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Thread ID: 55708 2005-03-17 11:28:00 explorer laging CPU mem Phoenix-Wolf (7452) Press F1
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335152 2005-03-17 11:28:00 Greetings all


I have been having this problem for some time now:

Here is the problem. Every once in a while explorer.exe starts to use all of my CPU memory (space) here is how I know this. When my pc starts to lag (lock-up) I press ctl+alt+del of course all of you know what this does (on windows xp that is) it opens up windows task manager now under the (processes) tab (a dangerous place to go if you do not know what you are doing) <at least to a degree> anyway here we find a list of programs with what they are using.

Image Name = Name of program
User Name = the user that the program belongs to
CPU = amount of CPU space that is being used for the program
Mem Usage = Amount of Ram that is being used for the program.

In here I can find the amount of CPU memory being used, if it is System Idle Process using 91 or so then there is no problem of course going here when that is the case the pc is doing fine. However when explorer.exe is using a lot like 85-91 or more it locks up and I can’t do a thing. But restart my pc.

Note: this is not IE when IE is having problems all I do is close it even if it is in the same tab (processes) where I close it down. All that happens is my screen just shows the wallpaper and nothing else for a few seconds then everything loads up again. However if I did the same thing to explorer.exe every thing save the wallpaper is off. (So the best thing for me to do is to restart my pc.

Now I have told you the problem a little history is in order

This has happened within the last 3-4 months at least I think so. I also formatted my pc about a month ago. Give or take a weak. And then I reinstalled windows.

Now for the computer spec

Windows XP pro. SP1 (updated to SP2) by net
AMD Athlon 1.6 Ghz
DDR 512 MB
V-Card 128 DDR
2 Hdd first is 40GB second is 80 windows is on the 40 the other is for storage

Other programs

2 P2P file sharing programs.
shareaza
LimeWire
(I have read about them in unrelated forms to see how good they are and to see if they have any spy-ware there were a lot of users that say they do not have spy-ware. (non the less I do have a spy-ware scanner) 2 actually
So I periodically clean-up my system. (if any of you know of some really good anti spy ware programs then please tell me there name or there website.
Now to answers some questions or (what you may think it is at this time)

I have closed both programs + several others when it started to lag but to no avail.

McAfee
Registry Mechanic

Now I did have several others but when I have not put them back on yet.

I do believe this is all the relevant stuff that you need to know.

Any Ideas?

Thank you for taking your time to read this. 		Phoenix-Wolf (7452)
335153 2005-03-17 11:48:00 Go here and download this program, it may give you more information on what is happenning on your system:

www.sysinternals.com 		zqwerty (97)
335154 2005-03-17 12:40:00 When you get the program going, check System Information, the third tag along, the green one. zqwerty (97)
335155 2005-03-17 20:10:00 You don't mention whether you have installed a third-party firewall. If you do not have one I would recommend that you install one and watch what traffic is asking to go out.

Secondly go to this site (www.blackviper.com) and check out the services that are running on your computer. Specifically have a look at Number Two. 		FoxyMX (5)
335156 2005-03-17 22:25:00 You don't mention whether you have installed a third-party firewall. If you do not have one I would recommend that you install one and watch what traffic is asking to go out.

Secondly go to this site (www.blackviper.com) and check out the services that are running on your computer. Specifically have a look at Number Two.


ok I went and tweaked my computer a bit.

and as for Firewall I have a router that has a firewall (is that enuf or do I need a firewall program?) 		Phoenix-Wolf (7452)
335157 2005-03-17 22:37:00 ok I went and tweaked my computer a bit.

and as for Firewall I have a router that has a firewall (is that enuf or do I need a firewall program?)

well think about it. the router stops some unwanted stuff coming in but dosn't stop anything from going out.
you need someway of contolling what programs (including unwanted and unknown programs) have access to the net.
software firewalls with application controll are about the only thing that does that for a home user. 		tweak'e (69)
335158 2005-03-17 22:40:00 I installed X-Setup Pro and under explorer settings I use a separate process for each instance of explorer. "Explorer.exe" is used for the main windows interface as well as browsing for files on the drive. Launching a separate process when browsing makes your PC more stable. Note browsing for files includes instances when Word or Excel are searching for files too. KiwiTT_NZ (233)
335159 2005-03-17 22:46:00 kiwitt nz..... is the seperate process you mention the "browse in new process" setting ?? tweak'e (69)
335160 2005-03-17 22:55:00 In X-Setup Pro

Appearance -> Explorer -> Settings (Advanced) -> Explorer Separate Process

"In Windows, Explorer is used as file manager and as the shell (the interface to Windows). Because of this, crashing the file manager also crashes your shell.

By activating this option, Windows uses an seperate process for each task which is a good idea if stability is your goal, but a bad one if you have few memory (two programs use more memory)." 		KiwiTT_NZ (233)
335161 2005-03-17 23:02:00 o i see.....its an NT only one. there is a one with a similar name for 9x :) tweak'e (69)
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