Explorer Not Responding when network cable plugged in

[scottay]

So I've got a real stumper on my hands. I've got a client that's experiencing the "Explorer has stopped responding" issue. After exhausting every option I could find, I decided to get the machine back to my shop so I could dive into it further. To my surprise, while it was in my shop I never had the issue arise. Onsite it was nearly constant, just about any time an explorer window was opened it would crash and restart Explorer. I continued on trying to figure out the issue (chkdsk, sfc, malware scans, etc), and nothing pointed me to the problem. I figured it must be something that was plugged into it onsite, so I took it back over and started plugging things in one-by-one. The second I connected the ethernet cable Explorer crashed. Was it a fluke? I unplugged the ethernet cable, opened/closed numerous explorer windows... nothing. I plugged in the ethernet cable again, and bam, explorer crashed... I repeated this a couple more times just to be 100% certain that it wasn't coincidental. I tried new network cables and a different network port that was near by... Same issue.

If I had discovered this prior to bringing it back to my shop I would suspect a faulty NIC; however, the fact that I had the thing running for hours at my shop without a single crash has got me thoroughly confused. I've never seen a network be responsible for such an issue.

To make matters more interesting, this is a relatively new client for me, and their previous IT company left absolutely NO documentation on the network. We've been working to try to find documentation and get in touch with someone that has some documentation, but all have failed... So, I can't even get into the network gear to troubleshoot.

Since no other computers are facing this issue, my next step when I go onsite is to plug the troubled computer into a jack that a working computer is connected to. After that I'm not sure where to go with it.

Any suggestions??

 

[citizensmith]

A Network share unavailable ? Some funky network discoverey going on? Some virus trying to cal home? WhT if you try direct connect peer to peer a other pc?
I'm out of gueses No documentation is v.poor and a pain

 

[scottay]

Hmm, good suggestions. I like the idea of trying to hook to another peer, that will isolate it to the network equipment. I'll also double check the shares, I can see how that may cause it onsite and not in my shop.

And yes, the lack to docs is killing me. We're in the process of trying to figure out the best way and time to nuke and rebuild. It's not an overly complex network (no VPNs and such), but I know they have multiple VLANs doing different things, so it won't be a simple reset.

 

[mraikes]

You didn't mention any specs, age, etc. So it's a little tougher for us to guess & suggest.

But I'd still try another NIC before eliminating it as a culprit regardless of how it performed in your shop.

 

[scottay]

It has a XP sticker on it, but it is running Windows 7, so it looks to me to be an XP refurb to W7. It's a Dell with an Intel Core 2 and 6GB of RAM.

I'll be taking a NIC out with me to try for sure. I'm just curious if anyone has seen this goofy behavior so I don't waste a lot of time chasing my tail.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Well thats an interesting one. I suppose I would want to know when the issue started and what changed around that time period. I would also go into the NICs connection properties and uncheck File and Print sharing and see if that makes any difference.

I don't have an initial assumption for the cause of the issue but perhaps process monitor will give you a hint.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Faulty network switch. Bad electrical issue in the room such as open ground or even reverse polarity.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Also event logs, event logs, event logs!

 

[Bizybone]

Boot to some form of WinPE and see if it happens there.

 

[scottay]

Lot's of other things to try, thank so much!

I'll post my findings when I go back out.

 

[scottay]

I just wanted to report back with my findings... This was the classic "look over here" distraction. It seemed like a NIC/network issue, but after poking around I discovered that the fan wasn't spinning on the GPU. When I yanked the GPU, not "Explorer not responding" issue. Stuck a new GPU in, problem seems to be resolved.

I can't confirm 100% until a few days go by, but I can say with certainty that the incessant Explorer crash is not happening anymore. This computer has had that issue sporadically for months, but only recently did it get to the point that it was so constant that the computer was unusable.

Thanks for all the other ideas! I did try most of them just to rule out the variables.

 

[mraikes]

Wow, outta left field!

Thanks for reporting back!

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Does not compute...Does not compute