[Resolved] Explorer using 99% of CPU usage

An interesting problem has come up recently. If I try to open My Computer to access some file or what not, instead of bringing me to the list of drives, I get a blank white space. It never loads. From here, I can Cntrl Alt Delete and clearly see that the CPU usage is at 100% and that it is Explorer that is taking up 99% of it. I end the task of opening my computer, and then I try again and everything is fine until maybe five minutes later when the problem reoccurs. I have run virus checkers and adaware and neither has shown any problem. This has just suddenly started happening out of nowhere. Does anyone know what I should do?

 

to the best of my knowledge Ad-Aware has not been updated for 6 months. Try Spybot-Search&Destroy here http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/index.html

be sure to get the latest update before you scan.

 

Actually I just downloaded and used that program - Still no improvement. The problem actually is worse than I originally stated - it occurs very often, not just when opening my computer. Sometimes Ill open internet explorer and nothing will load, etc etc. It is incredibly irritating.

 

I have the exact problem! When i go into my computer and access my d-l folder for recent d-l'ded movies and music the comp. freezes up a bit and when i go back into my computer it is unable to find the files and i get the flashlight icon. Nothing on adaware and when i ran spybot had a lot of highlighted "entries" noted but not sure what ones to "clean"?? Also ran panda w/ no results. Have other post re: this problem in this forum w/ no replies yet.

 

Yeah gooley! I first noticed this with my d-l folder and now its doing it with everything. I get the same flashlight icon. Well if you get any responses in other forums or posts please post the solution here because I can hardly do anything on my computer because of this.

 

There is an MS XP patch for the problem. But you may also want to take a look at the second link here and see if the "fix" described there might fit your particular symptoms.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;317751

http://www.windowsxpuser.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=1932&forum=11&start=0

 

Here is the solution as it is typed. I deleted the registry key and now its all working normally. Thank you Rollin' Rog for the links.

Master-J


Joined: Sep 16, 2002
Posts: 1 Posted: 2002-09-16 06:27
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i used to have the same problem - it is some kind of kernel bug. for me, the problem was triggered off when browsing and playing large .avi movie files.

if you find that the cpu starts going up to 100% when dealing with movie files, then a simple piece of registry editing can fix the problem. simply delete the following registry key:
"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler"

this bug is also in micrsoft's knowledge base and was meant to be patched up in service pack 1, so i suggest installing it if you don't have it yet, as this should also fix the problem.

 

Good to hear, and you're certainly welcome.

Gooly I hope that works for you too, from the symptoms you describe, it sounds like it should.

I'm going to put a hopeful "resolved" on this, since SOA was the original poster.

 

Here's a link to gooley's thread. He had a klez infection before this started.

http://forums.techguy.org/t115762/sab7e9082f421ad205884f612ab16e69d.html

 

i ran windows update and I have all updates. I'm not sure about exactly how to delete from the registry on xp and am worried about screwing something up. If anyone can tell me exactly how I'll give it a try and delete the HKEY......... entry.

 

Here's the best way to do it:

click Start>Run and enter regedit

You will navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler

by clicking the + signs beside

Hkey_Classes_Root
SystemFileAssociations
.avi
shellex

>> then select (highlight) PropertyHandler

>> next Click File > Export and give the file a name. Then export (save) it to a convenient location before deleting it. It can be restored later if necessary by clicking the saved .reg file

>> after saving it, Right click on the PropertyHandler folder in the left hand pane and select "Delete"

I've included a screenshot to show you what it looks like

 

my sincere thanks! your instructions were excellent and all appears to be working fine now.Not sure what i did but whatever it is it worked! Thanks again!!

 

Outstanding! Maybe we can get a "hat trick" if someone else reports success with it

 

I was losing my mind trying to get this problem fixed. I did all the xp updates defraged changed memory, etc. and nothing would work. Thank God for this post. I did what the above link said and it worked like a charm. Thanks again for the help.

 

I had the same problem discussed in this thread, however it happened when I highlighted/clicked on certain OGM files (esp. very large ones). The above fix did not work for me but I figured out a very similar one that does!

I deleted the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}\InProcServer32. (Actually I renamed it... skips the step of having to export it into a backup.) So if anyone is still having this problem, try that! Apparently Explorer tries to make a thumbnail for video files even if thumbnails aren't displayed. Ouch!

It's really scary how many things Windows does behind my back...