High CPU Utilization cause by iexplore.exe or explorer

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

ITGuy,

It soulds like you were pretty through with your diagnostics, and the only
thing I can think of trying is to try a different network card. weather its
wired ot wireless, i dont think it will matter but it would have to be pcmcia
or usb. I would also try disabling hardware devices such as modem or
existing network card.

You may also want to try running a memory tester. There was one that I had
downloaded, and it gets burnt to a cd, which is bootable, but I can not
remember what it was. If I can think of it, I'll let you know.

Good Luck!!

another ITGuy.
Rob R.

"ITGuy" wrote:

> I have a 2 yrs old laptop that for whatever reason starting about 3 weeks ago
> has a very high utilization caused by either iexplorer.exe or explorer.exe.
> Taskmgr used to be 1%, but now ranges between 5%-12% without anything running.
>
> When IE is started with home page set to blank, the CPU pegs at 100% for
> about 5-6 sec. With more complex website, it's much longer. I scanned the
> pc with spybot 1.3, symantec Corp Ed 9.0 both in normal mode and safe mode.
> System was reported clean?? I thought perhaps there is some undetected
> virus/spyware, so I bought a brand new and faster hard-drive, a 60 GB 7200
> RPM hard-drive with 8 MB of Cache. As soon as XP Pro SP2 was installed,
> nothing else was installed yet. Not even anti-virus. The same symptom was
> displayed??
>
> Another symptom is when I keep moving my mouse over IE, the util goes very
> high, about 70-80%.
>
> This is my laptop configuration: P4 M 1.7 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HD. Wireless
> is not installed yet. Never had any problem before. I first noticed the
> issue when working at a customer during a migration from Groupwise to
> Exchange. Everything was ok when for unknown reason I started having the
> symptoms described above. I am glad it was after the migration was done.
>
> Please advise.
>
> --
> Thank you,
>
> ITGuy

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Hi Rob,
Thank you. I am using the built-in network card, but I have an extra
linksys pc card wireless and I will let you know. By the way, I reformatted
my hard drive again and applied the Chipset driver from the CD that came with
the laptop. It is running better but not as good as before. I have tried
the other drivers that is in the CD as well as downloading the latest drivers
from Dell's website. The other drivers do not seem to make any difference.

I'll let you know. Thank you again,


"Rob R." wrote:

> ITGuy,
>
> It soulds like you were pretty through with your diagnostics, and the only
> thing I can think of trying is to try a different network card. weather its
> wired ot wireless, i dont think it will matter but it would have to be pcmcia
> or usb. I would also try disabling hardware devices such as modem or
> existing network card.
>
> You may also want to try running a memory tester. There was one that I had
> downloaded, and it gets burnt to a cd, which is bootable, but I can not
> remember what it was. If I can think of it, I'll let you know.
>
> Good Luck!!
>
> another ITGuy.
> Rob R.
>
> "ITGuy" wrote:
>
> > I have a 2 yrs old laptop that for whatever reason starting about 3 weeks ago
> > has a very high utilization caused by either iexplorer.exe or explorer.exe.
> > Taskmgr used to be 1%, but now ranges between 5%-12% without anything running.
> >
> > When IE is started with home page set to blank, the CPU pegs at 100% for
> > about 5-6 sec. With more complex website, it's much longer. I scanned the
> > pc with spybot 1.3, symantec Corp Ed 9.0 both in normal mode and safe mode.
> > System was reported clean?? I thought perhaps there is some undetected
> > virus/spyware, so I bought a brand new and faster hard-drive, a 60 GB 7200
> > RPM hard-drive with 8 MB of Cache. As soon as XP Pro SP2 was installed,
> > nothing else was installed yet. Not even anti-virus. The same symptom was
> > displayed??
> >
> > Another symptom is when I keep moving my mouse over IE, the util goes very
> > high, about 70-80%.
> >
> > This is my laptop configuration: P4 M 1.7 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HD. Wireless
> > is not installed yet. Never had any problem before. I first noticed the
> > issue when working at a customer during a migration from Groupwise to
> > Exchange. Everything was ok when for unknown reason I started having the
> > symptoms described above. I am glad it was after the migration was done.
> >
> > Please advise.
> >
> > --
> > Thank you,
> >
> > ITGuy

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Hi Rob,
It turned out that one of the dual-fan failed (found out after running
diags). I just replaced it today and the laptop worked like a champ again.


"ITGuy" wrote:

> Hi Rob,
> Thank you. I am using the built-in network card, but I have an extra
> linksys pc card wireless and I will let you know. By the way, I reformatted
> my hard drive again and applied the Chipset driver from the CD that came with
> the laptop. It is running better but not as good as before. I have tried
> the other drivers that is in the CD as well as downloading the latest drivers
> from Dell's website. The other drivers do not seem to make any difference.
>
> I'll let you know. Thank you again,
>
>
> "Rob R." wrote:
>
> > ITGuy,
> >
> > It soulds like you were pretty through with your diagnostics, and the only
> > thing I can think of trying is to try a different network card. weather its
> > wired ot wireless, i dont think it will matter but it would have to be pcmcia
> > or usb. I would also try disabling hardware devices such as modem or
> > existing network card.
> >
> > You may also want to try running a memory tester. There was one that I had
> > downloaded, and it gets burnt to a cd, which is bootable, but I can not
> > remember what it was. If I can think of it, I'll let you know.
> >
> > Good Luck!!
> >
> > another ITGuy.
> > Rob R.
> >
> > "ITGuy" wrote:
> >
> > > I have a 2 yrs old laptop that for whatever reason starting about 3 weeks ago
> > > has a very high utilization caused by either iexplorer.exe or explorer.exe.
> > > Taskmgr used to be 1%, but now ranges between 5%-12% without anything running.
> > >
> > > When IE is started with home page set to blank, the CPU pegs at 100% for
> > > about 5-6 sec. With more complex website, it's much longer. I scanned the
> > > pc with spybot 1.3, symantec Corp Ed 9.0 both in normal mode and safe mode.
> > > System was reported clean?? I thought perhaps there is some undetected
> > > virus/spyware, so I bought a brand new and faster hard-drive, a 60 GB 7200
> > > RPM hard-drive with 8 MB of Cache. As soon as XP Pro SP2 was installed,
> > > nothing else was installed yet. Not even anti-virus. The same symptom was
> > > displayed??
> > >
> > > Another symptom is when I keep moving my mouse over IE, the util goes very
> > > high, about 70-80%.
> > >
> > > This is my laptop configuration: P4 M 1.7 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HD. Wireless
> > > is not installed yet. Never had any problem before. I first noticed the
> > > issue when working at a customer during a migration from Groupwise to
> > > Exchange. Everything was ok when for unknown reason I started having the
> > > symptoms described above. I am glad it was after the migration was done.
> > >
> > > Please advise.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Thank you,
> > >
> > > ITGuy

I have Dell server that I am using at home as a desktop. Until 3 weeks ago, my wife's profile also experienced the same problem with the CPU utilization ramping to 100% as soon as her Yahoo mail webpage is loaded. I checked the processes and found that the IExplorer task was indicated as the culprit using up the resources. I scanned for viruses and even installed IExplorer 8 without any luck of fixing the issue. It's not possible that it is my network card because this problem does not happen on my profile on the same computer.

Try #3 & #4 below first.

The thread below from this source worked for me. Be very careful when editing the registry:

http://www.somelifeblog.com/2007/05/fixed-windows-xp-ex...


1. Virus or Spyware. This the first that that everyone points to whenever there is a problem. A couple of tools that I recommend is Grisoft's AVG Free Edition. It is a completely free and effective virus prevention software. For spyware, check out Spybot Search & Destroy -- it's an effective way to remove Spyware.
2. Windows Explorer configuration. Configure the Windows XP process explore.exe to be the most efficient. First open Windows Explorer. Next, click on Tools --> Folder Options. Click on the 'View' tab. Make sure to uncheck 'Automatically search for network folders and printers' and check 'Launch folder windows in a separate process'. Click on 'Apply'. Click on 'Apply to All Folders'. Click 'Ok'.
3. Winzip or zip functionality in Windows. Sometimes by re-registering a .dll in the Microsoft Windows XP system will fix the issue. Go to Start --> Run and enter the following command: "regsvr32 C:\windows\system32\zipfldr.dll /u"
4. There may be a bug in Windows XP that causing Windows Explorer (explore.exe) to read the entire contents of broken AVI files before allowing any access, caused by issues shmedia.dll. This problem causes Windows Explorer to read the entire contents of an AVI file, regardless of its size or location any time the mouse pointer is hovered over it, or an attempt is made to access it through Windows Explorer. This causes 'permission denied' errors when trying to simply move, copy or delete these files as they cannot be changed while Explorer has an open handle on them. To correct this misbehavior in Windows XP, remove the following registry key. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32

This will prevent Explorer from loading shmedia.dll in response to file property queries on these files. This will not affect your ability to play files, get file attributes, or even view thumbnails. This tends to resolve explorer.exe 100% CPU issues.

Another path to this fix includes resetting the values for the following two registry keys, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32 - shmedia.dll & HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler. Open up regedit. Next go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler. Then change the "Default" value which should be "87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E" to "0". Finally, reboot.
Hopefully these fixes will solve your Windows XP issues! This article was accurate at the time it was posted and the poster makes no warranties or guarantees about the contents of this article.

your the man!!!!!!! my iexplore cpu usage was up to 2ook all the time and i knew or was at least pretty darn sure that was not malware. you suggestion did the trick.
many many many thanks, larry