Explorer dies on XP Pro in a Windows 2003 network

I have two Windows XP SP3 workstations, one of them is recently freshly installed. The workstations are connected to a Windows 2003 server with a cabled local network.

The problem I have is that after a random time (varying from 2 minutes to several hours) the explorer hangs on one of the workstations. Explorer does not hang simultaneously on both systems.

Running Process Monitor does not reveal anything special going on in Explorer, but everything freezes until Explorer is killed.

This problem must be a network and/or 2003 server problem.

What I need is a method to find the cause. The Win2003 logs, including the Kerio firewall log, do not reveal anything special when the Explorer hangs.

I understand there can be a plethora of possible causes: so I would be grateful for a method or a tool to diagnose this problem. I simply do not know where to start.

Problem solved? I have powered down one of the PC's (the one which was to be replaced). Since then the other PC has not given me any trouble. I must assume in some way the first PC made trouble on the network. At least one thing I noticed was that network traffic (like copying files) was painfully slow on that machine. However, the network interface cannot have been the problem, since it occurred with a 1 GB interface card and with the built-in 100 MB network interface. I'm still puzzled. But I want to thank all you contributers for thinking with me. It was much appreciated.

I've seen this happen with duplicate hostname and / or IP addresses.

Rocky: Are these clean installs of Windows XP SP3, or have you installed third-party software? If so, what have you installed? (I'm thinking specifically of anti-virus software, but it could be anything-- drivers, etc).

It sounds like a Shell Extension is running amok, but I can't substantiate that. It really could be just ab out anything.

I'd be curious to see what the call stack looks like when Explorer "hangs". Process Explorer can get you that information. If you can get a reasonable terse log from Process Monitor to post somewhere I'd be glad to take a look.