Problem with explorer.exe

[Unksi]

I have an Acer Aspire 1363 LC laptop, that has one very annoying problem:

If I right click on desktop or an open folder, explorer.exe hangs up. I can right click any file I want, no crash.

They're customer support doesn't have any clue how to fix it, they just tell me to reformat it, but it doesn't make any difference.

I can't find any spyware etc. from it.

Anyone here got any clue what would make that?

And yeah, it is running Win XP Home SP2 with all available updates installed.

Edit: Just noticed that the post seems to be in a wrong forum, could someone please move it where it belongs to. Thanks.

[er0n]

Do you have Alcohol 120% installed?

This is a known issue with one of the recent builds.

[Unksi]

Nope, only similar software I have installed are:

Daemon Tools 3.47

Acer Arcade

NTI CD&DVD Maker GOLD

Some more about the crash, to be more accurate. There just happens nothing, cursor will change to "Busy/working" and nothing will happen. Task manager reports that explorer.exe isn't answering.

[Unksi]

Here is some more information:

I used msconfig to start without any programs starting with windows, problem didn't show up anymore. I started to launch them one by one, but after 10 minutes I noticed that it doesn't matter what software runs, it will do it. Like, when I started it with ctrlvol.exe, it crashed. After few tryes of other programs I tryed it again with only ctrlvol.exe, no crash. WTF is going on here? :(

Here is HiJackThis log if someone can tell anything helpful from it:

  Quote

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1

Scan saved at 22:31:23, on 5.6.2005

Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)

MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)

Running processes:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe

C:\Acer\eManager\anbmServ.exe

C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\aswUpdSv.exe

C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe

C:\Program Files\Kerio\Personal Firewall 4\kpf4ss.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe

C:\Program Files\Kerio\Personal Firewall 4\kpf4gui.exe

C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE

C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe

C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe

C:\PROGRA~1\ALWILS~1\Avast4\ashDisp.exe

C:\WINDOWS\AGRSMMSG.exe

C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\Wbutton.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\VTTimer.exe

C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPLpr.exe

C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe

C:\Program Files\Kerio\Personal Firewall 4\kpf4gui.exe

C:\program files\powerstrip\pstrip.exe

C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\PowerKey.exe

C:\Program Files\Arcade\PCMService.exe

C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\OSDCtrl.exe

C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\HotkeyApp.exe

C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\LaunchAp.exe

C:\Program Files\Microsoft AntiSpyware\gcasServ.exe

C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\CtrlVol.exe

C:\Program Files\StatBar\StatBar.exe

C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\TeaTimer.exe

C:\Program Files\PeerGuardian2\pg2.exe

C:\Program Files\Microsoft AntiSpyware\gcasDtServ.exe

C:\Program Files\PowerMenu\PowerMenu.exe

C:\Program Files\Rainlendar\Rainlendar.exe

C:\Documents and Settings\joop\Desktop\putty.exe

C:\Program Files\Winamp\Winamp.exe

C:\Documents and Settings\joop\Desktop\etmin.exe

C:\PROGRA~1\MOZILL~1\firefox.exe

C:\Documents and Settings\joop\Desktop\HijackThis.exe

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://global.acer.com/

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page =

R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page =

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Connection Wizard,ShellNext = ftp://kunkku/

O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {53707962-6F74-2D53-2644-206D7942484F} - C:\PROGRA~1\SPYBOT~1\SDHelper.dll

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvCplDaemon] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [avast!] C:\PROGRA~1\ALWILS~1\Avast4\ashDisp.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AGRSMMSG] AGRSMMSG.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Wbutton] "C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\Wbutton.exe"

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [VTTrayp] VTtrayp.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [VTTimer] VTTimer.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [synTPLpr] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPLpr.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [synTPEnh] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [preload] C:\Windows\RUNXMLPL.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PowerStrip] c:\program files\powerstrip\pstrip.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PowerKey] "C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\PowerKey.exe"

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PCMService] "C:\Program Files\Arcade\PCMService.exe"

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [nwiz] nwiz.exe /install

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [LMgrOSD] C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\OSDCtrl.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [LManager] C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\HotkeyApp.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [LaunchAp] C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\LaunchAp.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [gcasServ] "C:\Program Files\Microsoft AntiSpyware\gcasServ.exe"

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CtrlVol] C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\CtrlVol.exe

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [superCleaner] "C:\Program Files\SuperCleaner\SuperCleaner.exe" /h/b

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [statBar] C:\Program Files\StatBar\StatBar.exe

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [spybotSD TeaTimer] C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\TeaTimer.exe

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [PeerGuardian] C:\Program Files\PeerGuardian2\pg2.exe

O4 - Startup: Rainlendar.lnk = C:\Program Files\Rainlendar\Rainlendar.exe

O4 - Global Startup: PowerMenu.lnk = C:\Program Files\PowerMenu\PowerMenu.exe

O16 - DPF: {6414512B-B978-451D-A0D8-FCFDF33E833C} (WUWebControl Class) - http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/...b?1117993502250

O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{1EFC9BD4-5CAB-4989-88C6-A8CAE4DCDC7E}: NameServer = 193.229.0.40,193.229.0.42

O17 - HKLM\System\CS1\Services\Tcpip\..\{1EFC9BD4-5CAB-4989-88C6-A8CAE4DCDC7E}: NameServer = 193.229.0.40,193.229.0.42

O23 - Service: Notebook Manager Service (anbmService) - OSA Technologies Inc. - C:\Acer\eManager\anbmServ.exe

O23 - Service: avast! iAVS4 Control Service (aswUpdSv) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\aswUpdSv.exe

O23 - Service: Autodesk Licensing Service - Autodesk, Inc. - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Service\AdskScSrv.exe

O23 - Service: avast! Antivirus - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe

O23 - Service: avast! Mail Scanner - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe" /service (file missing)

O23 - Service: avast! Web Scanner - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe" /service (file missing)

O23 - Service: Kerio Personal Firewall 4 (KPF4) - Kerio Technologies - C:\Program Files\Kerio\Personal Firewall 4\kpf4ss.exe

O23 - Service: NVIDIA Display Driver Service (NVSvc) - NVIDIA Corporation - C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe

[Unksi]

I have found the answer for this problem:

I disabled paraller and infrared ports from BIOS to save battery life, re-enabling them fixed the problem.

Don't have any clue though how that could depend on it :p