Windows 10 Explorer.exe crashing often while using Edge Browser

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Jagster asked Dec 7, '21 BenyaminHadianZarkeshMoghadam-1618 commented Jan 25, '22

Windows 10 Explorer.exe crashing often while using Edge Browser

For months now my laptop has been having problems with Explorer.exe crashing at various times but seems to be mostly when I am using Edge (Version 96.0.1054.41 but also with earlier versions too). The OS is Win10 Pro 21H1 (Build 19043.1348).

Event Log shows these errors (Windows Log: Application, Source: Application Error, Event ID: 1000)

Faulting application name: explorer.exe, version: 10.0.19041.1348, time stamp: 0x4fe7e346
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.19041.1348, time stamp: 0x76fcd692
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x000000000010b302
Faulting process id: 0x62ec
Faulting application start time: 0x01d7ebb70521388b
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: ffb4a545-88fa-4f27-8dd4-215947efeb39
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

I have created a DMP file and uploaded to my onedrive. https://1drv.ms/u/s!AguxFzdVs4--v7EPpp0hvx8HtBAgeA?e=m1Vr1f

Perhaps someone can check the DMP file and determine what is causing Explorer to repeatedly crash or advise on items to check. Thanks

windows-10-general windows-10-application-compatibility

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EckiS · Dec 08, 2021 at 05:42 PM

explorer!CTray::CheckGDIHandleLimit is on the call stack, so perhaps explorer has a GDI handle leak (maybe even related to a tray program?).
you could track the handles of the explorer process to see if they are increasing over time before the crash occurs.

did you enable writing dump files? The please enable writing a full dump: clr.dll is loaded in the process and a minidump is not enough to analyze managed code.

you could use ShellExView to disable all non-Microsoft shell extensions

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Jagster EckiS · Dec 10, 2021 at 04:16 PM

@EckiS Thank you for your input. I'm not terribly familiar with much of what you are describing (GDI, clr.dll) but am searching the web for some of the key items you mentioned and will see what I can figure out.

I loaded up ShellExView and it lists all the non-Microsoft extensions as disabled. (I must've already done this at some point in the past while troubleshooting off and on over the past x months and just left them disabled...)

On your advice I am looking at the handle count of explorer.exe and using PerfMon to track the number I have noticed that during normal behavior the count is around 2,500, but when explorer crashes the count will drop to zero or close to it (from the ~2,500 number) and quickly rise to around 5,500 handles for about a minute before sharply dropping back down to normal level of around 2,500. I'm not sure what this indicates yet, it could just be behavior related to Windows logging and reporting the explorer.exe crash event.

I will explore further into the GDI and system tray items and see where that leads... Task Manager shows GDI objects for explorer hanging around the 9,600 mark.

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Jagster EckiS · Dec 10, 2021 at 05:04 PM

@EckiS I think the GDI count thing is on the right track. Thanks for pointing me in that direction. Windows 10 has a 10k GDI object limit per process and I believe that my explorer.exe is hitting that and then crashing. After the crash it quickly goes right back up to just under 10k so I need to figure out why explorer is loading up so many GDI objects on this one laptop.

When I close Edge, the GDI objects drops down to just over 200. I do have a lot of tabs and browser windows open but when I open the browser task manager (Shift+Esc), it shows only 78 GDI handles while the explorer GDI objects explodes to near 10k.

To try to reduce (or eliminate) the frequency of explorer crashes I've increased the GDI limit to 12,500 in the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\GDIProcessHandleQuota) for the time being while I continue to troubleshoot.

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EckiS Jagster · Dec 11, 2021 at 08:28 AM

you could create a full dump file from explorer when the GDI object reach 10k .
in task manager: details-page, right click the explorer process with the high GDI object cound: "create dump file".
perhaps we can see more with this.
I still believe some 3rd party library responsible for the leak, but could not find something in your first dump.

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BenyaminHadianZarkeshMoghadam-1618 · Jan 25 at 06:51 AM

I had a similar issue occurs on my Laptop.
Firstly, I have to admit that I resolved it by 1st "clearing the File Explorer history" or 2nd "Closing the Drop box application".
I found out when I wanted to save or copy a new file in a destination folder in Drop Box the related folder would close and the log would be write in to the event Logs.

1st solution:
File Explorer > View > Options > Change Folder and search options > Privacy >Clear File Explorer History

2nd solution:
Close Boxcryptor and Drop Box desktop application.

In both situation the problem will be solved.

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Answer 1 · 2021-12-10T09:01:23.747Z

LimitlessTechnology-2700 answered Dec 10, '21

Hello

Thank you for your question and reaching out.

First, close all the programs and files that you have open.
Right-click on the Windows Start menu and select Control Panel. Then choose the category System and security. On the next screen, look for Administrative Tools on the right and click on that option.
One of those tools is the Windows memory diagnostic. Double click on it to open it.
The diagnosis gives two options to choose from. See what each one does and click on the one you prefer:

Restart now and check for problems.

Then check the hard drive. Enter the following command and replace the X with the drive letter you wish to scan: "chkdsk / f / r X:

Run below DISM command from elevated prompt.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept as answer--

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