While occasional crashes may not be too much of an issue for you, but if Windows Explorer keeps crashing too often, it’s an issue that requires a serious look into. I am open to formatting and reinstalling Windows but I'd like to be certain that this is not a hardware problem (in which case formatting wouldn't help). Windows Explorer is one of the essential elements of your system, and if Windows Explorer keeps crashing, you’ll have difficulties accessing files and folders on your computer. Sometimes it never recovers and I have to hard reset. When it happens in the middle of a video, the video and audio lock up creating a 'buzzing' noise until the computer recovers. I still think Flash is triggering the problem in some way because Windows freezes more often when viewing Flash video. Both gave the hard disk a clean bill of health. Moving on to the hard disk, I ran Western Digital's diagnostic tool as well as SpinRite. So I ruled out Flash as the root cause of the lock ups and decided to check my system hardware. As slapshot mentioned, a system restore would be a good option assuming the issue with apps hanging began recently and you have a restore point available prior to these events beginning.

After rebooting, I encountered the problem less frequently but it still occurred once or twice. Re: Windows Explorer keeps locking up Hi turbost2. I thought it was a Flash-related issue, so I uninstalled it. It also happened a couple of times when using Internet Explorer as well. Now, the curious thing is that most of the time this occurs when I'm watching Flash video in my browser (Firefox). Sometimes the computer never recovers and I need to hard reboot the machine. Equally randomly, the computer seems to recover after several seconds. The computer seems to freeze completely no mouse movement, no CPU activity, no response to keystrokes.nothing. I have never encountered a problem like this before and it's hard to describe so I will provide as many details as I can.įor the past two weeks or so, I have been faced with intermittent lock-ups in Windows 7.

Windows explorer locking up