Explorer Crashing

Figment

Any suggestions as to what could be wrong here. Windows explorer keeps crashing when i try and access files. I am on winxp home on a laptop. When i try and explore for a file through a program it crashes and takes the program down with it. No error message.
Is it possible to reinstall over the existing xp without overwriting my files or is there another solution?

Puteq

Hmm, tough one, its not easy to point at one thing as the cause, but it might be helpful if you can say did U notice this problem start after you installed anything in particular (e.g. virus guard, game, windows update patch etc).

if you could pin down a particular application or patch it would be worth your while uninstalling and seeing if this fixes it, if so you could re-install etc but that would be step one.

a scandisk wouldnt do any harm either although i wouldnt be too optimistic, but definitely worth a try.

otherwise, you might want to look into the 'restore point' of XP, where it automatically creates snapshots of the registry and allows you to go back to them in the event of troubles like you are having. i dont remember exactly how to get into these restore points, but you can type it into HELP in XP to get the low-down. problem with this is that it will roll back all registry settings to the point when the restore point was made, i.e. if it fixes the prob the problem app will be effectively uninstalled (really the files will still be there, including your personal files, but registry references will be gone) but it will wipe references to all other things you installed since the restore point but you can install them again anyway.

sorry for the lengthy reply, hope this helps. . . . the trouble with a problem like this is it could be anything so just try a load of stuff and maybe you'd be lucky and fix it.

Mutant_Fruit

something like that is rarely fixable unless you know exactly what was installed recently. Often the best/only/easiest thing to do is to just format and reinstall.

I speak from experience. But as always, try uninstall recently installed programs first.

irishgeo

Originally posted by Figment
Any suggestions as to what could be wrong here. Windows explorer keeps crashing when i try and access files. I am on winxp home on a laptop. When i try and explore for a file through a program it crashes and takes the program down with it. No error message.
Is it possible to reinstall over the existing xp without overwriting my files or is there another solution?

try starting up and pressing F8 on the start up screen and using last known good configuration. This uses the last good restore point.

Or just use the system restore applet in the control panel.

Figment

No Joy. looks like a reinstall. Will that overwrite all data on me?

i will of course back up