Explorer.exe crashes every 5 seconds

Hey, I'm new to this forum. Anyway I'm having a problem with explorer.exe. When my PC boots up into normal mode, safe mode or safe mode with networking, I get a pop up saying "Windows Explorer has stopped working" then it crashes and reloads the desktop screen again, and keeps doing it every 5 seconds. I believe the problem was caused when I ran an AVG scan on my pc. The scan was taking a while and slowing down the PC, and I wanted to do something else on the PC at the same time. So I stopped the scan midway through and it told me to restart, when I restarted that's when the problems began with Explorer.exe.

I download Malwarebytes and scanned the PC, it came up with problems on the PC and fixed these and I restarted the PC again but it still didn't solve the Explorer.exe problem. I have disabled explorer.exe and I can still use the PC, but would like this problem solved. I have determined that my system is clean of Malware. I think the problem may be a system error of some kind, but I'm not sure. I installed Hijackthis and did a scan of the PC if it helps, any ideas or solutions to the problem would be really helpful. I've had the problem for nearly 2 weeks now. The log file is printed below.

📎hjt.txt

Reason for edit: removed HJT log, not allowed in any forum except malware.

Hi nonemorepunk, welcome to WhatTheTech.

The easiest way to recover is to use System Restore to go back to a date before the AVG problem.

Click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Choose a date before the AVG scan problem, see if that fixes it.

Yeah, I tried that already, it doesn't work. Thanks for the idea though.

I see you also posted this exact same post here: http://www.security-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=59687 on Feb 24 2010. That's over two weeks ago. Are you saying this problem has been there for over two weeks and you've been unable to use your computer in that time?

You also appear to be using a program called Hide My IP, which is giving you the

O10 - Unknown file in Winsock LSP: c:\windows\system32\hmipcore.dll

entry in your HJT log file.

Ttry running System File Checker.

To use System File Checker, you need a XP CD at the same service pack level as the XP installed on your hard drive or you need the I386 directory tree from a XP CD on you hard drive.

Click on Start then Run, type sfc /scannow and press Enter or click GO. SFC will replace damaged or missing system files from the CD. You will not get any notification of what it found or fixed and it will just close when it ends, but this may help resolve the problem.

Yeah I posted the problem on several forums, see if I'd get any responses. I can use my computer fine, except not through the normal desktop screen, I just disable explorer.exe and I used run commands to open programs and folders. However it's still very annoying not to be able to load up and use the desktop properly. In relation to Hide My IP, I used that a few times, but it's out of date now. I'll uninstall it and see if it changes anything.

I tried the sfc /scannow, still no difference. I'll probably have to reboot, but I really don't want to have to do that if I can help it.

See what Event Viewer shows you. You can start this from the Run command by entering eventvwr.msc

There may be a clue in there to what is going on with Explorer.exe.

If not, the next thing I would do is a Repair Install. It only replaces system files so your personal data should be okay. Never hurts to have a good backup just in case something happens. Mr. Murphy always strikes when he can cause the most damage it seems.

You will have to apply SP3 most likely and any updates on top of it and definitely will have to reinstall your anti-virus and firewall software and probably a few others.

There is a lot of good info on doing a Repair Install in this MS article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978788

One other alternative would be to do a parallel install of Windows XP. This leaves your current install asis and installs Windows XP along side the existing one. If you do this, it is equivalent to a clean install and you will have to reinstall all service packs, updates and software. You existing XP install will still be there under C:\Windows. Your new install will under what ever you decided to call it, normally C:\WinXP.

Edited to change Repair info to Vista and remove bogus XP info as nonemorepunk uses Vista.

Well I'm not reinstalling the OS, certainly not XP. I'm running Windows Vista on my machine. I'll check out the event viewer, see what it says.

Sorry about that. I forgot you were running Vista. I'll correct my previous post to point to Repair Install instructions for Vista, just to keep this thread clean. Hopefully Event Viewer will give some clues to what is happening with Explorer.

Hey, I solved the problem. i created a new user account and copied the desktop folder to an external hard drive. Then I deleted that folder and restarted the system again. It seems to be working now. Seems there was a problem with that folder, some error within it I reckon. Anyway thanks for all your help.

That's good news, well done! What made you decide to try that? Intuition, phase of the moon, ??????

I consulted Dell for help, well they didn't really help an awful lot, though they made the suggestion to transfer from one account to another account. Well that didin't work, it just created the same problems on a new account. Dell wanted me to reboot the system completley after that, but there was no way I was doing that. So I just copied the desktop folder to an external hard drive and deleted the folder and hey presto it worked again. Only bad thing is, that it was still all at a cost to Dell before I fixed it myself. Well it's sorted now, thanks for all the help anyway.

This is nothing but your anti-virus is creating problem. If you can find some place where you can advice your anti-virus to not scan explorer.exe file anymore then this problem with get off.