Windows Explorer no longer functioning correctly

In the last few weeks, I've noticed that Windows Explorer is either missing icons or just not loading items at all. For instance, right now if I load Explorer, I see this:

http://s17.postimage.org/a58jgircf/explorer.jpg

If I reboot, it becomes normal, but only for several hours, and then acts up again. Even if that doesn't happen and I can get to a folder, the thumbnails don't show up at all.

If I go to a website that opens an explorer window to upload images, the most recent images in the folder from the last few days are just white boxes. I noticed this happened after I had started using Windows Movie Maker a few weeks ago to make a few videos for youtube. It would crash randomly.

I tried running a disk clean up as a quick measure, and it fixed everything for a day, and then it messed up again. It looks like a Hard Drive or Memory issue to me.

I'm using:

Lenovo Y570
Intel Core i7 2630QM
Geforce 555M
8GB DDR 3 RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

 

When did you last update IE? And what version of IE are you using? You might want to get SP1 and update it...and try again...

 

Not sure what Internet Explorer (IE) has to do with your Windows Explorer problem but have you tried to google this: 'windows explorer not loading'

The first hit I found, that person has the same photo of the problem you posted.

Some have found a bad file on their computer. When that file was removed problem went away.

 

I read that, and he found it after discovering a video file that would no longer respond after he disabled explorer, I think? How does that work? This is just a weird issue. Any new picture I download is becoming a white square without a thumbnail. Any ideas?

 

it would seem that you may have a corrupt file or files somewhere causing this. the system is hanging when it attempts to retrieve file info from the corrupted files. for whatever reason this info is contained in a cache that's loaded when windows explorer is launched. that's why this happens every time or when you attempt to preview new files, even if you're opening a location different from where the corrupted files are stored. (which makes me curious, what happens when you manually enter a folder location in the address bar?) two solutions, one is to find the file or files and remove/delete them, the other is to reinstall windows (with the latter being a drastic solution to a less-than-drastic issue).

 

Well, I tried opening My Pictures through C:\Users\Name\Pictures, and it random pictures had no thumbnails.

The thing with this folder is that I tend to abuse it and it shows 988 files without going into any of the few dozen subfolders. I went around folders, like did a search in explorer, and went back into My Pictures and more icons were missing thumbnails. Now Explorer is doing the same thing it looked like in the first post.

How am I supposed to figure out which file is corrupted, though?

 

therein lies your issue.

if you're still able to navigate around explorer, then i'd consider this less than a serious error. but personally, if this was happening to my machine i'd probably decide it was time for a backup/reinstall. i can't be bothered with all that.

 

raz1337 when you say abuse it do you mean you store a lot of files and often add, delete and move? You could move all of the files to an external hard drive (just for testing) then run your system for a few days. Add back just a few files and see if the problem happens again. If it was me I would just reload the OS from a recent "error free" backup/image.

 

That's basically it. I've gone picture happy in the last 2 years, hence a dozen or so subdirectories and almost 1,000 files in the pictures folder.

By reload the OS, just go through a system restore to a previous date?

 

that might work but i'd bet against it since it wouldn't remove any non-system corrupt file/s. and maybe i should say at this point that everything i've suggested may or may not be your issue. this could be a case of a corrupted system file in which case reinstallation (not reloading) is the only real solution. by reinstallation i mean formatting your hard drive and reinstallaing the OS and all drivers, plus all of your programs and whatever files you choose to put back in storage.

 

Yes, I probably would do a complete reinstall of the OS also at this point. If raz1337 has exhausted all normal remedies he probably should do it also. But, boy is it a pain in the rear. I have done it but it took days to get all of my programs up and running again. Hope he has his photos backed up somewhere so that he doesn't have to worry about them. Raz, next time make sub-directories(sub-folders) for your photos. You know, kids photos in one folder, landscapes in another folder and so on and the really important photos should be backed up to an external drive.

 

My greatest fear is letting this get out of control. Nevertheless, there's so many programs that handle this it's not funny.