File/Open dialog crashes computer

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This is not application specific. I can make it fail in word, excel and turbo tax. When you go to file open, the dialog box opens, but as you scroll to the right or left in the box the computer will immediately crash. Usually after 3 or 4 clicks when scrolling thru the files. I deleted all temp files, checked for recovered files, defragged the hard drive, searched for hours in google and on microsoft.com without success. McAfee AV is current and shows no errors. Currently running malware bytes to see if something comes up there, but it is 12 minutes in and still scanning.

update. MB only found two adware items.

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You can download BlueScreenView, install it, cause a crash, boot and use it to see what is causing the crash.

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It is not a blue sceeen type of crash. It is a total system lockup that does not respond to anything other than holding the power button in until the system powers off. then we power back up and there is no indication in the event logs that a shutdown even occurred. In reading the system manual – Dell Dimension 3000 a flashing power light indicates that the computer is in system standby and that clicking the mouse, pressing a key on the keyboard, etc, will wake it up. However, nothing that has been tried and that is a lot of stuff works except to hold the power button in.

The problem to me seems to be in the common file open dialog code. It especially seems to be a problem when there are more files than can be seen in a single window, but requires scrolling to get to a file farther down the list. The failure can occur with mouse clicks or even using the scroll wheel.. The other programs like IE do not have a problem with scrolling within a window. It only occurs when doing a file open and there is a need to scroll thru a large list of files. Really strange.

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Has that been going on for long? Can you trace it to a point in time?

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I think only a few days. This is not my computer, I’m the outside IT guy who gets called when things break. I’ve never seen a problem like this one. I’m thinking that the only solution is a windows repair install, but not sure that will fix it. This is an accountants computer and can’t be down long, so we are going to get another computer for her to use and then have more time to work on this issue.

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Using a system restore to a few days back is not a possibility?

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She doesn’t have a USB thumb drive or USB hard drive plugged in when the lockup occurs does she?

Jerry

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Have you checked the Event Viewer Application Log and System Log for error that correspond to the timing of the lockups?

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Have you run CCleaner and used the Registry tab to scan for issues. One possibility is that
corruption within your registry keys, registry classes, and registry settings. has happened. Over time your registry can grow to to humongous proportions and be filled with all sorts of junk and errors. So when you try to open a file it can take a long time to find the required registry file and sometime it can’t find its registry files due to errors. Then it freezes and you can’t do anything except shut it down.

I also read on CNET about Advanced Windows CarePersonal

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Put in a different computer for this user today and I now have the computer here in my shop. Will look into the things that folks have replied when I bring up in the bench over the weekend. My plan is to run a repair install after I try various other things and if none of those work. I will post any results. Stay tuned.

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I have been working on this computer off and on for a number of days.
Have done a complete AV scan on the drive by removing and attaching to another computer with the latest Norton Internet Security – nothing found

Reinstalled the hard drive and installed the new MS Security Essentials complete scan nothing found

Installed and ran Malware bytes – nothing found

Ran ccleaner and cleaned the registry and temp files. no help

Perfomed a windows repair install – file open still crashes the system

No error messages in the system logs, and the computer appears to be in standby mode, but nothing brings it out of that mode. I have to power off and reboot to get the system back up. i’m starting to think it may be hardware, but then why does it only happen when trying to do a file open.

I’m also going to put a different hard drive in and install xp from scratch and a couple of programs to see if the problem still occurs. If so then it definitely is a hardware issue. In the meantime the client is very happy with her new computer.

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Sounds like a problem with a shell extension:

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

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You could also run Hijackthis and see if anything suspicious is in the generated report.

Jerry

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Sounds like a problem with a shell extension:

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

Looked at that but it appears to focused on right clicks and this problem comes up with the standard click when in file open dialog. That is why I did a repair install hoping that Windows would replace that module, but no luck so far. This is no longer a front burner issue so will find another hard dirive, probably this weekend and install windows from scratch to make sure there is no hardware that is screwing up here.

Anybody know how to get a computer out of standby? I’ve tried the power button, the mouse and mouse buttons, various key combos, etc, but the only thing that works is to hold the power button in or turn off power at the PS on the back and then power up to a fresh boot.

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More info. Finally stuck a new hard drive in the computer installed XP SP3. Using Notepad, I attempted to browse and open an inf file. Ths system immediately shutdown / went to standby. Now I will start swapping out hardware components to see if I can figure out where things are going wrong. This a slow process since I have too many other things going on right now and can’t devote much dedicated time. Going to run a memory test first.

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