explorer tree takes forever!

[pelham456]

mispost pls DEL!

tx

[Gwynd]

Hi Pelham456

There are lots of possibilities, and it's not necessarily your mobo going, but I can't say it isn't either - I've only ever had one Mobo fail, and when it was on it's way out, even as not a 'computer expert' I knew because BSODs and reboots where the order of the day.


Have you tried opening task manager to see what load there is on the processor and memory?

Was your 3GB of RAM, 3 *1GB sticks in Triple Channel?

Is your 8GB one stick or two?

[pelham456]

ugh -- u slipped in your reply when i was trying to fix the OP!

here, from scratch then:

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i used to occasionally find things hanging; like, u click on a folder and it takes 30s to open. at times, this involves a green progress bar creeping left to right in the address field.

following a catastrophic HDD crash a couple months back, i got a new, much larger, HDD, plus added RAM and a newer windows. to wit:

OLD: w8.1, 360G HDD, 3G RAM
NEW: w10.0, 1T HDD, 8G RAM

so i expected such hangs to disappear. instead, they got much much WORSE!

what is this a sign of? one of the things REMAINING in the pc (mobo?) dying?

or has a larger HDD actually BACKFIRED in the sense that it takes my sluggish old system longer to FIND things on there? drive is still largely EMPTY, so i thought this would have been a snap. (not enuf time to be all FRAGMENTED, say, and none of the "bad sectors" issues of yore)

-----
separate from explorer, i find a few apps slow to boot. namely VLC.

every other pc to date -- incl my pre-crash setup -- VLC was pretty much instantaneous when i clicked on a video. now it can be anywhere from 20s to 2 mins to get going.

i figured it just needed a reinstall, but given the explorer tree issue, i wonder if they're related. like, is it struggling to "find" the file i've clicked on, somehow?

WMP and other players far less affected, fwiw. but some other apps -- STILL PHOTO viewers, even -- not so lucky. i mean, who expects a 20s wait when opening a jpg?!

again, tho, after 2 or 3 mins struggling to get INTO the folder where said video/jpg/etc sits, my gut say explorer is taking a long time to PASS the app the url needed. as further proof, VLC and various photo viewers boot quickly when EMPTY. it's just "auto-boot" upon clicking a media file which is the problem.

[pelham456]

Originally Posted by Gwynd

Have you tried opening task manager to see what load there is on the processor and memory?

at times "explorer" is thru the roof. like 99%.

i don't see anything exceptional about VLC itself there.

Was your 3GB of RAM, 3 *1GB sticks in Triple Channel?

Is your 8GB one stick or two?

it's a laptop with 2 slots, each of which can handle 4G max. but came with 1G apiece.

i *think* i upgraded one side (only one) to 2G at some point, making 3G total. memory is hazy; it's possible i never did and that it was still only the 2G it came with at time of crash.

shop that replaced HDD tossed in new RAM as a freebie. so, 4G apiece in those slots now, 8G total.

[OddBa11]

As you are simply experiencing slowness and not crashing, I'd suspect a driver issue. Especially as you are now using Win10 as a lot of older hardware doesn't actually support Win10.

I'd start by taking the brand and model of the laptop and going the manufacturers website / support, and see if they actually provide Win10 drivers for that actual model.

[pelham456]

ahhh...shop guy did comment that PC so old win10 might have probs. is THIS what he meant?

driver-wise, tho, wouldn't that have all happened during the install? what sort of drivers am i looking for?

i'd reinstall VLC, but, again, it's only like 6 weeks old. ditto "explorer", i guess, altho i'm a little fuzzy how that cud be out of sync with the rest of the win10 install.

[pelham456]

two new developments:

1) sometimes cannot reorder files ("sort by ...") -- especially in recyc bin -- because it's still doing its "load" thing. FOREVER. i have let things sit overnight; still not wrapped up in the morning! (what's it usually take, like 0.01s?)

2) vlc REALLY does not like autoloading files! same as i described, but its gotten that much worse -- if i click on an audio/video file, odds like 1 in 20 that it will ever start playing. (i.e. clicking 19 more times will sometimes get ONE of them to kickstart...)

i now have to use the workaround (open vlc, load file from within) 100%. this works no problem. not even an OCCASIONAL problem -- every last file plays just great like this. just not when clicked on in explorer directly.

this was not the case even a week ago.

SOUNDS like a corrupted vlc, but reinstall did not help. so i'm back to corrupted "explorer interface".

altho...it uses explorer (sort of) loading files from INSIDE the app anyways, so what's the diff?

[OddBa11]

Windows button + X and then open Device Manager (or any other way of opening Device Manager). Are there any items listed with a yellow ! or red x? If so, those items are not installed properly/missing drivers.

Win10 is better on the driver front in that it has generic drivers for most hardware. So it will typically install and be functional. But hardware specific drivers are often required to get all of the hardware features to function / function properly, or to simply perform as expected.

IF the manufacturers website list Win10 drivers, I would install them all starting with the "motherboard" or "system" drivers. Install any other drivers based on your findings in Device Manager.

[Oliverfr]

From personal experience, this is the kind of situation in which I'd simply say "fuck it" and reinstall windows.

Please don't immediately shrug off my comment.
Look.
Take a minute to consider.

On a paper, make two columns.
Right column: time it would take to reinstall windows, and all that comes along (AKA: backups, double check no location isn't left behind, triple check no location is left behind).
Left column: how much time you're losing, each day, with your issue, as it slows down your everyday usage. How much time you're wasting on tech support forums. How much time you'll waste on potential solutions that won't work.

If the left column represents a significantly larger time spent toll, then, yeah, it's time for a clean reinstall (AKA: not a repair, nope, tell the windows installer to wipe the disk first.)

As things are, there could be plenty of reasons. My top 3 favourites would be
- You may have caught a pest that would watch whatever shit you do.
- The thumbnails may be corrupted, you know, the small miniatures that windows displays when you're not in detailed display mode (that, it can be fixed, google how to delete all file thumbnails, 0.x% chance it will be that).
- The MFT, that special drive index that tells everybody else "yep, this chunk of this file, is HERE on the hard drive, cheers!" may be corrupted (and then it's time to google how to run a deep scan on your hard disk).

But my bet is that you'll end up reinstalling windows and then, magic!, the issue won't be here anymore.