Windows 7 Ultimate Explorer.exe crash

explorer crashes when you either select my computer, or go directly into explorer, also when you try and get to the command prompt.

That hotfix notes;

"This issue usually occurs when you perform some operations that are related to the taskbar or to the Address bar such as pinning or unpinning icons or dragging links to the taskbar."

That doesn't seem to be your issue.

Tell us about "My Computer". How many hard drives, and any USB devices attached to this system?

Mark

internal
160GB SSD intel ssdsa2cw160g3
750GB HD western digital wdc wd7500 bpkt-80pk4t0

external
2 TB Samsung G3 Station USB 2.0 HX-DU020EC

Optical Drive
2x Blu-Rey Mashita bd-mlt uj 240afw

Tell us about your install routine BEFORE and AFTER you installed Windows 7. That setup is pretty advanced and I find makers not writing down all the steps.

Let's see if your install routine is good. And if anything is overclocked, we need to know.
Bob

i ran a restore from the restore disks that i created when i got the laptop, which included all the blotware. factory settings. I did not have a problem back in november of last year when i bought the laptop. After restoring it to initial factory settings i am still getting the same problem.

The install is VERY demanding on today's users. For laptops it can be even rougher and now that we know there is no Windows 7 DVD we can't check your install.

Your laptop's maker is your next stop for this one as to solve this the usual way requires them to tell us how to get 7 up and running properly on this machine. I've only been through a few times (over 100) so while it's getting easier the lack of the proper DVD and more means back to the maker.
Bob

also the laptop is not over clocked.

inserted disk 1 of asus factory recovery disk
inserted disk 2
inserted disk 3
inserted disk 4
inserted disk 5
asked for computer name
asked for password
after all the factory settings were done. I updated all the asus drivers and software updates, and installed all the windows updates. computer restarted about 15-20 times. installed norton 360 and all of its updates.

what I went through a year and a half or so ago.

It could well be related to how you installed this OS on this drive setup, but I am also wondering if either of your conventional drives are causing problems other than that.

A quick test is to disconnect the external hard drive before booting up and testing Explorer. If that doesn't cure it, the next test is to disconnect the internal 750GB drive before booting and then testing Explorer.

If disconnecting the external solves the Explorer problem I would suspect that the external drive is beginning to fail.

However, if the Explorer fault vanishes when the 2nd internal drive is disconnected, then either that drive may be failing, or something was missing during the Win 7 install, but we can't tell until you tell us more.

Make sure you have done all your backups, just in case.

Mark

I did not disconnect the internal drives even though they are easily accessable because the connections are very fragil in a laptop. I locked the 750gb hard drive in bios but same explorer problem. I also though it might be the external that is causing the problem as well since i saw posts regarding external usb drive/ explorer problems it is not the drives because i get the same issue when i lock and disconnect both of them.

an SSD problem.

Bob will likely know more. I'm not sure that 'locking' drives in the BIOS is anything I am aware of. I know I can disable my drives in the BIOS but if the data and power leads are still connected, Explorer will still see them in the working OS.

Without that Win 7 DVD I agree with Bob this becomes a warranty issue. If the two conventional drives are OK then this looks much like an SSD problem. They are known to have instability problems with "write to disk".

Mark

here is the offical website with the SSD in the specifications. so no i did not install the ssd it came with the computer. all i did after i bought the computer was install more ram since it came with 8gb and i upped it to 16gb.

http://usa.asus.com/Notebooks/Gaming_Powerhouse/G74SX/#specifications

Unless it's that Explorer issue that's been with us over a decade.

what was the explorer issue thats been with us for a decade? was it resolved if so how?

It has to do with photos, video files that crash Explorer. That's not entirely the full story but when Explorer opens a folder it may try to render thumbnails and that is where the crash occurs. Since the crash has been in some CODEC that Microsoft didn't supply or the video is encoded in some unsupported (by Microsoft) encoding Microsoft has never accepted this as their bug to fix.

I brought this issue up since some forget about it or didn't know.
Bob

before i wasn't getting any error messages or they came up and disappeared really quickly.

Explorer.exe - application error
The instruction at 0x800051da referenced memory at 0x0285c000. The memory could not be written.
Click OK to terminate the program.

Unless we unregister DLLs and turn off thumbnails, and even then...

so is there a solution? if so how do i go about doing it?

Make a new Windows account, and try there. If it's OK there, it's some bad file or setting (something bad) in your current account. Then just switch to that new one and only take known good things with you (step by step).

If it happens also in a new Windows account, it's either Windows that is corrupted or a hardware issue. Then, before sending this machine back for a warranty repair, I'd do another clean install (back to factory settings) of Windows and see If it happens immediately after that (before you added other software). If that happens, it proves that it's hardware.

Corruption of Windows, of course, can happen after a few month due to hardware issues, even if there's nothing wrong with what you install or what you do. But it's very difficult to prove that that's the case.

Kees

Then a new account will crash and a fresh install will crash.

It's an old issue which we fix by the same old means. (remove the files that crash, use something other than explorer, unregister dlls, and no thumbnails.)

There are a few that will never accept this bug is still there. They can't believe MSFT would let this continue for over a decade?
Bob

I tried going to the quick launch and hitting windows explorer to access my drives. applilcation error comes up.
tries to fix on its own. then i get the error message:

Explorer.exe - application error
The instruction at 0x800051da referenced memory at 0x0285c000. The memory could not be written.
Click OK to terminate the program.

Tried to go to my documents. same thing happens.

Tried to go to start, computer. it works but only for a little bit then. application error happens again.

I can not access my drives.

You are beginning to give clues that point to rootkit, malware or maybe a hardware issue.

For example one old machine with some 2 year old video card that was high end did something very similar. Very tough to diagnose but it did finally give an error that lead us to the card.

Your posts have focused primarily on Explorer so the clues that lead me to other ideas are not here. But as it stands you have either a corrupt OS or some hardware issue.

To figure this out, all and any clues are needed or you start swapping parts and the OS.
Bob

I downloaded the new nvidia drivers from nvidia and installed them. I think that might be the cause of everything.
I am doing a clean install again for everything and checking windows explorer after every windows update and not installing the video drivers off of nvidia site. Hopefully this will work. So far the install has been good a bunch more windows updates to go. Crossing my fingers.