Windows Explorer Crashes

[chumps52]

Hi,


I pretty frequently get explorer crashes. I reinstalled Windows 8 yesterday (and then 8.1) to see if that would fix the issue, but it hasn't.

So far since then I have only had one crash. This is the error log - taken from the reliability monitor:

Spoiler

Source
Windows Explorer

Summary
Stopped working

Date
‎21/‎06/‎2014 19:05

Status
Report sent

Description
Faulting Application Path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Explorer.EXE
Application Version: 6.3.9600.17039
Application Timestamp: 53156588
Fault Module Name: combase.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.3.9600.17031
Fault Module Timestamp: 53087867
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0000000000173eaf
OS Version: 6.3.9600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 66db
Additional Information 2: 66db98b704d501cd95286430dedd0474
Additional Information 3: ce83
Additional Information 4: ce83373352028d76fb3be24db4d987c2

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: acddd20795fc8aa91db92ac7477b5122 (85915369211)

Any solution/help would be greatly appreciated!


SFC /scannow did not find anything btw

 

[dodger46]

Intermittent faults like that are difficult. Looking towards Hardware again, RAM in particular, but hesitant as if it were RAM I would expect the fault to affect other areas. No harm in trying, though. Suggest you run Memtest86 overnight, but use the bootable version from a USB pendrive, as it will check the blocks of RAM where Windows is installed.
http://www.memtest.org/download/5.01/memtest86+-5.01.usb.installer.zip

You could also stress the System with Burnin, try the 64it version for an hour or so to see if anything fails

http://www.passmark.com/download/bit_download.htm

Clutching at straws perhaps, but for all it would take, run chkdsk on your HDD.

chkdsk /r from an elevated CMD prompt

Allow to run at boot

 

[chumps52]

Intermittent faults like that are difficult. Looking towards Hardware again, RAM in particular, but hesitant as if it were RAM I would expect the fault to affect other areas. No harm in trying, though. Suggest you run Memtest86 overnight, but use the bootable version from a USB pendrive, as it will check the blocks of RAM where Windows is installed.
http://www.memtest.org/download/5.01/memtest86+-5.01.usb.installer.zip

You could also stress the System with Burnin, try the 64it version for an hour or so to see if anything fails

http://www.passmark.com/download/bit_download.htm

Clutching at straws perhaps, but for all it would take, run chkdsk on your HDD.

chkdsk /r from an elevated CMD prompt

Allow to run at boot

Ran memtest, everything was fine. Will try the other two now.


Was just out for about 4-5 hours and came back to another crash:

Spoiler

Source
Windows Explorer

Summary
Stopped working

Date
‎28/‎06/‎2014 14:54

Status
Report sent

Description
Faulting Application Path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Explorer.EXE
Application Version: 6.3.9600.17039
Application Timestamp: 53156588
Fault Module Name: combase.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.3.9600.17031
Fault Module Timestamp: 53087867
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0000000000173eaf
OS Version: 6.3.9600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 66db
Additional Information 2: 66db98b704d501cd95286430dedd0474
Additional Information 3: ce83
Additional Information 4: ce83373352028d76fb3be24db4d987c2

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: acddd20795fc8aa91db92ac7477b5122 (85915369211)

 

[chumps52]

Chkdsk:

Spoiler

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
483328 file records processed. File verification completed.
1982 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed.
Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
543696 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered.
Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 2796 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2796 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2796 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
30185 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
41353824 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.

Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
483312 files processed. File data verification completed.

Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
29541288 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.

219417599 KB total disk space.
100569172 KB in 128863 files.
84572 KB in 30186 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
598699 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
118165156 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
54854399 total allocation units on disk.
29541289 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 60 07 00 54 6d 02 00 9c 97 04 00 00 00 00 00 .`..Tm..........
fc 00 00 00 21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....!...........

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

 

[dodger46]

What additional Software have you installed? Any 3rd party Antivirus?
Memtest86 should be run overnight, but as the Error code is consistently combase.dll linked, perhaps Clean Startup will help...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

 

[chumps52]

What additional Software have you installed? Any 3rd party Antivirus?
Memtest86 should be run overnight, but as the Error code is consistently combase.dll linked, perhaps Clean Startup will help...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

I let memtest complete fully, using a USB as you suggested and it didn't find anything wrong.
Friday's error was linked to RPCRT4.dll

 

[dodger46]

RPCRT4.dll is used by programs to access network/internet. Perhaps a programme which requires Net connection is causing the problem. Thus Clean Startup may help. If you can leave the machine running with minimal services running for a good long time without crashes it would be an indication that you're on the right track...

 

[chumps52]

RPCRT4.dll is used by programs to access network/internet. Perhaps a programme which requires Net connection is causing the problem. Thus Clean Startup may help. If you can leave the machine running with minimal services running for a good long time without crashes it would be an indication that you're on the right track...

Ah I see...

Only issue with safe mode is obviously I use the PC a lot... I may leave it on tonight to see if it happens again.
I would happily do it in the day, only issue being it doesn't seem to be a set thing that causes it. (IE I don't open, for example, Skype which causes it to crash - it appears to happen completely randomly).
I think it has only crashed once when I was actually using the PC, and again it wasn't anything specific causing it, I was just browsing. Every other time it has been when I left the PC and came back 10-15 mins later to find out that Explorer has crashed.

 

[chumps52]

RPCRT4.dll is used by programs to access network/internet. Perhaps a programme which requires Net connection is causing the problem. Thus Clean Startup may help. If you can leave the machine running with minimal services running for a good long time without crashes it would be an indication that you're on the right track...

Had no problems until a few minutes ago... Again a different error, but always explorer.

This time it actually came up with a box, only briefly, something about C++ RunTime or something.

Spoiler

Source
Windows Explorer

Summary
Stopped working

Date
‎03/‎07/‎2014 16:50

Status
Report sent

Description
Faulting Application Path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Explorer.EXE
Application Version: 6.3.9600.17039
Application Timestamp: 53156588
Fault Module Name: msvcrt.dll
Fault Module Version: 7.0.9600.16384
Fault Module Timestamp: 5215f944
Exception Code: 40000015
Exception Offset: 0000000000055326
OS Version: 6.3.9600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 7f99
Additional Information 2: 7f99b622deb3bb7864d46052966b6226
Additional Information 3: 8573
Additional Information 4: 8573007f6c2982ceabdef6141b0462fa

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 2195be00683e75c49efe408becbe0687 (85913104374)