Seeing Strange Explorer issue

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I am having some strange Explorer issues across all 6 of my computers. All 6 have different hardware, 5 are desktops and I have 1 laptop.

The issue is random, but occurs once the computer is turned on. I will get at some point an error saying that Explorer has crashed and wants to restart (sometimes it asks me to restart by clicking OK, other times it just does the restart on it’s own).

According to the logs this all started on 2-12-2015 which according to my records of updates I did install the following;
Security
KB3004361
KB3013455
KB3029944
KB3031432

Update
KB3021917
KB3005788
KB3004394

Here is the what the event log says

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 3/20/2015 8:28:40 AM
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: (100)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Ellie
Description:
Faulting application name: Explorer.EXE, version: 6.1.7601.17567, time stamp: 0x4d672ee4
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000004500fd8
Faulting process id: 0x688
Faulting application start time: 0x01d06317c1ea8cba
Faulting application path: C:WindowsExplorer.EXE
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 66b88618-cf0d-11e4-ab9d-005056c00008
Event Xml:

1000
2
100
0x80000000000000

113568
Application
Ellie

Explorer.EXE
6.1.7601.17567
4d672ee4
unknown
0.0.0.0
00000000
c0000005
0000000004500fd8
688
01d06317c1ea8cba
C:WindowsExplorer.EXE
unknown
66b88618-cf0d-11e4-ab9d-005056c00008

Not sure but I figured I would start with this and see where this takes me. Anything else I can provide just let me know. All computers are Windows 7 Pro and Home, 64-bit.

Thanks

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Windows should be creating crash dump files. Install WhoCrashed. It will analyse the files and should give you an idea of what’s causing the problem.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/whocrashed_free_home_edition.html

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@Calimanco – I installed WhoCrashed and the report came up nothing

@jwoods – I ran the SFC /scannow and no errors. I also ran the memtest86+ overnight and no problems. I also ran the Windows memory test this morning and nothing

Do you want me to also run these tests on the other machines? All machines have different hardware and memory manufacturers?

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What do the machines have in common other than Windows Updates – did you install any programs onto the machines around that time or carry out any other communal activity ?

Starting with one machine, if your restore points go back that far, restore to prior 12th Feb. and scanning for affected programs with each point that you select to see if WE continues to crash.

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Common. All have CCleaner, Comodo firewall, Macrium, Avira, Autoruns and some others. Some have Office 2010 while others do not have Office at all. Only my system do I ever install and uninstall programs. The other systems are the way they are. I joined another thread about some updates which seems to have a lot of activity here. Maybe it is tied to this I am not sure. But those updates are tied to Feb 12.

Basically I ran Disk Cleanup and now some updates from that time period are now showing up; even though they say installed. Again I am not sure if that thread is tied to this Explorer issue. I will keep digging around and see if can get something common to this.

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So uninstall the updates one by one on one of your PCs until the crashes stop (if). Then reinstall the other updates except the offender (assuming it was MS update). Then ID what the update does and if there maybe updates (BIOS, drivers, browser update, app update, etc.) you can do to mollify this update or live without it for now.

Contact MS about the issue so they can work on the fix though Win7 is now a lower priority with them.

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@jwoods – well checking what you said, I do have missing ones. Now all the updates show in the WU view history, but these are missing if I go to the control panel

KB3031432
KB3029944
KB3004394

@Fascist Nation – I will work on this in the coming days. Question, if I remove an update; in WU view history will that disappear or will the entry remain;even though it is uninstalled? Or do I have to run something after I uninstall an update to clean the system out of those entries?

Thanks

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Swatbat2142 – Just thought I’d chime in here. I have experienced the same issue with Windows Explorer crashing. It always happens after running Western Digital My Cloud (WD My Cloud.exe) which syncs up with an NAS. Everything works great until I exit that program and then I get the Windows Explorer crashing and restarting thing going on until I reboot. To remedy, I just quit using that application since the drive is easily accessed by other means.

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thanks dclausse. I’ll look in to that as well. I had my laptop just booted up, but I never got around to working on it. Having it by my side I saw the Explorer crash after about 9 minutes.

I have not done the uninstalling since I got swamped here. I just want to pay close attention to each and not have things nagging for my attention. I think I will start this uninstalling today though as my desk is clear for the week. I’ll report back.

Thanks everyone for staying with me

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OK so I uninstalled what I could all the way back to 2-12-2015; my laptop and my main system. Now some details

Not uninstalled
* I left the kernel updates which are 3 still installed.

* I left the updates to Internet Explorer as well. I don’t use I.E. 11 at all, but if I still have the issue then maybe I will uninstall those few as well.

Strange
* On the February updates I have 4 updates that show in WU history as being installed, but they are not in the control panel area to uninstall. Is there a way to uninstall these even though they do not show in the control panel area?

* According to my records I never installed KB3004375. WU area matches, never installed. But in my control panel it showed up as installed. I checked all my systems and somehow that update got installed on all my systems and not by me. I did however uninstalled it

* Another interesting thing has occurred. On my records and in WU area, KB3023607 has never been offered to any of my systems and does not showed installed. But in the control panel on 3-24-2015 all my systems shows this being installed on the same day. I never saw an offer to update yesterday, not till this morning (KB2952664 and Skype again) so not sure what gives there. I will track it and maybe uninstall later.

I’ll keep an eye and see how my systems reacts like what you said Fascist Nation. hopefully this Explorer crashing issue is like you said; one of them

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Just looked over your crash log again, and yes with it happening on disparate computers the only thing I see in common is Windows updates (and a network? network printer?). Weird though that it is happening to your computers when others worldwide are not reporting similar issues.

I note an error 5 (c0000005) in the log. Chewing on that.

Hopefully the issue is gone. You can start adding updates back—keep good notes. Hopefully something goes wrong and it can clearly be linked to one update. Many updates may be important security fixes.

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I think I found the problem. Here in this forum and in other forums people are fuming. It looks like my issue is tied to “Disk Cleanup” and how the dang thing uninstalls the dependency updates when it should not. Checking my records I can see a particular update was installed on all machines, Check the WU history area and it is installed. But it is not in the control panel area, checking the registry the update does not exist.

So I downloaded the update via Microsoft Download Center and tried to install. I get a message that it is already installed. So then I tried to use command line to uninstall and I get a message saying that the update is not installed. Huh?

So I checked both my parents systems since I had not used the Disk Cleanup tool. Their systems had not issue; everything matched so this issue I truly believe is centered around the Disk Cleanup and the huge fiasco I see in other forums and here. I also found out that KB3021952 had a hidden update which explains why I have no records of KB3023607 being offered, but there it is on all my systems installed on 3-24. Not by me. So I think I am going to sit this out and see how Microsoft is going to fix this.

Thank you everyone for your time and expertise, for now I will sit out and watch.

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