Explorer.exe keeps restarting in a never-ending loop.

Maxwell175

New Member
Messages
7
Explorer.exe keeps crashing in a never-ending loop.

Hello,

After I installed Visual Studio Community 2015, a Realtek Sound driver, and a Intel Chipset driver, I was asked to restart.
When I restarted, after login the taskbar and desktop background started to reset every few seconds. When I opened the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete), I noticed that the explorer.exe process keeps restarting. After a few tries I finally managed to hit the End Task button before it crashed again. Using the start new task option, I opened up ShellExView and disabled a few extensions that seemed useless. I started explorer again but it crashed anyway. Then, I opened up a few Command Prompts (still same New Task option). I set up Procdump as the JIT debugger, then I created a small batch file that simply started explorer.exe then tried to attach procdump:
Code:
explorer.exe
procdump -e explorer.exe

Problem was that it turned out that explorer.exe actually crashed before procdump even started.

So, I opened up 2 command prompts and ran both commands simultaneously. Only then Procdump attached and captured 2 minidumps.

I tried to analyze them using WinDbg, but I could not find anything useful.

I also tried sfc /scannow but it gave this:
Code:
C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.


Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.


Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some
of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For
example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not
supported in offline servicing scenarios.

Both Minidumps along with CBS.log are here:
Index of /8forums
(Minidumps seem to be too large for attaching)

Another thing of note: I can use any other program's Open File window to browse without anything crashing. Right clicking on files also doesn't cause bad things to happen.

Edit: I also tried to copy C:\Windows\explorer.exe into C:\Windows\System32\ but nothing changed (even after restart).

Maxwell.

P.S. If you are wondering how I am posting this, its by finding Chrome in Program Files and starting it using New Task. :D

P.S.S. If this is the wrong category, please move it.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. H61M-DS2
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2x; AOC 2752H | HP 2010 Series Wide LCD Monitor |
    Screen Resolution
    1920 X 1080 - 32 bit
    Browser
    Chrome
Another thing of note: If in the Open File dialog of any application I Shift + right click a folder and select "Open in new process", I actually get a perfectly fine File Explorer window (still no task bar or such).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. H61M-DS2
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2x; AOC 2752H | HP 2010 Series Wide LCD Monitor |
    Screen Resolution
    1920 X 1080 - 32 bit
    Browser
    Chrome
Sounds like one of the drivers you installed or Visual Studio caused some corruption in Windows that is causing explorer to crash. Have you tried using System Restore and restoring to a point before the installation of all this to see if it fixes the issue?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 @ 3.3-3.7 Ghz
    Motherboard
    MSI Z77-G41
    Memory
    16 GB Kingston HyperX Beast DDR3-1600
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GT 730
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual 20 Inch Dell
    Screen Resolution
    1680*1050
    Hard Drives
    Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB
    Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB
    PSU
    Thermaltake 550W
    Case
    Antec Nine Hundred Two
    Cooling
    Arctic Freezer i30 CO
    Keyboard
    Logitech K330
    Mouse
    Logitech M215
    Internet Speed
    60 Mbps
    Browser
    Comodo Chromodo
    Antivirus
    Comodo Internet Security Premium
Sounds like one of the drivers you installed or Visual Studio caused some corruption in Windows that is causing explorer to crash. Have you tried using System Restore and restoring to a point before the installation of all this to see if it fixes the issue?

There is a slight problem with that:
For some reason I have no restore points. Shouldn't the install create one?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. H61M-DS2
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2x; AOC 2752H | HP 2010 Series Wide LCD Monitor |
    Screen Resolution
    1920 X 1080 - 32 bit
    Browser
    Chrome
Sounds like one of the drivers you installed or Visual Studio caused some corruption in Windows that is causing explorer to crash. Have you tried using System Restore and restoring to a point before the installation of all this to see if it fixes the issue?

There is a slight problem with that:
For some reason I have no restore points. Shouldn't the install create one?


By the way, I have another Windows 8.1 x64 PC. Can i just copy stuff from there?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. H61M-DS2
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2x; AOC 2752H | HP 2010 Series Wide LCD Monitor |
    Screen Resolution
    1920 X 1080 - 32 bit
    Browser
    Chrome
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