Windows Server 2012 R2 - Explorer.exe keeps crashing

joey keulen 1 Reputation point
2022-03-31T06:16:31.017+00:00

Since a couple of weeks now I've had the problem that the explorer on my Sever 2012 keeps crashing. This started happening (according to my collegues) after I (accidently) copied fonts over to all the clients and servers on the network instead of just the clients.

Since this started happening a couple of things are acting weird or are broke:

For things I've already tried see bottom of the post.

  • the desktop and explorer keep crashing and rebooting

this keeps going until i copy the explorer.exe to the sys32 folder, then it just stays on a purple background but I'm able to open the explorer through taskmanager and see files. If I don't copy it over to the sys32 folder, I have no way of stopping the refresh of explorer for some reason. I don't know why this works like this since there never was a Explorer.exe in the system32 folder.

This is the error Evenvwr gave me:

Faulting module name: Windows.UI.Xaml.dll, version: 6.3.9600.18298, timestamp: 0x570551e1
Exception Code: 0xc000027b
Error margin: 0x0000000000982cca
Error process ID: 0x1510
Application start time with error: 0x01d8443803d1cdb2
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe

  • Eventviewer gives the error "MMC has detected an error in a snap-in and will unload it"

I can copy the eventviewer files to another computer and open them normaly so the files themselfs seem fine. The main thing that is noticible here is the explorer message above.

  • Servermanager can't be openend.

When i reboot the server, I see the desktop loading, then Servermanager, but the moment (i'm guessing) it wants to open servermanager is just crashes, together with explorer.

[Windows Server 2012 Server manager Crash][1] https://i.stack.imgur.com/AYqk0.png

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: CLR20r3
Problem Signature 01: ServerManager.exe
Problem Signature 02: 6.3.9600.17238
Problem Signature 03: 53d0b3e7
Problem Signature 04: PresentationCore
Problem Signature 05: 4.8.4480.0
Problem Signature 06: 61d678ee
Problem Signature 07: 4b5b
Problem Signature 08: 1f
Problem Signature 09: FatalError
OS Version: 6.3.9600.2.0.0.272.7
Locale ID: 2067
Additional Information 1: 68f6
Additional Information 2: 68f60e27463c550c600f4de898e481bd
Additional Information 3: 102b
Additional Information 4: 102b2c4bd49398d4f8f709c380da5e92

  • Windows Login screen is stretched and missing a lot of text and UI

I get this scrollbar on the bottom but everthing else is invisible or just not showing but still selectable. If i tab correctly with a bit of luck I can enter the password and login:

[Windows server 2012 bugged login screen][2] https://i.stack.imgur.com/pUQRU.png

A couple of the solutions I've already tried:

Other User

Same problemen

SFC /scannow with a DISM before hand

Same problem even after "fixing" corrupted files

Copied fonts from a working server 2012 R2 to the broken one

Same problem, no improvement at all

Copy over Explorer.exe from working server 2012 R2

Shoudn't have done this since it was completey broke now, after SFC this was fixed

Checked taskmanager for any other UI related programs that could be causing this

A lot of users say that Winzip or Classic Shell can cause this issue but none of them are installed

A lot of other steps to try and repair any damage caused by fonts

so this includes cleaning the registry, making sure that there are no unnecessary keys, making sure the fonts are all registered and installed, still nothing.

Booting in safe mode

Still the same issue so I guess it's not driver related

Ran updates

there were some server updates that were installed but nothing that fixes the issue, were also some Vmware GUI updates, they also didn't fix the issue

One of my main issues is that the problem itself is hard to describe since there are multiple things going wrong. None of the posts i saw were of server 2012 but a lot from windows 10 clients having trouble with a crashing Explorer.exe.

Hope that some of you can give me the wisdom and power to solve this.

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  1. Limitless Technology 38,876 Reputation points
    2022-04-06T10:51:30.543+00:00

    Hi @joey keulen

    This issue could be driver related. If there is a driver causing an issue, it could be causing explorer.exe to crash and result in the issues you're seeing. Have you checked the RAID for updated firmware or maybe a BIOS update?

    Also, malware or a virus could be the issue. Have you performed a complete and intensive scan of all drives?

    I would also check RAM for errors by using a utility or swapping out the DIMMS.

    Ultimately, I would investigate the possibility of drivers and/or hardware issues here.

    I hope this answers your question.

    Thanks.

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