explorer.exe not load on boot up

[Ralph Lauren]

I was runing a game in my computer it was working perfectly........but for some reason it got hanged so i directly rebooted the computer.......!
but after rebooting the computer nothing was there on the desktop ........

So i used task manager to lacate it all.......like to load explorer.exe file...........but it doesn't load it. i think it must have created some problem in it........!

I´ve checked in c:/windows and the explorer there keeps having problems -- tells me it´s not right for sys32 folder. I´ve put a clean explorer.exe in both the sys32 directory and windows directory...still it keeps having problems.

I´ve put a clean one under just the c drive and when I use that one, it works (but doesn´t stay once rebooted). So I have it in an easily found position and can access it and get the icons. Again, once rebooted, I has to do it again.

I´ve tried pinning explorer.exe to the start menu, but it doesn´t seem to hold, even though it says it´s pinned.

I´ve run registry cleaners and adaware, but the problem is still there. Unfortunately, I don´t have the amount of time needed right now to run a completely new install or do anything too drastic. I´ve to clean up the hard drive and put all the things I wants to keep together so I can help move them to a safe location off of that pc. In case it crashes or we need to reinstall everything, at least her files will be safe.

I have all sorts of questions to ask about this problem, but I guess the main thing I need to know is whether this is a bad omen for things to come (is this the beginning of the end for this computer?). Otherwise, will a new install of windows permanently fix the problem? She currently still has sp1 on her pc, maybe I should upgrade to sp3, but I hear too many horror stories about programs not working, I can´t do that to her now.

Any help or information would be greatful......

[Macarenas]

do you have an ATI video chipset on your computer?

[Ralph Lauren]

No,. I don´t. Also, I guess I should add that the pc is 6 years old and never had a problem -- I had BitDefender for a few years. while looking for an answer to your question, there are two networking devices that are not working: both related to bitdefender (1) BitDefender Firewall NDIS filter miniport and (2) WAN miniport (IP) bitdefender firewall NDIS filter.

Could bitdefender be causing this? Maybe I need to reinstall?

[Macarenas]

I saw the same symptoms when a friend had downloaded and installed ATI video driver related downloads and had installed them in the wrong order. Un-installing those in Add/Remove Programs and installing them in the right order fixed the problem. It took me quite a while to figure that out.
In that case, you could press Alt-Ctrl-Del when the desktop froze while booting, and run explorer.exe to make the icons on the desktop appear, but you were back in the same situation after you rebooted. My friend is a quadrapelic and cannot press keyboard keys, so the computer was unusable to her in that state, unless she got somone to do that for her..
......

On the other hand, lots of problems can cause those symptoms.

Try repeatedly pressing F8 while booting, don't hold down the key, starting right after the mboard beeps once or the monitor led turns green, and from the boot choices menu choose....

- Enable VGA mode - that mode loads everything normally except it forces Windows to use default VGA drivers that all video adapters support rather than the specific drivers that have been loaded for the video chipset.
If that gets you to the desktop and the icons on the desktop load normally, your problem is related to the video drivers or the programs that come with the video drivers.

If that gets you to the desktop and the icons on the desktop load normally, you need to properly un-install and re-install the video drivers and related programs. You can do that in normal mode or Enable VGA mode - sometimes you can't do that in Safe mode.

If that doesn't help...


- Safe mode -
If that gets you to the desktop and the icons on the desktop load normally, your problem is probably NOT related to the video drivers or the programs that come with the video drivers, but is related to something that loads in normal mode that doesn't load in safe mode.