Technical Problems with the Start Menu

Occasionally, my start menu will freeze after opening a file, and I'm not sure what causes it.

Any help?

 

Nothing else freezes when that happens, just the start menu, which is why I find it kind of odd.

 

I can't recall, but it's not a virus, as AVG's daily scans haven't picked up anything.

 

That doesn't guarantee you don't have a virus, as sometimes they slip by. I don't think a virus would just cause your Start menu to freeze up though, so it probably isn't that if you ask me.

How much RAM does your computer have? You can check by going to Start > Right-click Computer/My Computer > Properties.

 

2.81 GHz, 1.75 GB of RAM.

 

A'ight so you probably have 2 GB installed... It shouldn't be doing that then >__>. I don't think it's the OS but are you on Vista?

Also you might want to ctrl+alt+del and see if you've got any background processes that are eating up memory and slowing it down.

If this started semi-recently you can also try a System Restore, I suppose.

 

My mom has Windows 7, but I have Windows XP (FTW).

Regarding CTRL + ALT + Delete, I'll try that next time.

Finally, I can't recall when it started, unfortunately. =/
I think sometime in August, but I'm not sure.

It doesn't happen that often (probably a few times a month), but I just thought I'd get opinions.

 

It's your explorer.exe that stops working, and the start menu is part of that process. The only thing you can do to fix it, would most likely be to install new ram. And clean up your computer. (Games/Software you don't use anymore)

 

Sorry for sounding like a technology noob, but what's that?
I'm assuming it's unrelated to Internet Explorer?

 

In short, and very, VERY simplified; it's windows.

 

Ah, okay.

Now, is there a way to find that file or is it some invisible background program?

 

It's in C:\Windows\System32.
Update windows, some updates will delete the old explorer.exe and replace it with a newer version of it.

Though to be honest, how to track down probable cause of this is not easy with the little info you have given us. Not to mention I doubt you are computer savy. Although I can guaranteed it is indeed explorer.exe that is causing the freeze, I cannot guaranteed that a virus/another exe file is not responsible for it freezing.

Also, try a system restore to return your computer's working condition back to a earlier date (hopefully before this happened).

 

explorer.exe is Windows Explorer. It manages your files and your start menu/bar, basically. There is other stuff but that seems to be what you're concerned with.
If you hit CTRL+ALT+DELETE, and go to the Processes tab, you can see how much RAM that explorer.exe is eating up. For example:


If the memory usage is ridiculously high, then there may be a problem to look into. If there are other processes that are eating up a lot of memory--and they're ones you don't need running--we can help you stop them.

 

Here's a screenshot of mine:

 

Would you mind sorting them by Memory Usage, and telling/showing us what processes are using the most?

 

No problem.

In order of memory usage:

 

From what I can tell, it's lack of RAM. There are no Processes using an excessive amount of Memory, so I'd say it's just lack of RAM.

 

Well, the other day, I temporarily sent video files to the recycle bin so I could have enough space to run a disk defrag, and the overall performance of my PC seems to have improved.

While there were no major slowdowns before the defrag, it still helped.

I guess this can be locked!

*calls for administrators or moderators*