Unable to use Windows Explorer
01 October 2005, 06:02 PM
#1
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Unable to use Windows Explorer
Hi. Got a bit of a problem with my folk's PC and could do with some help...
Basically - computer (Win XP Home) starts up fine and you can run software, connect to broadband etc. ok.
The problem occurs when you try to open My Computer/Windows Explorer.
The explorer window opens, lists all (or most) of the contents (e.g. drives/folders), then it just hangs. You can't select or right click anything within the window, and it also makes any other windows lock up temporarily.
After about 30s the explorer process seems to restart (e.g. the taskbar reloads and any apps re-appear - except for the explorer window). Hopefully that makes it clear how the problem presents itself. My parents say it's been like this for a couple of weeks.
So I've done the usual adware/spyware/virus checks and removed any nasties. Obviously as I can't access My Computer I couldn't scan the hard drive, but I ran a chkdsk which didn't show up any errors.
BUT...
The only thing I have found is looking in eventvwr, the following error which bagan on the 15/09:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7
Date: 01/10/2005
Time: 17:34:31
User: N/A
Computer: COMPAQ
Description:
The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
This alert has increased daily from about 1 or 2 initially, and more since they got back from holiday - and while I've been investigating today I've had over 400 occurrences!
Is this what is causing the explorer problems?
Like I say, everything else looks fine and funninly enough if you do a file > open in AOL, for example, you can browse virtually all the folders on C:\, although it crashes AOL if you right click on the actual C:\ drive (as I've just found out
).
Any help appreciated. Cheers, Jamie
Basically - computer (Win XP Home) starts up fine and you can run software, connect to broadband etc. ok.
The problem occurs when you try to open My Computer/Windows Explorer.
The explorer window opens, lists all (or most) of the contents (e.g. drives/folders), then it just hangs. You can't select or right click anything within the window, and it also makes any other windows lock up temporarily.
After about 30s the explorer process seems to restart (e.g. the taskbar reloads and any apps re-appear - except for the explorer window). Hopefully that makes it clear how the problem presents itself. My parents say it's been like this for a couple of weeks.
So I've done the usual adware/spyware/virus checks and removed any nasties. Obviously as I can't access My Computer I couldn't scan the hard drive, but I ran a chkdsk which didn't show up any errors.
BUT...
The only thing I have found is looking in eventvwr, the following error which bagan on the 15/09:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7
Date: 01/10/2005
Time: 17:34:31
User: N/A
Computer: COMPAQ
Description:
The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
This alert has increased daily from about 1 or 2 initially, and more since they got back from holiday - and while I've been investigating today I've had over 400 occurrences!
Is this what is causing the explorer problems?
Like I say, everything else looks fine and funninly enough if you do a file > open in AOL, for example, you can browse virtually all the folders on C:\, although it crashes AOL if you right click on the actual C:\ drive (as I've just found out
).Any help appreciated. Cheers, Jamie
Last edited by JamieMacdonald; 01 October 2005 at 06:33 PM.
01 October 2005, 09:45 PM
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Cheers for the reply.
I did try to put sp2 on it a few months back but it totally killed it (went into a reboot cycle). I couldn't get around it so therefore upgrading to sp2 is not really an option.
I did try to put sp2 on it a few months back but it totally killed it (went into a reboot cycle). I couldn't get around it so therefore upgrading to sp2 is not really an option.
01 October 2005, 10:10 PM
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Have you run a CHKDSK on the drive? Right click the drive in My Computer, Properties, Tools > Check Desk
Or run CHKDSK /F from a CMD prompt. If you want a longer test, use CHKDSK /R but that might take an hour or three.
Or run CHKDSK /F from a CMD prompt. If you want a longer test, use CHKDSK /R but that might take an hour or three.
01 October 2005, 10:39 PM
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Yes tried that mate...
But not tried the /R flag though so will give that a go tomorrow - using /F didn't show any errors but maybe /R will find (and hopefully fix) the bad block?
Cheers
Originally Posted by JamieMacdonald
Obviously as I can't access My Computer I couldn't scan the hard drive, but I ran a chkdsk which didn't show up any errors.
Cheers
02 October 2005, 08:07 PM
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Who da man!!!!
CHKDSK /R rand for about 2 hrs and found 4kb of bad blocks it then repaired and updated some 'bitmap', upon restart all is hunkus dorus!
Well done ChrisB
CHKDSK /R rand for about 2 hrs and found 4kb of bad blocks it then repaired and updated some 'bitmap', upon restart all is hunkus dorus!
Well done ChrisB
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