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Howard

Another windows startup issue - any clues?

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I am starting to hate computers, I used to love them, but.....

 

 

When my Win7 x64 system first starts up about half the time if I open windows explorer it does not show any files and has a green bar going across the top that never finishes. If I kill the explorer instance and the explorer process that has all the desktop icons and start menu I can then run the task explorer.exe and all is fine. What is going on???

I've scanned with Symantec Internet Security, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and Hitman Pro - none find any current issues.



Just ran the SFC /scannow and it reported, "Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations"


Any clues what to do next?

 

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Thanks.  RKILL did not find anything.  I ran AUTORUNS but am not sure what I am looking for - it reports so much stuff that it is information overload.  I guess I need to run it when the problem happens and then perhaps after I kill explorer.exe and rerun it and see if there is anything that is no longer there????

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Do you have a recovery partition on your drive? If so I would backup all document, image files etc. and do a system restore followed by windows updates immediately and making sure there is an antivirus in your recovery or installing one right away. I used to do this every 6 months or so with XP, every year or so with Win 7.

 

Some computers have an option for minimal image recovery. That is what I usually do even with a brand new computer as soon as I turn it on. It installs necessary stuff minus all the bloatware. 

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No don't have a recovery partition, but I do have an Image of the system I made about a month ago that I could restore - but that will be the last resort as I hate to do that unless I can't find some other fix.

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I had a similar problem.... This worked for me:

 

Broken thumbnails

This is the most common cause of this problem, and also the easiest to fix. Each time you view a folder containing photos (JPG, TIF files) or movies (AVI, MPG, WMV files), Windows Explorer opens each one to extract and build thumbnail previews for the file icons. If even one file in the folder is corrupted, or if one of the files makes use of a corrupted codec on your system, Windows Explorer crashes.

 

To fix this problem, you need to do two things. First, figure out which file is crashing Explorer. Of course, since you can't view the folder in Explorer without it crashing, you'll have to turn off the thumbnails feature first. On the System page in Control Panel, click Advanced system settings, and then in the Performance box, click Settings. Turn off the Show thumbnails instead of icons option, and click OK.

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I am no pro but it definitly sounds like there is either a program causing a conflict or you might have a corrupt system file, to test for programs:

 

I guess it is similar to autoruns but click the start button and type in msconfig, in the last tab you can select which programs start, usually you can delselect most of them without causing to many problems and try restarting, from there you can slowly start turning them back on.

 

if its a corrupt system file than you would need to try a restore or reinstall.

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rscott1782   I don't think it is the broken thumb nail issue as once I kill the explorer.exe process and then restart it the problem is gone, if it was the thumb nails that would not fix it I don't think.

 

sure shot  I don't see that would get me there either as stopping the process and then restarting it seems to fix it.  I am guessing that there is something that is somehow attaching itself to explorer and that by killing it and restarting it I detach that something - the trick is how do I find that "something"

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 "I am guessing that there is something that is somehow attaching itself to explorer and that by killing it and restarting it I detach that something - the trick is how do I find that "something"

 

Well I would think that if it never loaded upon starting in the first place it wouldn't be able to attach itself to anything. Like I said I am no pro but if it's a program or service that loads with start up your best bet is to run msconfig and disable it first to see if subsequent startups would work any better. I am just shooting from the hip here, it is hard to tell without being able to see it and tweaking it myself.

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Try disabling auto indexing for a bit just to see if that is what is causing the problem.

 

Autoruns will just tell you what applications are launching when you start the computer. However, it's like a search on steriods and will give you much more than is found in the run key of HKLM and HKLU. You should google anything before disabling it so you know it isn't critical or important. 

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Autoruns is a process and service program viewer that shows what is running on the machine and allows you to select and deselect what will start and run etc...

 

For example....I find my XP SP3 machine runs best at 45 processes or less....when I am doing autocad work........right now I am at 40..........

 

I can find the system tolerable in speed and use for non critical applications with 45 or above...but above 50 it starts to bog down etc..

 

I use autoruns to tailor the system with only the processes and services I need to run a good fast stable system...

 

You may have an offender that you can isolate with autoruns...to cure the problem...

 

if RKILL didn't find anything I would look elsewhere other than malware...

 

What happened prior to the problem starting...?  what did you install or change etc...?

 

Wait - you do cad too?  WTF! Am I related to you?

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 "I am guessing that there is something that is somehow attaching itself to explorer and that by killing it and restarting it I detach that something - the trick is how do I find that "something"

 

Well I would think that if it never loaded upon starting in the first place it wouldn't be able to attach itself to anything. Like I said I am no pro but if it's a program or service that loads with start up your best bet is to run msconfig and disable it first to see if subsequent startups would work any better. I am just shooting from the hip here, it is hard to tell without being able to see it and tweaking it myself.

 

This.

 

It sounds like you have a process that is set to run on startup that could be interfering with explorer.exe. Then when you kill explorer.exe, that process finishes starting up, and by the time explorer.exe is re-started, the conflict no longer exists. To confirm this and to gather more information, restart the machine in safe mode or safe mode with networking and see if you can duplicate the problem and report back.

 

If you dont see the problem is safe mode, then something else is starting up when you boot up normally that is causing a conflict. Start the machine normally then click on start > run > type "msconfig", hit enter and go to the "Startup" tab. This shows you everything that is starting up when your machine boots. If you're not sure what you're looking at here, then expand the colums to display all the info and take a screenshot. This might tell us if something else other than a service is starting when Windows boots up.

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Here are a few things to try.

 

1. When windows boots click on:

     1. Start (The Ball) - Accessories - Right Click On Command Prompt then click Run As Administrator

     2. Once the Command Prompt opens type in chkdsk /f

     3. It will then prompt you that it cannot scan now but to rootboot for a scan type in y for yes.

     4. Restart the computer and let the scan run. It will check your HD for errors and try to fix the errors it finds.

 

2. Download Super Anti Spyware from http://www.superantispyware.com/ and run a Complete Scan. When you enter the program click on complete scan then Scan My Computer. Then click on Scanning preferences and  uncheck the first four scanning options then click OK. The click on High Boost in the Scanning Options. Then preform the scan.

 

3. Scan for a Rootkit using Norton Power Eraser using these directions https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/kb20100824120155EN_EndUserProfile_en_us

 

4. Once last thing to try: If you computer is connected to a USB hub try unplugging it to see if this fixes the boot problem. This happened to me!

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I'll try a bunch of this stuff over the weekend.  It is not something that is slowing startup, everything starts up quickly.  Its just the strange way windows explorer is functioning.  I can kill it and then re-run it and it is fine, so something is somehow latching itself onto it I am assuming - but none of my anti programs are finding anything.

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For what it's worth I think Lalo is on target.  However, I did have this same thing happen to me just before a drive died, which is why I suggeseted chkdsk.  The bad sectors were not in the boot sectors but in the midst of the media I had stored there.

 

It could posibly be (though less likely than some other ideas) that the directory structure is being scanned, running into an issue and hanging it.  Reseting the task might be glossing over a structure issue. 

 

Just a thought.

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Are you using a laptop? Do you have comcast?  Did you upgrade to their new wireless router recently?  If you did then that may be the problem.  Turn off your wireless card and try a hard wire to the router and see if it works.  There have been issues with windows and startup issues with wireless routers.

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Well I tried Msconfig and did a clean boot with just MS stuff loading and it worked fine.  So I put almost everything back in except some programs I have not used in ages and it still worked fine.  I had also unplugged and older USB2 external drive, so that might also be the issue.  It may take a long time to figure this one out.  I was a little to busy to mess with this as I was tied up most of the day yesterday with installing my new router - a task that should have been plug and play but took about five hours.  Everything worked great on the new router except my one main computer.  It was a darn intermittent thing that makes it even worse.  The net would run on my machine, but then it would stop and sometimes pages only loaded partially and not all images.  Went crazy.  Thought it might be rules in my firewall which did not like the new router name or something.  Finally tracked it down to my old network wiring.  I first hardwired the house almost 20 years ago and it was almost impossible to get CAT5 cable. Back then everything was 10 meg/sec.  Evidently the 25 foot cable from the router to my PC was up to the job at 10 and even seemed to work fine at 100 meg/sec, but with the new gigabyte speed of this router it was not a happy camper.  Of course existing hardware was the last thing I looked for.  So, after many hours of cursing and frustration I put a different cable in and now have to worry about speeding tickets :)

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Well I tried Msconfig and did a clean boot with just MS stuff loading and it worked fine.  So I put almost everything back in except some programs I have not used in ages and it still worked fine.  I had also unplugged and older USB2 external drive, so that might also be the issue.  It may take a long time to figure this one out.  I was a little to busy to mess with this as I was tied up most of the day yesterday with installing my new router - a task that should have been plug and play but took about five hours.  Everything worked great on the new router except my one main computer.  It was a darn intermittent thing that makes it even worse.  The net would run on my machine, but then it would stop and sometimes pages only loaded partially and not all images.  Went crazy.  Thought it might be rules in my firewall which did not like the new router name or something.  Finally tracked it down to my old network wiring.  I first hardwired the house almost 20 years ago and it was almost impossible to get CAT5 cable. Back then everything was 10 meg/sec.  Evidently the 25 foot cable from the router to my PC was up to the job at 10 and even seemed to work fine at 100 meg/sec, but with the new gigabyte speed of this router it was not a happy camper.  Of course existing hardware was the last thing I looked for.  So, after many hours of cursing and frustration I put a different cable in and now have to worry about speeding tickets :)

 

Famous last words. Sort of like don't worry it's not loaded.

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You can run the Windows install disk.  Most of your programs should still work... I have used this in the past but I prefer to clean install. I also store NOTHING on my pc... everything on NAS (6 of them totaling 100TB - WOOT!)

 

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/reinstall-windows-7-changing-personal-settings-installed-programs-drivers/

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You can run the Windows install disk.  Most of your programs should still work... I have used this in the past but I prefer to clean install. I also store NOTHING on my pc... everything on NAS (6 of them totaling 100TB - WOOT!)

 

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/reinstall-windows-7-changing-personal-settings-installed-programs-drivers/

 

 I partition all my drives and install the OS on a separate partition from the data plus everything is backed up to 2 portable drives and 1 NAS. You can't be to careful.

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I am really starting to hate computers.  I went to reinstall the image from what was a bootable USB drive and windows would not recognize it nor another USB drive.  I tried changing the data cable and still no luck.  Took it down to my wife's computer and same problem.  Not sure why but after many more hours of frustration I tried another power supply for that drive and it worked fine.  I think I may have gotten hit with a power spike, as both of these USB drives had issues and my MBR just got blown away too.  Used Acronis True Image to restore the MBR and the machines seems to be running ok now.  Computers are great when they work well, which is becoming less and less :(

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This.........

 

I bought surplus Dell 705N RAID NAS's....  I have two running now and a Quadra 2 TB RAID running as well...

 

All MUSIC, EMAIL, DATA, PICTURES, CADD stuff is all MIRRORED to various drives in real time using a software package called mirror folder...it works great.....it not only syncs but does a real time RAID 1 across my home network for various things...

 

Howard...I agree...they can be a nuisance...BUT I would submit NOW is the time to get, once you have a stable desktop, all your CRITICAL data migrated over to a OFF SYSTEM storage location and THEN continue to work the problem...nothing like losing data...it sucks....best of luck !

I've got all my data on drives other than the boot drive - just data.  Most stuff is also backed up onto USB3 and eSATA external drives.  Not sure I see the value of NAS.  What does that do for me that having the drives in my local box does not do, especially since my box can hold ten or twelve drives.

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