Windows 7: Windows Explorer crashes occasionally

[LurkerAspect]

Hi all

I'm pretty sure the title says it all. I have an HP Pavilion dv7-3190ie running Windows 7 64-bit, and for some unknown reason, explorer keeps crashing and needs to be restarted. It's barely a big issue since I use Teracopy to move files, but it's freaking annoying when I'm browsing files and it crashes. It doesn't happen very often, between 1 and 3 times a day usually.

Any useful help is appreciated and will be rewarded with rep

 

[Slapshot136]

the basic windows explorer is pretty stable, but when a lot of programs add themselves into the right-click menu, then they can cause problems - if you go to the "action center", does it tell you what caused the crash? also, is there any pattern as to what drive you are browsing on that creates the crash? (i.e. a malfunctioning flash drive?)

 

[sqrage]

1 - 3 times a day is a ton...

what is the exact error message and when does it happen?

 

[LurkerAspect]

@Slapshot: Crashes do typically occur when I'm using a flashdrive or bluetooth device

@sqrage: there is no error message, it just says the program has stopped responding and needs to be restarted. I'm not exactly sure however, if it happens again, I'll update my post.

 

[Slapshot136]

try opening a folder with windows explorer, going to organize -> folder and search options -> view tab -> launch folder windows in a separate process - this way if it crashes, it will only crash 1 window

next I would see if you can find a pattern as to what causes the crash (i.e. can you only do 1 thing at a time, so like if you are copying a file, and then you try to go into a sub-directory, does it crash? is it when you are reading and writing from the disk that it crashes? etc.) - also try updating the Bluetooth driver if you can

 

[Dave312]

Try checking the event log. Go Start and search for Event Viewer and open it up. Then in the left pane go Windows Logs -> Application and try and see if there is any errors in that log. That might give you a good idea as to what is causing the crash.