XP Home "Explorer.exe" memory/proccessor Abuse... Anyone know how to fix this?

D

Denaes

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Jun 10, 2003
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Long story short, I dont use XP. Even my computers that come with XP I put my win2kpro on.

I have a laptop (Dell Inspirion 8500) with 512mb of ram. Its a P4, something like a 2,400mhz (2.4ghz)...

I recently had to put XP Home (what came with my laptop) back on the machine because I lost my keycode for win2kpro and becuase I do buisiness work (personal buisiness and for another company) on my machine I dont want to "aquire" a pirated keycode for my win2kpro. my old vendor cant get me my keycode and has no records so far back (win2kpro was an upgrade I purchased with an older computer) and Im stupid and dont have the paperwork either (lost in a move).

Well, now Im doing the same things Id do with win2kpro. Play music, web browse, program, video/dvd, accounting, etc. Only now, its slow and unresponsive.

I turned off the XP theme (the option of "Best Performance"), and eventually turned off the backup restore option.

Currently Im typing this with IE open (Firefox took too long to open) and Task Manager open to monitor my system resources. Yeah, theres a lot of crap open in the system processes, but who knows what most of it is. Never been a problem in the past.

My Explorer.exe is using 163,256k memory and alternating 96-99 CPU % as I type (apparently IE is weaseling away a % or 3 every million cycles).

This is really bothering me. I actually restarted this same laptop using win2kpro like once a month, usually resting or hybernating it for journeys.

Ive had to restart this computer 3 times in the last 4 days to get my memory back.

Its also dangerously warm and the CPU fan is constantly on. I have another fan on it, which keeps it cooler, but wont help me if I need to travel with it.

Is there something to do be to fix this error? Ive been downloading every XP patch MS offers, even really stupid ones, just in case.

I know software is getting more memory/cpu intensive, but 256 is the going memory, XP shouldnt be eating up 300mb for running itself and having IE open.

So if anyone knows of any links to fixes, or fixes themselves, Id greatly appreciate it :)
 
It sounds like a virus or something, do you recognise all the proccesses running in the box? Also, are there any extra services running?
 
I dont have a (known) virus. I googled it and it turns out to be a fairly common problem. There are numerous threads on numerous message boards dedicated to solving this problem, which go back into 2002 and 2003, so its not a new thing.

I found what could be a solution here: http://www.tweakxp.com/display.aspx?id=841

I tried it, Ill see if it works.
 
Its a gradual thing. It doesnt go from nothing to 100%

Also the AVI problem is caused because XP is defaulted to scan all media (and other known files) in a directory to give you information about them.

Yeah, I do have directories with avi files in them. I dont know if this is the total solution though.

Personally XP brings very little that I find usefull. Working with my laptops dual monitor video card, media navigation controls (sound, chapter search, etc built into the laptops body) and being able to turn the stupid touch pad off are welcome additions.

being forced to scan my external hard drive (which does contain avis) and USB memory sticks every time I put them in and ask me if I want to play everything EVERY TIME is NOT welcome and actually makes me feel violated and intruded on. I shouldnt have to click cancel 3 times whenever I insert a disk or external hard drive. I also dislike many of these scanning the folders and giving previews for everything "features".

Ill find out if this is the problem. MS aknowledged the problem a few years ago and said it would be fixed with SP1 (which is the XP Home edition I do have straight off the disk), but I do have this issue and I remember having this issue at times at work on their XP machines.

Doesnt happen at all if I just program or go on the internet, but whenever games, directory browsing, searches, installing things (possibly with avi media), soon after XP wigs out.

So far its been a few hours and no problems :)
 
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