Explorer.exe keeps crashing/restarting whilst opening windows apps and Task manager

[Deepesh Shenoy]

So there were a few problems that had been occurring, these includes:
-PC Freezes, and then unfreezes after a few mins
-Certain apps, like Groove music, store, Cortana search, etc hangs. Have to restart to get it working

So my PC was frozen for a long time and had to force shutdown by holding the power on button on my cabinet and just reconnected all my Hard drive cables. I also reinstalled my RAM, wiping the dust off.

After this, I turned on my PC back and everything was normal until I realized these problems:
-Windows metro apps (Groove music, Store, Cortana, Start menu, Photos, etc) doesn't launch
-explorer.exe restarts while trying to open the above apps, including task manager. Meaning I can't open the task manager.
-It also restarts(or the file explorer hangs) while I try to right click on a file (for eg, a music file .mp3)

I'm pretty sure that it restarts/crashes at many other situations, as per now I've only experienced it in the above cases.

Any help would be appreciated to fix this issue, as it's really annoying and I use the task manager in many situations like to close apps that use my internet, but I can't use it now.

Specs:
Core i3 540
4GB DDR3 1333Mhz
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

I've already tried doing SFC scan, which didn't work. I've also tried using other task managers( like procexp), and these works perfectly without any hangs.
If you've any doubt, just reply back

Thanks

 

[weberdarren97]

Event Viewer may have valuable information for you.

 

[SgtScream]

Sounds like your hard drive is failing. Do you see any disk errors in the event log?
It might not hurt to run a disk check by typing the following command:
chkdsk /f C:

 

[cilliers]

1. Scan HDD in another machine that has updated anti virus and anti malware already installed,
2. Try different RAM slots on motherboard and run memtest86,
3. Try different RAM,
4. If problem still persists reinstall OS.
5. If problem still persists, then you have a hardware problem.

 

[Deepesh Shenoy]

Event Viewer may have valuable information for you.

I don't really have much knowledge on event logs, so I'd love to share it with you and I managed to get some stuff which I guess is related to the task manager hang issue: http://pastebin.com/9uNcCkjX Thanks for the response

Sounds like your hard drive is failing. Do you see any disk errors in the event log?
It might not hurt to run a disk check by typing the following command:
chkdsk /f C:

Already tried that, didn't work and thanks for the response anyways

1. Scan HDD in another machine that has updated anti virus and anti malware already installed,
2. Try different RAM slots on motherboard and run memtest86,
3. Try different RAM,
4. If problem still persists reinstall OS.
5. If problem still persists, then you have a hardware problem.

Will definitely try all those out later, as I'm a bit lazy to do stuffs. Thanks for the response, any other simple way I can try? I'm pretty sure it's my HDD and not the RAM/Mobo/other stuff as it has given problems to me before, so any ways to fix the HDD related issues? What do you think?

 

[weberdarren97]

Try this for Western Digital Drives. You want Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.

Try this for Seagate Drives. You want SeaTools for Windows.

If your drive is neither of those companies, let me know and I'll get you the correct link.

Once you have the software you need, take a moment to familiarize yourself with its menus and then test your drive. If it offers multiple tests, run the one that is the most comprehensive (usually the one that takes the longest).

 

[Deepesh Shenoy]

Try this for Western Digital Drives. You want Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.

Try this for Seagate Drives. You want SeaTools for Windows.

If your drive is neither of those companies, let me know and I'll get you the correct link.

Once you have the software you need, take a moment to familiarize yourself with its menus and then test your drive. If it offers multiple tests, run the one that is the most comprehensive (usually the one that takes the longest).

Thank you for your reply, although the problem was the faulty OS, I guess.
I've refreshed my PC (Steps below in case if anyone is experiencing the same issue)which fixed all the issues.

Though I Lost all my programs installed in C

Steps:
1)Just boot into recovery/advanced mode either by holding shift and restarting your PC or pressing Esc at boot-up.
2)Click on Reset your PC>Choose to keep personal files (This will delete all programs and their data if stored in C drive. Certain hardware driver might get deleted) which will take around 100 minutes and then good to go.

Thanks