Help for crashed Windows Explorer in ME.

[CarlZog]

I've got a Dell laptop running Windows ME. I've kept it very clean, and it's worked beautifully for a long time, but suddenly a few weeks ago, Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) started freezing up. I can't open folders or My Computer or My Documents or anything else. The explorer program just freezes.

I've run virus checks with Norton, and spy/mal ware checks with Spybot, but there's nothing there.

I googled for the problem, but just came up with craploads of IE issues. BTW, I'm on Firefox.

Has anyone seen this before? Or can someone point me to a good geek forum for answers?

I'm afraid of doing anything too invasive without backing up the data, but I can't open folders to copy files!

Carl

 

[Eternalknight]

An older computer I once had had exactly the same trouble. My computer tech father-in-law told me the problem is simple: You are using Windows ME.

Apparently it ain't the best Windows system out there I know that doesn't help much, but it was the only piece of adivce I got.

 

[XCorvis]

Windows ME is flat out the worst product that Microsoft ever made.

One thing you might be able to do, if you have a real microsoft install disk, not a dell restore cd, is to reinstall windows without deleting the existing installation. It will replace all the system files and hopefully give you a functioning system - then you can back everything up and reinstall for real.

 

[trancejeremy]

I used to have a problem like that, but in Windows 98. Annoying, because it's hard to use a comptuer without opening folders.

It was my cd-r drive that was causing it, somehow. I found out that if I burned a cd, it would work correctly. Even if I just simulated a burn. So I would just simulate making a really small cd every time I turned the comptuer on.

I never did fix it, I eventually got a new computer and it worked fine on the new one (despite my using the same exactly windows installation).

 

[babomb]

Well, Windows ME sucks.

Have you tried killing explorer and restarting it? That usually works for me.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

As has been said before, WinME is awful, and has a tendancy to break down in unexpected places for no valid reason. I'd go out and buy a WinXP Upgrade. You can pick the XP Home upgrade up for under $100 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...-0702026-5019112?v=glance&s=software&n=507846

Or, if you are anywhere near a college, you can get the education version (same thing, it's just sold for use by students, educators, or anyone involved in education) of XP Pro for the same price.

Since you are using ME, I doubt you'd need the extra functionallity that Pro offers, but it's nice to have just in case.

If you install XP overtop of ME, chances are it'll install with not problems, and migrate all your data over to the new OS. There is always a chance that it will bomb out, so try to backup whatever you can just in case.

 

[CronoDekar]

Just yesterday I fixed a problem on the family computer running Windows ME involving some K9otherlettersandnumbers security update that just spontaneously started causing problems, and yours sounds similar to mine. You might want to try running in safe mode (hold Ctrl on startup) and running msconfig, disabling the update (in Startup files, should be K9, and seeing if that helps. If not... well, you can try disabling other things!

 

[CarlZog]

As has been said before, WinME is awful, and has a tendancy to break down in unexpected places for no valid reason. I'd go out and buy a WinXP Upgrade.

I'd been avoiding this solution only because I like to play a lot of older games and I'm fearful that many of them may not run on XP.

Carl

 

[XCorvis]

I'd been avoiding this solution only because I like to play a lot of older games and I'm fearful that many of them may not run on XP.

Most will run just fine. What are the games?

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I'd been avoiding this solution only because I like to play a lot of older games and I'm fearful that many of them may not run on XP.

Another option is to get a utility like Partition Magic and use it to create a second partition on your HD and have a dual OS system. Use Xp for most things, and keep ME on the second partition for the stuff that won't run on XP. You'll need to have a decent sized HD, but it's possible. That said, most anything that runs on ME should run on XP as well. Have you found info leading you to believe otherwise?