Explorer shell restarting

**Mr T** · January 12th, 2004, 09:28 AM

Hi all

Got a strange problem on my Ibm t30 laptop, Winxp pro, sp1.

If I open my network places and click on any of the left side links, (desktop, my documents, printers etc) the window hangs and stops responding, if I close it the explorer shell restarts.

At first I thougt the problem only occured when I clicked entire network, casue thats the only one of the links I use, so I tried to update the drivers for the onboard intel nic, no good, so I installed a 3com nic in the docking station, but it didnt make any difference at all.

Ideas anyone ? ?

Thanks!

**Stalemate** · January 12th, 2004, 10:42 AM

Is the Windows Firewall enabled?

**King Grover** · January 12th, 2004, 11:12 AM

Novell loaded? version?

**Mr T** · January 13th, 2004, 02:59 AM

No windows firewall or netware services of any kind installed.

**confus-ed** · January 13th, 2004, 06:23 AM

If you pull the network cable out , does it still do this ? those links are supposedly 'local' ...

**King Grover** · January 13th, 2004, 10:17 AM

IBM tools loaded?

**Mr T** · January 14th, 2004, 02:49 AM

Originally Posted by confus-ed

If you pull the network cable out , does it still do this ? those links are supposedly 'local' ...

Yes, it still does this with cable unplugged, any ideas?

**Mr T** · January 14th, 2004, 02:56 AM

[QUOTE=King Grover]IBM tools loaded?[/QUOTE

Yes, most of them, have uninstalled veritas storageguard as it always hang when I shutdown the computer, but everything else.

**confus-ed** · January 14th, 2004, 04:45 AM

To state the obvious ... somethings not right! tried sfc , virus checked, malware all of those ?

I can't quite fathom this, where's the nic ? in the lappie or just in the dock or both ? What happens if you disable the lappies onboard nic ? That should have the effect of convincing it it doesn't have any outside links to the world (XP is a pain in that you can't just zap any network connection, it being a property of the nic as far as xp is concerned)..

Your windows install may just be 'stuffed' to coin a technical expression

... this is all patched up & 'funky' otherwise (specifically we have all those seemingley 'useless' downloads from IBM for xp, which adjust god knows what, but allways seem to have a remarkable effect)?

**Mr T** · January 14th, 2004, 05:37 AM

Confus-ed:

Right You are, somethings nor right! tried all of the above, virusscan with mcafee 7.1, ran both spybot and adaware, ran sfc /scannow, no difference.

Theres a 3com nic in the dock and an intel nic in the laptop, the laptop nic i disabled, using the nic in the docking station, also tried when undocked and having the nic disabled, same thing.

The intall is quite fresh, about 2 months old, unclean install... meaning I used the recovery cd, so all IBM God knows what stuff is installed..... newest drivers for everything, and all the security patches from MS.

Im dont think I'll reinstall to get rid of it, its actually quite a small problem, i don't have to use those links, its just that knowing that they dont work disturbs me!

**confus-ed** · January 14th, 2004, 06:33 AM

Okay then live with it

or do a fresh shinny clean install ? ... I think further investigation/tinkering is gonna do us no good.

All the 'not working links' are system 'places' which you can no doubt access normally through explorer itself by navigating ... what's not working for whatever reason is these 'embedded links' (those in the left panel of explorer) which ought to just be copies of the 'places' on your desktop ... you can find the actual things in the registry, but I don't think we are equiped to know the relationships & so go editing ...

I'd like to know what did this though ...

**Mr T** · January 14th, 2004, 08:03 AM

Originally Posted by confus-ed

Okay then live with it

or do a fresh shinny clean install ? ... I think further investigation/tinkering is gonna do us no good.

All the 'not working links' are system 'places' which you can no doubt access normally through explorer itself by navigating ... what's not working for whatever reason is these 'embedded links' (those in the left panel of explorer) which ought to just be copies of the 'places' on your desktop ... you can find the actual things in the registry, but I don't think we are equiped to know the relationships & so go editing ...

I'd like to know what did this though ...

Yes, I to would like to know the cause, and yes, its only the embedded links that dont work, accessing through windows explorer works just fine.

But Im going to reinstall anyways, this bothers me to much! Thanks for the help Ed!

**confus-ed** · January 14th, 2004, 10:45 AM

Most welcome Mr T

though I wasn't much help really

**Mr T** · January 14th, 2004, 11:18 AM

Well Confus-Ed, the important thing is that you took the time to try to help out!

It really was a silly problem, but it disturbs me greatly that I wasnt able to solve it, five years working as a techie and can solve a broken link

Anyways, just did a clean reinstall of winxp and sp1, and so far so good, now Im gonna start installing all the apps and games again!

/Mr T