My PC started acting up lately when clicking on a DV AVI file, sometimes even without clicking on a file, just placing the cursor over it (I guess that would still be clicking as I have Windows set to select the file by placing the cursor over it and open it when clicking once).

See attached image. The numbers in the first "0x0..." are changing every time this happens. The message just sits there on the screen until I click OK, that will close the folder, screen goes blank (background only, desktop icons will dissapear, then come back). This happens with both folders on the local hard drive and external/USB drives.

Any idea what might cause this? I can still access those video files opening them directly with any application that would play them or process them, so the files themselves appear to be just fine.

What application is set to open .avi files by default? Could that application be the problem? Try opening the files with the application assigned by default to see if you can replicate the problem. That application may need to be re-installed.

There's a possibility that keeping XP from getting the info from large avi files will help you out here...check out tweak 10...worth a shot.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html

Opening a folder containing a large number of AVI files can open quite slowly because Windows has to open each AVI file and extract information from them. If you have a large collection, you can speedup XP's folder access by disabling it from automatically extracting this info. This can also fix problems when trying to rename or move AVI files and you get an error message: "it is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again."

If it is crashing without even clicking then it is quite likely you have a codec that isn't behaving properly with Explorer.

Explorer interrogates the file to get information and also generate the thumbnail.

Have you installed any third-party DV codecs?

Check your codecs with sherlock:

http://www.updatexp.com/sherlock-codec-detective.html

Pete

What application is set to open .avi files by default? Could that application be the problem? Try opening the files with the application assigned by default to see if you can replicate the problem. That application may need to be re-installed.
The application set to play DV-AVI files is Media Player Classic. I tried reverting to Windows Media Player - no change.

If it is crashing without even clicking then it is quite likely you have a codec that isn't behaving properly with Explorer. Explorer interrogates the file to get information and also generate the thumbnail. Have you installed any third-party DV codecs?
The only other DV codec isntalled is the Canopus DV codec that came with Procoder 2. The error issues only started about one month after installing Procoder.

Other codecs installed (not DV codecs though) are Divx and Huff YUV, not counting the codecs that came with Windows of course (Cinepac and Indeo).

Check some of these...

http://tinyurl.com/2my9kb

Thanks for all the help guys, especially you, Jeff. I went through most of the links - it looks like pretty much anything can cause this problem...

I did some more testing in the meantime. The same file (on a USB hard drive) works fine on a second computer, but it exhibits the problem on a third one. At the same time, other DV-AVI files may or may not work properly on my work computer, the one that started acting up.

At this point in my investigation I tend to believe that I caused the problem by pulling the USB cord without executing "safely remove hardware". From what I'm reading Windows does some sort of "inventory" of the files on all attached hard drives (called indexing?), and when a drive is disconnected in the middle of this process, a hidden file containing this data gets corrupted. If I drag and drop the file rapidly into any application that can load files this way, all is well. But if I leave the mouse resting on top of the file until it displays it's characteristics, that's when I get the error.

Calling all computer gurus, please help!

Hi Ervin,

Have a look in the troublesome folders for two hidden files: desktop.ini and thumbs.db. Delete both. It won't do any harm but will it reset the folder to its default view and get rid of the thumbnail images (they will get regenerated).

John.

Deleted all mentioned files on both local drive and USB drive.

No change.

Explorer.exe errors often come up from viruses. If you're not sure, run a virus scan with the latest anti-virus software.

My work computer that exhibits this error has up to date antivirus, it's on a rock solid corporate LAN. I even ran a special program from McAffee that I found recommended on a website, it looks for some special infections, no change.

Hi Ervin,

A couple of other possibilities:

Connect the drive as usual.
Go to Device Manager and uninstall it (not disable).
Unplug it.
Plug it back in.

Windows may think at this point that it is a new drive and go through the usual rigmarole to index it etc, creating a new index.

Or, without the drive connected, attach another drive, change its drive letter to be the same as the problematic one and then plug the problematic one back in. Windows will have to assign a different drive letter and this may prompt it to start all over with it.

Purely speculative, of course...

John.

As mentioned in the original post, I had this computer set to open files with a single click (after pointing to select the file) – so I tried changing that back to the default where placing the pointer over a file will just display file properties, first click selects, and second click opens them. My habit of changing the default double-click to single-click got me into trouble already a few times… on top of this I also had the mouse pointer set to “snap”, in other words to automatically move the pointer to the default button in dialog boxes. It happened a few times that I was trying to click on something, but just then a dialog box opened (from a program running in the background) where I really wanted to select not the default button, so when I clicked, what happened is not what I wanted to happen.

Long story short, this is what I discovered. When I place the mouse pointer over a file icon, a little yellow box opens next to the icon (or thumbnail, list item, whatever the view is set to), displaying the file type, title, size, date modified, dimensions, etc, depending on the file. And THIS IS WHEN THE ERROR MESSAGE POPS UP! It takes about two seconds for the computer to read this info – if I move the mouse away in less then two seconds, nothing bad happens, I can even click and open the file as long as I move the mouse away immediately after. If I leave it resting on the icon, boom, error.

I think this is pointing me (pun intended) toward thinking that the problem is the file containing this information.

Any thoughts?

That's why I wonder if making the drive appear to be a new one will remedy the problem. As you stated before, it is PC-specific suggesting the corrupt information may be on the PC rather than the drive (though the fact it misbehaves on 2 out of 3 PCs may suggest otherwise). A way to make the drive seem like a new one is to uninstall it (it has to be plugged in so you can see it in Device Manager). The next time you plug it in, Windows should think it is a new device. It can't make the problem any worse. (I've done this with troublesome USB wireless adapters.)

A surefire - but desperate - solution would be to copy all the files to another external drive, reformat the problematic one and copy the files back. (Unless Windows uses the serial number of the drive to record information that's causing the problem).

John.

John, the computer exhibits the exact same behavior regardless of where the dv-avi file is stored - on the local C drive or on an external drive.

Other avi files (uncompressed, HUFF YUV) are fine.

Oh.

You could try unregistering and reregistering the Microsoft DV codec.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\regsvr32 -u qdv.dll
C:\WINDOWS\system32\regsvr32 qdv.dll

Perhaps something is corrupt in the registry. The above will remove and recreate the correct entries.

John.

How do I do that? I'm not exactly an IT person, just the average computer user.

Start Menu/Run...
Type cmd and press Enter

You should see a window with a white flashing cursor.
Type:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\regsvr32 -u qdv.dll

and press Enter. You should get a message saying qdv.dll was unregistered successfully - close the message window.

Type:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\regsvr32 qdv.dll

and press Enter. You should get a message saying qdv.dll was registered successfully - close the message window.

Type:

exit

and press Enter. The command prompt window will close.

John.