Classic Shell: Forum

I'm having issues with Classic Shell crashing (and sometimes explorer with it).

Basically, my computer will work perfectly fine. You know, the everyday smooth like butter stuff. Then.. I'll go down to my start bar to do something and about 30-40% of the time I click the start button, it'll freeze up and I'll have to wait 5-10 seconds before it crashes and restarts its own process. During this time, the start bar is just frozen. Sometimes, it freezes up my explorer (or what I'd assume is explorer, because everything else freezes) as well. I've used Classic Start with ZERO issues for the last 7 months. Weird, very irritating issue.

I'm not 100% sure on when this all started, but I'm a music producer and recently when I was working on a huge (there were a lot of samples I used, so processing power/workload on my ssd/hdds were a lot) project on my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), I started having (or at least noticing) this issue from then on. I've tried uninstalling, deleting all pertinent registries and files/folders, and then re-installing. No cigar. I'm desperate to get this kink worked out because it's absolutely killing my workflow. This happens with or without the workstation open. No RAM/CPU heat/capacity issues from what I can tell, and have tried diagnosing it in ways such as restarting, and NOT doing anything but browsing the web.. and it still happens.

I'm desperate to get this fixed. It's almost impossible to use my computer without this thing killing my workflow. Please help.


Computer Specs:
Intel i7 4790K
GTX 980 Reference
16GB DDR3 RAM
500GB SSD
2x 1TB Storage HDD
Windows 8.1 Pro

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Click on the "How to capture crash dumps" link at the top. Follow the instructions, try to reproduce the problem, and send me the crash dumps.

Recently the issue has been dying down a bit for some reason and it's really irritating because now it's pretty hard to capture a dump because it crashes and restarts faster than I can get the logger to start. Should I just have the command running at all times?

Yes, leave it open all the time. Or look at the second post in the crash dump topic how to enable dumps permanently.

Is there supposed to be a text document or something that's generated when I crash? My start menu finally crashed again and my procdump gave me a message (I forget what, something along like lines of "...it will now exited") and I have no log.

There should be a .dmp file in the directory where you started procdump. The message it printed may be important. Try to write it down next time.

When my start bar crashes, it says the following in the cmd:

"The process has exited."
"Dump count not reached."

and now it's back at C:\Users\My Name\Desktop\proc>

What is the command line for procdump that you are using?
Are there any new files ending in .dmp in the Desktop\proc folder?

I'm using procdump -e explorer.exe.

No new files. When I execute aforementioned command line there is procdump64, but it disappears after I close procdump.

Then it appears that the explorer.exe process is exiting normally, which it should never do.
Maybe there is some exception that causes it to exit.
It is a long shot, but you can try the following command "procdump -e 1 explorer.exe"

The procdump64.exe is normal. Procdump creates it temporarily to attach to 64-bit processes like Explorer.

Tried that, but seems like it captures a log of something even though there is no crash. (On a side note, I got the process to crash again with the first command line open and I got the same two errors.)

"The process has exited."
"Dump count not reached."

Btw which anti-virus app do you have installed? See if it has some setting to exclude processes from being scanned and add C:\Program Files\Classic Shell\ClassicStartMenu.exe and C:\Windows\Explorer.exe to it.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

I don't have an antivirus installed, unless we count Windows Defender as one.

OK that rules out any issues due to an AV. You don't have any alternative Start menus installed either, right? Maybe some shell extension conflicting with the Start Menu or Explorer is causing Explorer to exit and not crash. It happens only when you click the Start button? You could try running Classic Shell Utility: Download it HERE (for troubleshooting) and upload its log somewhere.

It is a tool which will collect information about your system that can assist in troubleshooting problems. When you run the tool it will ask you to save a text file with the information. Save the file and attach it in this forum post.

- Run the tool using the same account that is causing problems. Do not run as administrator.
- The tool may ask for administrative credentials if necessary. If you choose not to provide them, the tool will still work but will collect less information.
- Some of the collected information may be sensitive (like what applications you have installed). If you wish to keep that information confidential, archive it with a password and attach the archive in the forums and send a PM with the password to the user Ivo or GauravK. Or you can instead upload it to this MediaFire FileDrop folder. Please enter a description for the file - who is it from and what is it for and post a message here.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Just PM'd Ivo and GauravK.

Have you received my PMs? The issue is still persisting.

No, I have not received any PMs since Mar 23rd. Are you sure you sent it to the right person?

I have tried again. I think I messed up last time.

I don't see anything out of the ordinary in the log file.

One last thing you can try is to leave a command prompt open with this command "procdump explorer.exe" without executing it.
As soon as Explorer freezes, press Enter. It should save a dump right away without waiting for an actual crash.

In fact, try the "procdump explorer.exe" command right away. Press Enter and see if a dump file is created. If it doesn't do anything, then something is wrong with the dump capture and we need to first figure out what's the problem.

I knew I couldn't have been the only one facing this issue. Same problem: Taskbar and start menu randomly freezes and crashes, but it's a more recent issue. It seems recent windows updates may have broken some of Classic Shell's stability with Windows 8.1. I've sent you a dump, Ivo. Strangely, explorer.exe completely REFUSES to crash when I'm running the tool to try and capture a crash (it's like it knows), so I captured a series of dumps instead while it remained frozen.

System spec:
MSi GE60 Apache Pro Notebook
Core i7 4700HQ
Nvidia GTX 860M 2GB
16GB Memory
256GB SSD w/ 1TB mechanical
Windows 8.1

I have not received anything yet. Where can I get the dumps?

You were a bit faster than I anticipated, I was actually still in the process of uploading the file.

The dumps don't show something conclusive, but it looks like Explorer is stuck updating the language bar. Doesn't seem related to Classic Shell.
Have you tried uninstalling Classic Shell to see if the problem goes away?

I required some more time to test it out. As obvious as testing that idea may have been, I didn't try it.

The conclusion is that explorer still crashes for some unknown reason, even without classic shell. It seems there's some other problem I need to solve. And from what you said, it might be related to the language bar.

What's odd is how this problem seems fairly recent, though. Within the past few weeks at most.

I have both Japanese and Korean IME installed alongside the English default.

Same here, minus Korean. So looks like we both have the same problem. I found more info: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3048778

A fix is available by installing the KB3048778 update through windows update.

Admin, the issue here is fixed, thanks.