DrWatson Postmortem Debugger

[M4LMiniMe]

i f i try to open any folder my explorer dies and this DrWatson Postmortem Debugger comes on and freezes the pc. any suggestions on how to fix will be greatly helpful. thanks

 

[MrChad]

Need some more information. What OS are you running? Did this start happening recently? Have you made any changes to your system recently?

 

[M4LMiniMe]

im on windows xp pro. just started after going to s few fourms and sites. no virus or spyware or at least thats what the programs tell me.

 

[kylef]

Use regedit and see what is in the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug

Specifically, what have the values named "Debugger" and "Auto" been set to?

On a default install, you should see something like this:

Auto = 1
Debugger = drwtsn32 -p %ld -e %ld -g

On a side note, it is highly unlikely that Dr. Watson is the actual culprit that is hanging your machine. Much more likely is that whatever is causing Explorer.exe to crash is causing the hang.

 

[mikecel79]

Originally posted by: kylef
Use regedit and see what is in the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug

Specifically, what have the values named "Debugger" and "Auto" been set to?

On a default install, you should see something like this:

Auto = 1
Debugger = drwtsn32 -p %ld -e %ld -g

On a side note, it is highly unlikely that Dr. Watson is the actual culprit that is hanging your machine. Much more likely is that whatever is causing Explorer.exe to crash is causing the hang.

Many many times I see Explorer crash it's because of some 3rd part toolbar that was installed but leaves behind references to itself in the registry. Did you have any toolbars installed?

 

[M4LMiniMe]

no sir. only address bar

 

[tr1kstanc3]

i had the exact same problem the other day. i ended up formatting. ugh.

 

[kylef]

So, what does that registry key say?

 

[tr1kstanc3]

i dont know why but after doing a clean format on my dell 700m and installing windows xp pro and the most updated drivers for the laptop, the problem is back!

 

[kylef]

Explorer.exe dies of an access violation, and you haven't installed ANY software yet?

What have you installed, exactly? (drivers and software)

 

[tr1kstanc3]

i ended up disabling DEP by editing the boot.ini config to read from /noexecute=optin to /execute=optin

problem solved thank goodness

 

[kylef]

Originally posted by: tr1kstanc3
i ended up disabling DEP by editing the boot.ini config to read from /noexecute=optin to /execute=optin

problem solved thank goodness

Are you running DivX?

 

[tr1kstanc3]

yes i am running divx. been using the codec pack all in one from free-codecs.com. have not had any problems with the pack until i got my inspiron 700m centrino.