Problem with Yahoo Instant Messenger and Possibly Explorer.exe

My specs are:

Windows Vista 64-bit Home
4 GB RAM
768 MB NvIdia Geforce 9600 GS
Intel I7 740 quad-core 64-bit procesor at 2.93 GHZ.
Yayhoo v. 8.1.0.421

Problem:

For the last month, month and a half, I've been having a curious problem with Yahoo Instant Messenger randomly crashing. The problem does not seem to be caused by anything specific, and occasionally will act up very frequently (once it crashed three times in five minutes), while other times it will take several housr between crashes. I have tried reinstalling Yahoo to no effect. The problem persists.

I also seem to have found a connection to explorer.exe in this problem. Not every time, but in many instances, Yahoo's crash will lead to a general or partial freezing of explorer.exe. That is, I won't be able to close Yahoo through the error prompt, and have to logoff from Windows in order to fix the problem. I cannot even bring up the Task Manager as explorer.exe is mostly frozen. This problem is exacerbated when I am AFK and don't close the error prompt immediatly and restart Yahoo.

Moreover, tonight I noticed something especially odd: The crash seems to affect explorer.exe even when it doesn't crash it. I noticed this because my clock in the bottom right corner was frozen 45 minutes in the past (I had left my computer running while I was AFK). As such, I am beginning to suspect that it may be explorer.exe causing the problem with Yahoo, not the other way around.

I also occasionally get script errors in Yahoo that asks me if I want to stop running this script. This does not always happens, but happens frequently. Internet Explorer (I have version 8 ) also has been having frequent problems with "this window is busy..." errors and other problems.

Any idea what I can do to fix these matters?

Thanks in advance.

I want to stop running this script

On your IE Internet options, Advance tab/Browsing  - Checkmark Disable Script Debugging for IE and Others and uncheck Display a notification about every script error.  Put a checkmark also on Empty temporary folders when browser is closed.  Hit Apply then reopen browser. If nothing changes use the Reset button on your Advanced tab. Clear your caches by using this Ccleaner to clear other junk files. Make sure you have the latest java installed and that it is enabled on your IE browser http://java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp
The latest is on version 7. Download free http://www.superantispyware.com/ install, run then update before making a full scan of any tracking cookies.
Another free Malware removal software is http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free
Same with Supernatispyware, update before making a full scan.

On your IE Internet options, Advance tab/Browsing  - Checkmark Disable Script Debugging for IE and Others and uncheck Display a notification about every script error.  Put a checkmark also on Empty temporary folders when browser is closed.  Hit Apply then reopen browser. If nothing changes use the Reset button on your Advanced tab. Clear your caches by using this Ccleaner to clear other junk files. Make sure you have the latest java installed and that it is enabled on your IE browser http://java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp
The latest is on version 7. Download free http://www.superantispyware.com/ install, run then update before making a full scan of any tracking cookies.
Another free Malware removal software is http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free
Same with Supernatispyware, update before making a full scan.

Gotcha. Doing all of the above. I have the paid-for Malware bytes, and I'll be doing both runs. Although I did just do a full Malware Bytes run hardly a few hours ago.

All right, I came home and the scans were done. Nothing was found but some tracking cookies with SuperAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes found no.

I did notice I screwed up and forgot to check one of the options.

I haven't had the problem yet. If it happens, I'll edit this post.

Use also this one if you forgot http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/standard

Use also this one if you forgot http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/standard

I did that, too. Sorry to omit an explicit reference to it.

But yes: I am afraid that didn't work. I just had Yahoo crash and I had to logoff Windows in order to fix it. Any further suggestions?

Thanks so much for your help, by the way.

Oh, and I installed the suggested Java instead of Java 7. Should I just go ahead and do 7? It said it was still in the beta stage and they'd recommend the 6.7 or whatever the most recent one was.

Lets try using a clean boot in vista - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796
 

Should I just go ahead and do 7?

http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,124381.0.html

Lets try using a clean boot in vista - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796
 http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,124381.0.html

Sounds good. I'll get back to you after I do it. Thanks again.

All right, sorry to take so long to respond. I had several busy days.

Yesterday I spent about four-five hours in a cleanboot. During that time period, Yahoo did not crash.

Went back to a regular boot tonight and Yahoo has crashed six times. I originally thought it may have been Yahoo Updater, but apparently that is not it as Yahoo Updater is not running and the problem is occuring as randomly as ever.

This is the error message in the event log:

Faulting application YahooMessenger.exe, version 8.1.0.421, time stamp 0x46d76392, faulting module MSVCR71.dll, version 7.10.3052.4, time stamp 0x3e561eac, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00011e30, process id 0x16c0, application start time 0x01cc99e137035fa6.


+ System

  - Provider

   [ Name]  Application Error
 
  - EventID 1000

   [ Qualifiers]  0
 
   Level 2
 
   Task 100
 
   Keywords 0x80000000000000
 
  - TimeCreated

   [ SystemTime]  2011-11-03T04:33:00.000Z
 
   EventRecordID 42239
 
   Channel Application
 
   Computer
 
   Security
 

- EventData

   YahooMessenger.exe
   8.1.0.421
   46d76392
   MSVCR71.dll
   7.10.3052.4
   3e561eac
   c0000005
   00011e30
   16c0
   01cc99e137035fa6

I've also found that my mouse is noticably slower with the full boot up. When I was in the clean boot, the mouse was significantly faster. I found that this .dll file mentioned had something to do with the mouse. Could this be an indication of something wrong?

Yesterday I spent about four-five hours in a cleanboot. During that time period, Yahoo did not crash.

Did you follow thoroughly the instruction or steps in enabling or disabling services items while on clean boot?

Step 2: Enable half of the Services items

 1. Click the Services tab, and then click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box.
 2. Click to select half of the check boxes in the Services list.
 3. Click OK.
 4. When you are prompted, click Restart

You will know with some items disabled that Yahoomessenger crashes or not. By enabling each or two services on every reboot and causes your Ymess to malfunction during this troubleshooting, you will know what service needs to be disabled or reinstalled. Follow the complete guidelines on the given link and post what is causing the issue.

Did you follow thoroughly the instruction or steps in enabling or disabling services items while on clean boot?You will know with some items disabled that Yahoomessenger crashes or not. By enabling each or two services on every reboot and causes your Ymess to malfunction during this troubleshooting, you will know what service needs to be disabled or reinstalled. Follow the complete guidelines on the given link and post what is causing the issue.

Yes, I followed your directions to the T.

I will do the more extensive boot process soon. Thank you.

Right now, I have the following services running (exluding MS):

Intel(R) Matrix Storage Event Monitor
LightScribeService Direct Disc Labeling Service
MBAMService
NMSAccessU
TVersityMediaServer

Any of the recent process enabled or checked from the services list would be causing the yahoo messenger crashes.

Any of the recent process enabled or checked from the services list would be causing the yahoo messenger crashes.

Okay. With three of those services still running, Yahoo has crashed three times tonight. The three services:

Intel
Mbam
TVersity

I closed Intel now, too. I also updated TVersity, but that did not change the error. Moreover, I've had Tversity for about...5 years now and have not had any problems. I've also had it installed for two years on this computer and did not have these problems with Yahoo till a few months ago.

Leave one unchecked and two with checkmarks alternately on those 3 services and lets see what particular software/component it causes yahoo to crash.

With MBamService and TVersity checked, Intel unchecked, my Yahoo crashed after two, five hour stretches where it didn't. I was beginning to hope I found the problem, too.

Update: It crashed -twice-. Not more than ten minutes apart. After not crashing for ten hours cumulatively. What the heck?

I'll be trying it with just Intel and TVersity while I sleep in a few hours. If it still crashes here, it'd single out Malware Bytes (?!) as the culprit.

Thanks so much for all your help here.