Newbie To Sp2, Incredibly Weird Behaviour...

[oberon567]

OK. I know similar problems have arisen with other people, but I have found none that are the same as mine, and those with solutions are not solutions that work for me, or at least not as of yet. This site seems to offer some of the very best advice, so I finally decided to post. I also know my post is long but I am trying to be thorough, so please bear with me, I really need help!

Here is some general info, which I am sure will be needed... I am running Windows XP Pro with 768 Mb RAM on a p3 processor, 1.8 Ghz. I have 2 internal hard drives - one is a 200 Gb, that is partitioned into a 40 Gb C: Drive and a 150 Gb E: Drive. The other hard drive is a 120 Gb D: Drive. (The C: has 2.78 free Gb, the E: has 25.1 Gb free, and the D: has 7.26 Gb free). I know that posting the drive letters of the partitions may be unecessary, but I wanted to clarify that the C and E drives are the same physical drive... You will see why when I get around to explaining my problem... (I also have a 250 Gb external hard drive, but I have no even powered it up since switching to SP2). Also, I have AVG Free antivirus software, fully up to date and constantly running, and I run Spyboy Search and Destroy regularly as well, and both come up clean.

I may or may not engage in file sharing... which is why I had decided not to installl SP2. I didnt want to deal with the hassle. For the last 3.5 years at my university, I have not actually been on the university network, but this semester I am, and in order to access the network, I was forced to install ALL Windows updates. I did not back up anything, like a blasted fool, I know, but SP2 installed with no problems and no crahses. Hypothetically. But I was having no problmes before the install. And then it hit the fan.

The first thing I did after installing SP2 was to install a patch increasing the number in TCP connections allowed. SP2 only allows 10, while SP1 was unlimited, and this can affect file sharing, if I were to engage in such things, and as such I increased the number to 1000. In addition I turned off the Windows Firewall.

I have a good deal of video files on my computer, as well as a lot of codecs to accompany them, as well as other software and the like used for encoding and making digital DVD back ups etc. But I have never had any problems in this area.

Now, I have some video files stored in a folder on my D drive and some stored in a folder on my E Drive. In the D: drive folder, there is a shortcut to the folder in the E: drive. Whenevr I click this link, Windows Explorer crashes. If I manually go to the folder, via My Computer, it does not crash. If I try to make new shortcuts of the folder, it also crashes. In addition, if I double click on any *.avi file, first the playback software crashes, and then Windows Explorer crashes. I had always used WMP 9, though I also have up-to-date versions of DivX Player, Real Player, and Quicktime Player on ym machine. (With all of my Windows updates, I ended up with the nwest version of WMP). If I use WMP or DivX Player to access the video files, the player crashes and then Windows Explorer crashes. If I use Real Player to access the file, however, it works. I set the default program for *.avi files to Real Player... now if I click on a file, Windows Explorer still crashes, but Real Player will trudge on and play the video. However, if I open Real Player first and use the File-Open method to access files, Windows Explorer does not crash.

I have a few *.wmv files, ripped from a camcorder, in a different folder entirely, and when I double clicked those files they opened in WMP woth no problems, though the system seemed to lag a little bit. I have watched one Quicktime *.mov file since the update and it seemed to work fine.

I cannot fathom why this keeps happening. The ITS helpdesk at my university also offers no assistance, other than format the machine and reinstall with a XP Pro disc that has SP2 pre-installed. I do not like this idea at all. In addition to Windows Explorer crashing over and over again and random media players crashing, I have gotten Dr Watson errors 2 time, both of which was immediately after a Window Explorer crash, and I am guessing/hoping it was just because my computer couldnt handle itself, and that there is nothing malicious going on.

I tried creating a new user on my system, and logging on via that user and seeing if possibly it wa sa user defined problem, but it was not, the same problem persisted. I also tried restoring the original tcpip.sys file that the patch I installed modified, which did nothing, and I tried various stages of Windows Firewall protection, also nothing. Since I am on a campus network, I have been sharing media files on the network (though no one can modify any of the files, so I dont have any viruses or worms coming in) so recently my system resources have occasionally been used up. But the crashing problems began BEFORE I started sharing any files on the network, and even if I un-share all of the currently shared folders, and I have no program running other than normal Windows background programs, the crashes still happen.

I have downloaded HiJack this but have not installed it or run it. If posting a HijackThis log would be beneficial to fixing this problem, I could do so. While I am not a computer uber-genius, I am generally not a moron either and I know my way around the machine, give or take. If a 1 is someone searching for the power button and a 10 is a moderator on this site, I would say I am a strong 6 or so. Maybe 6.5, on a good day. But I am stumped.

I would REALLY REALLY REALLY appreciate some guidance in this issue...

Thanks!!!

PS - A quick edit - Windows Explorer has crashed on a few other occasions since the update, other than accessing the previously mentioned folders. It seems to always be when dealing with *.avi files... sometime right-clicking on a file will crash Windows explorer, though not every time. The issue with the shortcut between folders is a contant crash, as is the one that occurs when trying to view *.avi files. The other crashes I have yet to be able to find a pattern in...

Edited February 1, 2006 by oberon567

[jcl]

Curious.

The crashes with the AVIs sounds like a problem with a component shared between those video players. If there's a broken (set of) codec(s) shared between them it could cause all of them to crash. Real is perverse enough that they might ship their own version(s) of the codec(s). Not sure how to check without manually replacing the potentially broken codecs. (It doesn't have to be the codecs -- there might other shared components -- but if it is I may or may not have a link to a site with a large collection of probably not-broken Win32 codecs of dubious legality.)

The Explorer crashes could have the same cause. Explorer uses a media player component to generate previews of movies and, I think, extract metadata (length, video dimensions, etc). If that component crashed it could bring down Explorer. ISTR from one of the MS blogs that Explorer generates previews for every file in the directory you're browsing. You could trigger a crash just by opening a directory. Selecting a file or examing its properties could trigger a crash by loading the generated preview or triggering metadata collection or God knows what else. That wouldn't explain why Explorer only crashes when you follow the shortcut, but still, it seems unlikely that it's a coincidence.

Questions:

Do you get the shortcut crash with other shortcuts?

Do you get the shortcut crash if you follow the shortcut with something other than a regular Explorer windows? For example if you follow it through an File->Open or right click->Search?

Does it make any difference if in Explorer you use the Classic Folders (Tools->General->Tasks) with View set to List?

Does Explorer crash if you open the movie through the command-line? ('Executing' the movie file it should open it in the default player.)

Does the File->Open trick work with any other media players?

Edited February 1, 2006 by jcl

[oberon567]

I had originally thougt about codec problems, but the explorer crashign threw me off. i didnt even think about the fact that it needs codecs to access metadata.

All of my folders are already set to classic views-> Lists.

the File-> Open trick does not work with any other media player, it crashes them and then explorer.

no matter how i follow the shortcut, right click search, etc, it still crashes explorer.

i did not get a chance to run the command line. and i am late for class. but you replied so quickly i wanted to respond.

the codec problem makes sense... as soon as i single click on a video file explorer crashes, and it must e in the attempt to retrieve metadata. (it displays the size and length over in the left hand preview frame, but no visual preview, and then crashes). so i think that maybe trying to reinstall those bad boys would be the next step. i wouldnt mind being pointed to some relaible codecs. however, is there a way I can find a list of all codecs installed on my machine?

i am still buggered all to hell as to why explorer crashes upon following the shortcut, though. sure, the new folder is full of video files, but none of them are accessed when the shortcut is called upon, and they are in a list form with no preview data, and in any case opening the folder manually doesnt crash anything. additionally, even when i created a NEW shortcut of the folder (and put it in a different directory, just for shits and giggles) it crashed, upon the creation of the shortcut as well as the (attempted) use of the shortcut...

i think my first means of attack will be to reinstall all of my codecs, and see what if any problems that solves... so a good direction to look in would be helpful... however i am currently late for class and will nto be back home for another 13 hours, so i will have to do it then...

also, i fired up my external hard drive and it is working fine and i managed to clear 8 Gb off of my C drive, because it had only 11% free space or something and I know the drive with the system files likes at least 15%, and now it has 22%, so that SHOULD make things a little bit happier....

Thanks!

[oberon567]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!

I uninstalled a number of my codecs, and then I downloaded the newest codec pack from www.doom9.net, as well as the newest ripPack for that matter, and then DivX Pro 6 codecs, and everythign seems to be working fine again. No crashes when I run video files, no matter HOW I access them (File->Open or directly clicking) using WMP and I can follow that shortcut that was previously devious and Explorer does not crash. I sat here stupefied for so long and immediately dismissed the issue as being codec related, because I had forgotten entirely about Explorers usage of codecs for metadata. And to be honest I still dont understand why Explorer was crashing when I went from one folder to the other. I was seriously concerned it had something to do with my partitions. I am very very happy now, though, that the obvious thing I should have first checked and tried to update was reminded to me, and that it seems to have solved my problems. I am not 100% sure that my DVD Ripping and encoding capacities are the same as before, but Explorer is not crashing and WMP is wokring and those are both good signs, and I am sure I can make everything else get back in its place eventually.

Again, innumerable thanks.

TD

[jcl]

Glad I could help