Windows 8 Explorer Locks Up

bitofthis

New Member
Messages
2
Hello All,

I have been having a bit of a problem with Explorer in Windows 8. Occasionally the explorer just locks up. Typically when I right click on an item, it will freeze. At which point I usually use the task manager to kill Explorer and start it up again. However, until I restart my machine, I am unable to change the listing view (details, medium icons, etc) because the buttons are greyed out, nor am I able to right click on the item without explorer locking again. Additionally, icons don't appear to render afterwards either.

Has anyone had this issue? What direction might I go in to start to correct it?

Thanks,
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
All of the freezing problems I have regarding Explorer, and even greyed out areas, all boil down to Windows 8 Automatic Repair not being able to properly scan the drive after ungraceful shut down. It's not enough to run CHKDSK, you have to check for read element failure, and Windows 8, when it crashes, causes these failures. So if you have to shut down your computer for a freeze, you should not try to reboot immediately.

I have my Hiren's Boot disk ready to whip out when I have a crash, running GWscan or WD Diag can fix read element failure as long as there are not that many of them. if you have one drive it is a littl easier to check, if you have more than one drive in, this can take hours to properly scan all of them.

Once read element failure is either fixed or rules out, then you can restart Windows and let it run it's auto diag.

You could also try SFC /SANNOW from a command prompt, if any files got fouled up, this should fix them. If not, it's an IN-Place Install.

Maybe this is not what is causing your problem, but it is safer to check the consistency of your drives. Because every time I had freezes or weird crashes, it has always been read element failure. Windows 8 will not run correctly unless the drives are in perfect order.

Usually, there will be a notification in the event viewer about a "bad block" - Bad Blocks can cause stalls, freezes, and complete crashes.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
You could run:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

In elevated command prompt.
It's worth a try.
It takes as long or longer than running sfc /scannow.
It may help.
It won't hurt. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
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