Taskbar / Windows Explorer Freezes

[josh1524]

Every once in a while, my taskbar freezes and loses all functionality. I double click on it, and a box comes up and says Windows Explorer has stopped working. I reset Windows Explorer. Sometimes it works after resetting, sometimes it doesn't.

The freezing seems to happen most either when I plug my laptop in to its power supply (or when I unplug it) or when I click a link that takes me to a Youtube video.

Last time it happened when I went on youtube. I tried the double click and reset a couple times and it wouldn't reset in full either time, especially in the lower right corner where the clock is. It would reset, but the only icons that would appear were the battery and the clock. I just ignored the problem for awhile and kept on with my usual web browsing routine. About 5 minutes later, I clicked on another link to youtube and magically all the lower right icons appeared that should normally.

I've also found it works to restart my computer (or hibernate), and the taskbar returns to normal, but its a pain to do that every time. It seemed to happen after installing a Windows Update a while back, but I don't remember which update it was or when I installed the update.

Any solutions??

EDIT: After looking at Problem Reports and Solutions, it started July 3, and has happened a total of 114 times since then.

HERE IS THE LOGGED REPORT OF THE LATEST ONE

Product
Windows Explorer

Problem
Stopped responding and was closed

Date
8/8/2008 5:38 PM

Status
Report Sent

Description
A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: AppHangXProcB1
Application Name: Explorer.EXE
Application Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Application Timestamp: 47918e5d
Hang Signature: 7ce1
Hang Type: 128
Waiting on Application Name: svchost.exe:AudioClientRpc
Waiting on Application Version: 0.0.0.0
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Hang Signature 1: 9224369711237709974176f646a5196a
Additional Hang Signature 2: 0c9f
Additional Hang Signature 3: a56c4207c57f0df533c0ba603853928d
Additional Hang Signature 4: 7ce1
Additional Hang Signature 5: 9224369711237709974176f646a5196a
Additional Hang Signature 6: 0c9f
Additional Hang Signature 7: a56c4207c57f0df533c0ba603853928d

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 157806391

[josh1524]

Anybody at all?

Also, I don't think its related, but for some reason, I can't hibernate, sleep, or shut down my laptop when its plugged in, but it works fine when unplugged. Any reason behind that?

[mentormatt8]

I got the same problem. Every time vista comes out of hybernate on my Acer laptop (vista home premium) explorer.exe and taskbar is "busy" or hung or non-responsive. For about 1-3 minutes after that it returns to normal. Very annoying. Any solutions??
Matt