explorer.exe keeps crashing and ntdll.dll seems to be the culprit

maneck35

New Member
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4
I have Windows 8 RTM installed and have noticed this since the very first day of using it. explorer.exe keeps crashing, say, when I'm opening folders with a lot of media content in them. Sometimes I can browse without any problems, and sometimes it crashes. I checked Event Viewer and ntdll.dll seems to be the culprit.

I've attached the SF zip file to the post. Could someone please help me out? I don't want to move back to Windows 7.

Many Thanks!
Maneck
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 RTM
I can't tell what's happening here from the dump file, as it's not a dump file that matches the crashes you're complaining about. The error message the application log mentions for the explorer crashes indicates virtual address space corruption, and from the logs the first Explorer crash starts almost immediately after you installed PlayOn, XBMC (which loads/uses a DirectX component, according to the logs), and then removed PlayOn on August 29th. I also notice Outlook, XBMC, and Splashtop's services are also all crashing with the same error code. There's not much those have in common other than the base OS, and the problems don't appear to have started until you installed one of these two apps. The dump file in the data you provided does point to your video card driver as a possible culprit too, which wouldn't surprise me. These drivers, if accurate, don't appear to be updated Windows 8 drivers, but beta Win8 drivers or (worse) Win7 drivers:
Code:
1: kd> lmvm nvlddmkm
start             end                 module name
fffff880`07c04000 fffff880`08913000   nvlddmkm T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: nvlddmkm.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys
    Image name: nvlddmkm.sys
    Timestamp:        Mon Jun 18 16:47:19 2012 (4FDF93D7)
    CheckSum:         00CF5186
    ImageSize:        00D0F000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
I would suggest complete removal of XBMC (as it appears PlayOn has been removed already) and re-testing with updated video card drivers to see if that helps stabilize things for now.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.5GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus Maximus Hero VII
    Memory
    32GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce GTX970
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Hard Drives
    1x Samsung 250GB SSD
    4x WD RE 2TB (RAIDZ)
    PSU
    Corsair AX760i
    Case
    Fractal Design Define R4
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15
Thanks for your reply. I didn't install any additional drivers for my graphic card so I guess you can say they're beta Win 8 drivers. I've had my graphic card give me other issues as well on Win 7 so it does make sense. I use XBMC extensively but that doesn't seem to be crashing explorer.exe.

I've noticed Splashtop crashing when I shut the remote app on my iDevice so I'm guessing that's a compatibility issue with Win8.

I'm upgrading my graphic card drivers as of now to see if that helps and will keep this thread updated. Thanks for your precious help!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 RTM
How did you get around it maneck35? I have the explorer crashing on me approximately every two minutes, and according to the event log, it started yesterday around 8pm. I was unable to cross reference that with anything else. It might help if I knew how to identify the install times of apps and drivers.

Curiously, the only thing that seemed to stop the crashes more than two minutes was uninstalling Silverlight. That effectively put an end to the crashes...until I restarted. Now it's back.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
I experienced the last crash when I opened 1 folder with 1000+ video files. I've read that it's due to windows trying to create previews for a file that's broken using specific codecs. I uninstalled the K-Lite Codec Pack that I'd installed and haven't experienced a crash yet. When do you experience a crash? Follow the instructions here and post your event log - somebody will surely be able to help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 RTM
I can't seem to put my finger on what causes the crash. Once it starts, it goes on happening every two minutes or so. Once I got it to not crash explorer.exe for some minutes after restart, and I think I just avoided going to desktop. Once, as I said, it was calm after uninstalling Silverlight. Other than that, I get my screen refreshed, whether on desktop or metro, continuously.

I am posting my dump (minus the minidump I don't have since I haven't had a single bsod) below. I hope this won't give me more headache, it already stole my last vacation day.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
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