Explorer.ext problems

I posted this up on another board too, but wanted to see if any of you could take a stab at this…..

When I log on to my computer I'm getting a "Explorer problem" a message saying that it needs to shut down. I get the option to send the error to Microsoft, or not. At this point the only thing that’s showing in the background is just my start menu and toolbar on the bottom, no icons or shortcuts show up on the desktop. If I choose either option (send or not), the message goes away and my desktop goes blank except for my wallpaper (no start menu or toolbar). I can do ctrl alt del and see the process’s running etc.., and I noticed that there are 4 Explorer.exe ‘s running at the same time. That does not seem right to me at all, I thought just one is suppose to run? Any idea's of why this message is coming up right after the computer boots? I'm running XP Pro, and yes I keep it updated.

Other things I’ve noticed. On start up (boot process) I saw a message for one of my drives in red saying that it has an error on it. I go into the RAID configuration and it only gives me a “Clear Disk” and “Delete Disk” option. I don’t want to do either cause I have a lot on info on the disk (75gig). I have 2 serial ATA’s (75 gig * 2) configured as one hard drive. I also have smaller (40 gig) hard drive, and this is what my OS is loaded on (this is not the one that has the error on it). Thought I would list this problem to just incase it has something to do with the explorer problem.

Any help would much appreciated. Thanks a head of time!

Try the drive in another computer and if gets error's then thats the problem.

That's what I was going to try next. I was just hoping that the damn thing wouldn't be corrupt, got way to much info on the serial ata drives.

install linux

**tancurrom wrote:**install linux I plan to, trust me…..

Posting this for future reference for anyone else that may come across the same problems.

Additional problems I found: I also noticed that there were a lot of programs listed twice in the Processes list, just not Explorer.

I did unplug my sata's thinking, like suggested above, that those might be the problem but they weren't. After I figured out what the true problem was, I then found that I had a power wire unplugged to one of the drives.

The problem: The day after I started having these problems I remembered that there were a bunch of windows updates installed. I had my computer off for like 3 weeks, and there was I think 5 or 6 updates that was downloaded and installed automatically. Plus I remember an HP update for the printer software I use. I deleted the printer updated, and then deleted out the Microsoft updateds ALL from 8/29, which was my last known good configuration.

Since I could not get into my control panel, I had to figure out a way to get to add/remove programs. I achieved this by having my start menu set for the XP configuration. Right click on the tool bar, click on the Start menu tab, and select the start menu option (not the classic that I had set). Then I hit ok, hit my start menu and selected All Programs, then Set Program Access and Defualts. This allowed me to access the add/remove programs menu.

Once I deleted all the Microsoft updates I rebooted and restored my active desktop. Everything is now running back to normal! Thank GOD! I figued out that there were 8 updates, and two of those is what was causing my computer to act up. I have no idea why they were effecting my pc that way but they were. Don't ya love microsoft!? :angry: