Desktop crashes (Vista HP)

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On a fairly regular basis my desktop with shortcuts etc goes completely ‘blank blue’ (scarey!) but then automatically comes back. It seems that it is closed by Windows for some unknown reason to do with Explorer.exe. There does not appear to be a regular pattern though it mostly happens when I ‘click on’ something … nothing specific here though, it can happen if I click on a shortcut, open a file whatever.
Any ideas? Is this a well known problem?
Ron
After initially posting this I have reduced the significant number of shortcuts that I had placed on the desktop … I have no idea if this can contribute to the desktop reboots?

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This sounds like a Windows “blue screen” event. Please look in Event Viewer to find the details and post them here. To use event viewer:

• Start EventVwr.msc
• Select System in the pane on the left
• Look in the pane on the left for an Error event that happened at the time your computer stopped working
• Double click the error and let us have the Event ID and any description that goes with it.
  [/list]StuartR

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Hei Stuart,
Attached is what I can find out about this ‘restart’. I don’t think it is a (so called) Blue Screen failure as when I got a few of these prior to SP1 the screen always had some white writing on it about the failure. All that happens with this failure is that the desktop goes ‘blank blue’ and then automatically all of my shortcuts etc come back … it all happens in maybe around 10 secs.
Hope that attached gives you some clues.
Ron

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Ron,

You can find more information about EVENT ID 1074 with a source of USER32 here. When the requesting process is Explorer.exe (as in your case) this looks like a user requested shutdown!

Are you absolutely sure that this is the correct event? Is there anything else in the event log?

Please have a look at this Knowledge Brief and then check if “Shutdown Event Tracker” is enabled.

StuartR

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Bit confusing isn’t it Stuart!
But just had another one … this time it has a different Event ID of 1002 … see below. I had a look at the M/S web page for this event but it just says that ‘no user action is required’. So I guess that these brief failures are not ‘critical’ but it is disconcerting when the desktop ‘cleans up and comes back’ and it would be nice to get to the bottom of it! I have not looked at the Shutdown Event Tracker (Shutdown.exe?) as this is getting into areas that I do not understand … it should be ‘on’ because I think that this is the default position? How do I look at it?
Regards
Ron

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That is a completely different event, and I really don’t know how to explore Windows Explorer hanging. Certainly this would cause the symptoms you are describing as Explorer restarting would need to recreate all the dekstop.

What drives show in explorer when this happens? Do you have any mapped shares? Or flaky USB sticks? Or anything else unusual?

StuartR

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Thanks for trying to help.
Regarding other events … I do get IE7 freeze ups from time to time (been trying to sort this one out by a process of elimination). I use only one USB stick on a permanent basis for the Logitech V450 laser mouse plus one for the HP Printer … I guess that I can unplug these to see if problems persist? As Al said I raised these Explorer and IE7 issues a while back; things seemed to settle down but now the gremlins are back! So clearly I did not nail them.
Perhaps one thing I should do is to look at admin events immeadiately prior to such failures to see if there is any pattern? I also note that I get quite a few Register events typical to the comment below … maybe these are the cause of pc hiccups. (My wife reckons that the laptop hiccups because its cold and we have a lot of snow!)
Regarding your … ‘What drives show in explorer when this happens? Do you have any mapped shares?’ … sorry but I ain’t a clue about this!
If nothing springs to light then I guess that I will have to go down the path that Al suggests and delete things like M/S updates, other installs over the past few months etc.
Ron
Attachments not working? So what I was going to attach says …
Windows detected your registry file is still in use by other applications or services. The file will be unloaded now. The applications or services that hold your registry file may not function properly afterwards.

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Thanks for trying to help.
Regarding other events … I do get IE7 freeze ups from time to time (been trying to sort this one out by a process of elimination). I use only one USB stick on a permanent basis for the Logitech V450 laser mouse plus one for the HP Printer … I guess that I can unplug these to see if problems persist? As Al said I raised these Explorer and IE7 issues a while back; things seemed to settle down but now the gremlins are back! So clearly I did not nail them.
Perhaps one thing I should do is to look at admin events immeadiately prior to such failures to see if there is any pattern? I also note that I get quite a few Register events typical to the comment below … maybe these are the cause of pc hiccups. (My wife reckons that the laptop hiccups because its cold and we have a lot of snow!)
Regarding your … ‘What drives show in explorer when this happens? Do you have any mapped shares?’ … sorry but I ain’t a clue about this!
If nothing springs to light then I guess that I will have to go down the path that Al suggests and delete things like M/S updates, other installs over the past few months etc.
Ron
Attachments not working? So what I was going to attach says …
Windows detected your registry file is still in use by other applications or services. The file will be unloaded now. The applications or services that hold your registry file may not function properly afterwards.

Its now 24th and touch wood (or pc plastic … whatever is the correct expression) for some reason unknown to me my desktop has been completely stable. So by just asking questions of Woody it seems that problems are cured! But it is brave of me to comment … here’s hoping all will remain ‘stable!’
Of course I am testing this new Woody stuff to see if I can understand it! At my age you know one needs a bit of a comfort zone!
Ron

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I noticed in your post 754,697 which goes back about a month now, that you had, at that time, installed some stuff from HP and in the post and thread you mention other things. If you don’t already have it, I’d suggest you get a copy of the free Revo Uninstaller and install it. Revo allows you to sort by DATE of install so I’d look at all the things you’ve installed in the last month or so and consider un-installing one or more, one at a time to see WHO the culprit “might” be. After all, you can always re-install.

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For information only … Vista HP
2nd March and desktop still seems to be stable as now does IE7 … I wonder if M/S have downloaded an ‘update’ that has had a cleaning effect?

As mentioned above I cleaned up a lot of shortcuts on desktop but as yet have not done a Reg clean. Apart from cleaning the desktop, over the last few weeks I have:
-Reset the Security settings in IE to the defaults
-Trashed the Google tool bar add-on to IE7 (which I had hidden and forgot in any case!)
-Deleted and then reinstalled the latest Adobe Flash
-Removed special Logitech V450 laser mouse software
-Dumped a programme I use for pics (Nikon View) and installed Irfanview which seems much better for the basic things I need
-Done a complete disc check and repair

Maybe one (or none!) of these changes has had the desired effect … sadly I did not do it s l o w l y to try to nail the offender but if anyone is experiencing similar probs then these comments may be of some assistance.
Ron

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Thanks for posting back. Who knows, maybe one or more of your steps will help another Lounger.

Joe

--Joe

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