Strange Explorer Problem

Okay, as I reported earlier I've been having retarded problems with Windows Explorer. I reformatted not very long ago (A month, maybe 2 at most) and I have antivirus and antispyware software, as well as a hardware and software firewall installed. When I open up a specific folder (it's my music burning and ripping folder) my computer just grinds to a halt and everything stops responding, or responds very little. It only seems to be this folder as I haven't experienced it with any others. It should be noted that this folder is located on my storage drive, which is not the drive that has Windows installed on my computer. As well, the folder and it's contents open up fine in Total Commander. Using Search to find the contents of the folder works fine as well, it only seems to happen when I open up the folder. I was having problems with a similar folder (My second music folder), but I solved that problem by moving the contents to this folder. Any ideas what the problem could be?

Thanks in advance,

Brad

 

Start, Run, and type:

regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll
regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll

Test.

(To revert the system back to its "normal" state, repeat both lines but do not include the "/u" portion of the line.

The fact that the files are on an external device is unlikely the issue.

 

Wow, thanks! Works like a charm now, no problems at all, except some slight lag (which is to be excpected, the folder is about 36 Gb's in size.) Just curious, what did the run commands that I typed in do?

 

By default Windows Explorer will attempt to read every file in that 36gb folder in case you have the Common Tasks panel open, or want to open it using the "Folders" icon on the menu bar. In the Common Tasks panel is a "Preview ".

The first command told Windows Explorer not to build a "Preview ".

The second command is similar. Windows Explorer will read every file to its end trying to build a metafile dataset of information about the file: what type, when it was created, what codecs were used, .etc..

The second command tells Windows Explorer not to do this.

This is a gross simplification, but close enough to the truth of what the two commands do that I am not misleading you, just not writing a treatise.

Remember that I did note above how to revert the changes you made, if you happen to run into any other media related file issues.

Best Happy Holiday Wishes,
Bill

 

Thanks very much once again I'm glad you could help me, and I'll keep that in mind if I ever need to revert. Happy Holidays to you too, sir.

Brad

 

Sorry to drag up this thread, but there's no point in creating a new one. I was wondering if there was any way that I could retain the use of the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, as well as get my thumbnails back, but still solve the problem...

 

You could use a couple of batch files to work around the problem. One would unregister those files and the other would re-register them. For example:

Copy this one to your Clipboard and save it as unreg.bat

Code:

regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll 
regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll 

and copy this one to your Clipboard and save it as reg.bat

Code:

regsvr32 shmedia.dll 
regsvr32 shimgvw.dll 

Place both of those on the root of your system drive ( C:\ ). Then right-click each and send a shortcut to your Desktop. Then right-click and drag those shortcuts to your Quick Launch bar and select "Move Here. "

That will allow you to unregister those dll's so things aren't slowed down and re-register them when you want to have the ability to view Thumbnails and use the Picture/Fax viewer.

It is apparent that the bottleneck you are experiencing is due to the slow response time of your storage drive. Perhaps it's a USB device and you need to upgrade to one of a higher caliber. Even at their best, they cannot equal the rapid response of a good hard drive.

HTH

 

No my sotrage drive is an internal harddrive, not a USB connected one. Its 7500 rpm, or whatever it is, I know it's not a 10k rpm one. So there's no other way to work around it aside from reenabling and disabling them? There must be some workaround.... this only started happening recently and it was fine before....

 

Perhaps the answer would be to get a better/faster storage drive since you mentioned that the problem isn't affecting the primary drive. A drive with a DMA of 5 would probably speed things right along. That's where the logic would point.

Of course more RAM always helps speed.

 

Yes well, the thing is, this didn't happen before, and i've had this computer, as well as my large music library, for several years now, and i've never had this problem before.

 

That does put a different spin on things.

You must check some of the variables that could affect that.

1. Paging file size changed?

2. Disk space is a consideration since it could impact the Paging file if the drive is cramped.

3. Excessive programs running in the background reducing available resources.

4. Disk file fragmentation.

Those would be the obvious ones.

 

1. Explain this, not sure what you mean

2. Yeah disk space is running short, I still have at least 1 gig free I think.

3. There are a lot of those... 56 at the moment.

4. Will fragment it tonight, and see how things go.

But none of these seem to be a problem when I have those 2 .DLL's suceeded. Wouldn't I also have problems if system resources or storage space is unavailable, regardless of whether thumbnails or meta data is being gathered by Windows?

 

Explaining #1, if the Paging file size changed, you would have been the one who changed it so I doubt that is the issue. I just included it lead into the #2 item.

In #2 I mean that as you run out of drive space, there is insufficient room for the Paging file to expand, assuming you have it set to the default "Windows Managed" selection. If it's unable to expand, it can't offer as much relief per exchange, so more numerous exchanges of smaller size are required to accomplish the task at hand.

In #3 I hint that you should look into dropping some programs from your Startups that you don't use in every session. You can run MSCONFIG and click on the startup tab to see what you think doesn't need to be going at every startup.

Before you run Defrag tonight, do a disk cleanup. Open "My Computer" and right click your C: drive and select "Properties." Click "Disk Cleanup" and when it stops assessing things, analyze and select the areas where it thinks it can free up some space for you. Do not select the "Compress older files" for the moment. Let's leave that as a last resort. When you are satisfied with your selections, click OK.

I should also mention that if you have System Restore activated, it can eat up a major portion of your drive space. Review its settings and if they're over 10% consider reducing them. If your drive is working well, you can disable System Restore and then re-enable it so as to wipe all of the old restore points away and start anew.

By the same token, review your TIF directory size setting and set it at 100 megs.

And as to why it works faster with the dll's un-registered, it just reduces the work load and hence the paging file activity. There is no such thing as getting free image displays. Thumbs and quick preview programs such as Windows Pic and Fax viewer all come with a cost.

 

Possibly a corrupt thumbs.db file? If you moved the music files but not the thumbs.db file, a new one would be created the first time you opened it. Try deleting the one that's there now and see if it makes a difference. I believe it's a hidden file so you'll have to have "show hidden files" enabled.

The first time you open the folder it may be a bit slow to open as it rebuilds the file. After that, it should be better if this is the cause.

 

Haha! Thank you man! Your advice did it. It's funny how some overly complex problems have very simple answers. And you guys had me running around in command prompt all for nothing It works fine now, so i'm assuming that you were correct and that the thumbs.db file was currupted. Thanks again!

 

Glad to hear it worked out for you.

Yeah, sometimes it's the simple things that we tend to overlook. I remember seeing this when you first posted it. I should have thought of it back then. Even now it took a day or two before I thought of it. It's just one of those things that can be easy to forget about.

I re-read your first post again and the part that I quoted is what got me to thinking about it. Should have thought of it before. Oh well, hope it continues to work for you.

 

That was a good kill Zander!

Brad, at least I got you to clean up your drive.

All the best.

 

More bad news: Even after following the instructions (and having things work normally for a time) It seems Windows Explorer has gone back to its old ways. The minute I open my music folder, my cpu usage skyrockets to 100%, doesn't budge from there, and everything locks up around me. The odd thing is, it acts normally, you can scroll and everything, but the second you click something, the whole pc just comes crashing down around me, and everything just locks straight up. Any ideas?

 

Out of curiousity, what happens if you delete the thumbs.db file again? Did it work properly for a while after you deleted it the first time?

 

I thought of that too, but no dice. The thing went fine, I clicked on a video, it popped up and then about 10 seconds in it went all to hell, windows media player locked up, explorer locked up, everything stopped responding. And yes, it was working fine after I deleted it the first time (yesterday) up until now.