, wipe the hard drive and get linux...

------------------

"Bantha's are filthy animals.......I don't eat filthy animals."

"Laugh it up Fuzzball!"
-Han Solo

Tried Spybot and Antivirus last time it happened. Both turned up negative. I'm not in the mood for people telling me to switch. I want an OS I can use that will run everything I own. Not one that will cause me more confusion and won't run half of what I want. Or if it will, won't do it well.

------------------
Frogblast the Vent Core!

--End of Line--

I doubt it's heats related since it sounds like an isolated problem and overheating would probably cause more widespread instability.

A bit more info would be helpful, such as which version of windows. Does this happen using windows explorer, my computer, folders on the desktop etc? Is anything else unstable? How long have you had this install of windows?

My Win98Se gets a little cantankerous after about 6-8 months and then I usually reformat and all is well again. Which is another option for you.



------------------
This one day I went to change my password, but being the clever chappy that I am, I accidently typed the new pw into the e-mail address bar and clicked submit, hence the slightly modified new user name. Go me and my awesome computer skills.

I'm guessing you're still using an antiquated 9x based OS since stuff like that is fairly common with them...

Save yourself now and switch to something NT based...

^^^ Darth speaks truth.

FAT32 is evil. NTFS is a big improvement.

If explorer is crashing that much something has probably gotten corrupted and its best to just backup what you need and format/reinstall. I usually do a format/reinstall around every 6 months to a year, depending on how the system is behaving. Plus, it just makes everything run all nice for a while...

------------------
I'll admit to Reactor CTF, Duel Abyss, Duel Turbulent, Duel Dustball, and even the CCCP, but not Sky High! (my first, be kind!) Ok so maybe I will.

I'm running Win2k. I installed the system back in august of last year I think. When it starts doing it, it seems like almost any folder you open with do it. And it seems to only occur with things tied into Windows. Trillian won't cause it to do anytyhing, Firefox won't cause it to do anything. If I open up, say my Program Files folder though, it'll do it. Shutting down and leaving it for a few hours worked last time, so I guess that'll be what works this time, right now I'm just using Firefox to get things from folders.

Like I said, this isn't a common problem. Last time it happened was a month ago. I doubted it was heat related too. It just seemed like a place to start.

------------------
Frogblast the Vent Core!

--End of Line--

NTFS is much better than fat32.

With Fat32, i got hard drive corruption every time my cpu overheated and windows froze. With NTFS, corruption rarely happens even if i do manage to overheat, which is less likely to happen since i moved the computer.


------------------
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited June 15, 2004).]

Windows XP professional is what you want.



------------------
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

No, NTFS will still get corrupted, but it doesnt tell you about it. Also, as a journaling FS, it can recover easier.


/me fluffles journalizing filesystems...

------------------
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.
:wq

HA! HAHA! In a word, HELL NO. I hate XP with a passion. It feels bloated, even after turning off all of it's excess crap. It's obnoxious, it's overly user friendly, I can't even express how much I dislike that system. I have nothing against an OS being user friendly. It's a plus really. But WinXP is like... touchy-feely-let-me-come-and-hug-you-and-hold-your-hand-so-you-don't-mess-up user friendly.

Thank you, but I think I'll stick with my pal Win2k, who, despite his occasional issues, at least doesn't bug the hell out of me.

------------------
Frogblast the Vent Core!

--End of Line--

Windows: The only OS that will throw errors while the computer is shut down.

[Sorry, don't have anything useful to add, but that stuck out at me as I was reading ]

Phoenix, I felt the same way about XP when I was coming from 98. After spending a week or so with it, turning off the really needless things, it's just fine. Since it's explorer that's crashing, you'll probably have to reinstall Win2k, or finally lose the attitude about XP and give it a try.

------------------
The Devious Server

I've used XP ALOT. I've had enough expirence with it to safely say that I don't want it on any computer I own. I had to use it every day at school this year in Yearbook. I claimed one of those machines as my own all year and turned off every single thing I could find that wasn't needed. It still felt bloated and it was still obnoxious.

You guys also seem to be missing the main point here. This is not an error that happens all the time. If it did, I would've already reinstalled the system. This is only the second time it's happened. It starts occuring, and then continues for a bit, then vanishes. The more I've thought about the circumstances surrounding the last time it happened, the more I'm comming to the conclusion that placing it in Standby is the reason. This time, I had an uptime of over 10 days. I know that's nothing for some of you people, but for me, this is a rare occurance. When I wasn't using it, instead of shutting down, I put it in standby. After 10 days of this, I think the OS had become slightly unstable. It doesn't surprise me really. The last time it happened, I think I'd been pulling it in and out of standby quite a bit as well. Though it hadn't been running nearly as long.

I'm thinking that this ISN'T something going corrupt. That I DON'T need to reinstall a system. That this ISN'T a time for me to upgrade to an OS I don't like at all. I'm thinking it's just a simple case of an operating system becomming unstable after being left on for 10 days and being pulled in and out of standby.

That reason sound vaild to anyone else here?

------------------
Frogblast the Vent Core!

--End of Line--

[This message has been edited by phoenix_9286 (edited June 16, 2004).]

Are you WinXP guys ignorant or just being funny?

WinXP and Win2K use the same kernel, and same shell, explorer.exe. By saying "Switch to WinXP, it is better" is a load of bull, since they are deep down the same operating system. WinXP is just meant for 6 year olds, while Win2K is for those who know what the hell the right mouse button does. Switching to XP would not make a guaranteed fix, since it has the same flaws, if not more due to its "splendid" GUI. When you turn all that crap off, you aim is to simply get it as close to Win2k as possible, which kind of defeats the purpose of upgrading in the first place! So quit being ignorant!

A reinstall would fix it no doubt, but obscure problems with no descriptive errors makes it really hard to diagnose the problem. (One thing I do like about Linux is it tells you exactly what the hell you did, and why you shouldn't have done it)

But anyway, here's my stab at thing Phoenix. When you put your system on standby, Windows throws everything it can into RAM blocks, and basically reorganizes things, even simple stuff that normally isn't even used, or rarely used. This causes a heavy strain on RAM, which isn't dangerous of course, but does do one thing: It's a real good test for the quality of the RAM. I would check your RAM, especially if you had bought new RAM lately.

My followup stab: Windows standby mode is:

A. Retarded.
B. Useless.
C. Buggy
D. Aggarvating
E. Slow

A. It's retarded, nothing more to this.
B. It's useless because you might as well leave the PC on. If you are going to put it in power-down state, you might as well put it in Hibernation. Why is hibernation better? Because of these reasons:
1. Everything is stored on the HD. Albiet a bit slower, a hard drive is usually more reliable. Plus, Standby uses it too, for paging when the system is low on RAM.
2. Power outage = loss of everything in standby mode. Not so in Hibernation.
3. Your system is actually off in Hibernation. You can literally unplug it, and take it cross-country, and turn it back on exactly as it was.

C. Buggy because the Standby just rarely works. It's bad programming on Microsoft's part. It can really screw up over multiple standbys.
D. Aggarvating because sometimes it just doesn't work, or the system won't come back on. Not to mention when it fails and you lose all data.
E. When you return from standby, lots of systems are slow, even horribly slow, when they come back.
------------------
"The future is not determined by a throw of the dice, but is determined by the conscious decisions of you and me."
I am addicted to ellipses!!! AHHH!!! ...
Make Sorrowind Worthwhile... join it! http://sorrowind.net

[This message has been edited by Cool Matty (edited June 16, 2004).]

How is Winxp bloated?

------------------
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

Is this a fresh installation you're running, or did you just install it on top of another OS?

Oh here we go again:

It's bloated because it contains so many features that no one would ever want or use if they know anything at all about computers.

It has styles, which are known to slow the system down. It has tons of useless services. You can't tell me you like the "search puppy". SEND AN ERROR REPORT, ON EVERY ERROR!!! WEEE!!!! Universal Plug and Play is useless, exploited, and slow.

Oh, and I know people love to give this answer: "Well you can turn all that stuff off."

As true as that statement may or may not be, doesn't matter. The fact is, Win2k doesn't bother with all that crap. Which makes it all the more efficient, and of course, it definately costs less than WinXP Pro.

------------------
"The future is not determined by a throw of the dice, but is determined by the conscious decisions of you and me."
I am addicted to ellipses!!! AHHH!!! ...
Make Sorrowind Worthwhile... join it! http://sorrowind.net

[This message has been edited by Cool Matty (edited June 16, 2004).]

this is all so relative

i have XP Home on both these comps... I don't care. I don't do much crap that causes the bloatedness/unreliability/bugginess to become a problem for me. I upload pictures, play games, do homework, talk to friends, make dvds, do email, surf le intarwebby, listen to music... blah blah blah

yes, 'search puppy' and the error report bother me, i wish they'd die. but... since i'm not as advanced a user as CM, PW, GBK, etc... it really has little effect on my 'day to day' operations.

------------------
Saberopus: omfq musical genuis j00 >mozart
Thrawn42689: Mozart = n00b

It's easy to put the search puppy to sleep.

There's the "turn off animated character" command.

Themes are easily disabled.

As for error reporting, that can be turned off in Administrative options under Services.


------------------
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited June 16, 2004).]

It was fresh. I fdisked the drive back in august and then installed Win2k.

CoolMatty, thanks. That gave me quite a bit of insight I didn't have before. In the future, I think I'll be trying Hibernate when I want to leave it running and I'm away.

Pagewizard, I'm not buying a new OS and installing it just to spend 45+ minutes turning off and adjusting all of the crap I don't like. I'd much rather use an OS I already own and spend 10 minutes changing things after I've set up my account.

------------------
Frogblast the Vent Core!

--End of Line--