Desktop folder makes desktop vanish

I have a folder (containing photos) on my Desktop that, every time I try to open it this happens: the folder opens for a split second before the screen goes blank and my desktop vanishes. The desktop then reappears over the next 20 or 30 seconds. But only about half the icons reappear first, the rest follow a few seconds later.
Eveything else works fine, it's just this one folder. I've ran umpteen virus scans and nothing comes up. Which would have been a surprise anyway. The Camera card the pics came from was fresh out of the box into the camera, and went straight from the camera into the PC. Any ideas?

Windows XP.
AMD Athlon 64 Processor
3500+
2.20 GHz, 960 MB of Ram.

 

Do you still have the photos on the card?

 

I do, yes.

 

Seems you need to delete the THUMBS.DB file from the folder, and turn of thumbnail caching. Here's how:
http://blogsofts.com/prevent-windows-xp-from-creating-the-thumbs-db-thumbnail-cache-files/

If that doesn't do it, you could try reloading the photos - maybe just one to start with and see if that works. Try loading them onto another computer as well, if possible.
Do you have other photo folders that work OK?
Did you install any new software (eg, is the camera also new, and you installed software for it)?

 

That didn't work, so I'll try reloading them. Thanks for your time.

PS: same thing happened to a friend of mine recently, so I think it's a dodgy card.