Mysterious explorer.exe lockups

[MDesigner]

I'm just wondering how I can troubleshoot this issue. Sometimes when booting, explorer just locks up.. I can still move the mouse around, but explorer is totally frozen. And, almost all the time when defragmenting, this problem occurs as well. It's almost always in only one of those two situations. Anyone have any idea how to start troubleshooting this beast? I think it might have to do with my motherboard, as I never had these problems before.. I have an Epox 8RDA+

My OS is WinXP Pro.

Thanks..

 

[Shagga]

My starting point would be to make sure I have the latest chipset drivers, not sure but is the Epox 8RDA+ an nForce2 chipset? Certainly some link between the chipset and the harddrive. Secondly, re-seat the graphics card and re-install the latest official drivers.

 

[MDesigner]

I do have the latest chipset drivers from nvidia.com. I'll try reseating the gfx card too

 

[Zucarita9000]

Originally posted by: MDesigner
I'm just wondering how I can troubleshoot this issue

Ok, start by telling us what did you do before this problem started (upgrading something, installing an app, etc.). Try going into Safe Mode and see what happens.

 

[MDesigner]

I don't remember when this started happening.. this bug is so random, it's hard to pinpoint. I could go into safe mode, but I'd spend hours and hours there before anything bad happened. I suppose I could try to defrag in safe mode, since defragging almost always seems to trigger the problem.

And BTW, when I say explorer locks up.. I mean everything runs ok (for a few mins), the mouse can move, etc.. just explorer itself is locked. So I can't click on the taskbar at all, nothing on the desktop, etc.