Windows 8 – Prevent File Explorer from Regularly Crashing

crashwindows 8windows-explorer

Windows 8 File Explorer is crashing constantly, about every 10 minutes. How do I find the source of the problem?

It is very difficult to work with that. It happens in the background, when I'm not even using it. It restarts itself, but sometimes it takes the task bar with it, and takes 1m+ to restart. I have all Windows updates.

I'm not sure if it's relevant, but I have quite a few Explorer extensions, like TortoiseGit, SkyDrive, DropBox, etc.

Found this in the event log. I opened the dialog, and clicked "Event Log Online Help", but it only took me to a 404 error at technet.microsoft.com.

http://pastie.org/6466388

The event mentioned Action Center. I opened it and it said to update my graphics driver, which I already did, and said 3+ items are starting at startup, which I'm ok with right now since the computer is so new and so fast.

I disabled EVERY non-Microsoft extension with ShelExView and it STILL locks up/crashes!

Update: Even after Windows update, and disabling most every extension (including Dropbox, Skydrive, Google), it still locks up.

Best Answer

From what I can see from the dump, is that DropboxExt64_17.dll causes the crash.

STACK_TEXT:  
00000000`0e620000 00000000`00000000 : ntdll!RtlReportCriticalFailure+0x89
00000000`0e95a1b0 00000000`00000000 : ntdll!RtlpLogHeapFailure+0xa4
00000000`00000060 00000000`00000000 : ntdll! ?? ::FNODOBFM::`string'+0x1fddb
00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : ntdll!RtlAllocateHeap+0xfa
00000000`0cc4dc48  00000000`6530cb87 msvcr90!malloc+0x5b
00000000`0cc4dc78  00000000`651fc0b4 msvcp90!std::basic_string<unsigned short,std::char_traits<unsigned short>,std::allocator<unsigned short> >::assign+0x90
00000000`0cc4dc80  00000000`0ea0ae38
00000000`0cc4dcb8  00000000`651ffafb msvcp90!std::basic_string<unsigned short,std::char_traits<unsigned short>,std::allocator<unsigned short> >::basic_string<unsigned short,std::char_traits<unsigned short>,std::allocator<unsigned short> >+0x27
00000000`0cc4dce0  00000000`0dc2e1e0
00000000`0cc4dce8  000007ff`2fcdd9ee DropboxExt64_17+0xd9ee
00000000`0cc4dd10  00000000`00000000
00000000`0cc4dd18  000007ff`2fcdd9a4 DropboxExt64_17+0xd9a4
00000000`0cc4dd20  00000000`0ea0ae38

    Loaded symbol image file: DropboxExt64.17.dll
    Image path: C:\Users\Chloe\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\bin\DropboxExt64.17.dll
    Image name: DropboxExt64.17.dll
    Timestamp:        Thu Oct 04 23:42:34 2012

Report this to the dropbox team so that they can fix it. In the meantime, use ShellExView to disable the Dropbox-ShellExtensions.

// Edit. I also see that you use google drive. This is also known to causes Explorer crashes. Disable the sync icons in google drive if disabling Dropbox doesn't fix it.

00000000`0cc4e430  00000000`00000078
00000000`0cc4e438  00000000`6530cb87 msvcr90!malloc+0x5b
00000000`0cc4e440  00000000`00000000
00000000`0cc4e460  00000000`00000000
00000000`0cc4e468  000007ff`2fbd6bbc googledrivesync64+0x6bbc
00000000`0cc4e470  00000000`0e934410
00000000`0cc4e478  000007ff`2fbf6bd1 googledrivesync64+0x26bd1
00000000`0cc4e480  00000000`0e990000
00000000`0cc4e4b0  00000000`00000004
00000000`0cc4e4b8  000007ff`2fc33257 googledrivesync64+0x63257
00000000`0cc4e4c0  00000000`00000005

    Loaded symbol image file: googledrivesync64.dll
    Image path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Drive\googledrivesync64.dll
    Image name: googledrivesync64.dll
    Timestamp:        Tue Dec 18 04:48:28 2012

You also use SkyDrive:

Loaded symbol image file: SkyDriveShell64.dll
Image path: C:\Users\Chloe\AppData\Local\Microsoft\SkyDrive\17.0.2003.1112\amd64\SkyDriveShell64.dll
Image name: SkyDriveShell64.dll
Timestamp:        Mon Nov 12 20:55:22 2012

It is not good to use so many registered tools in Explorer.

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