Something is hijacking explorer

Why does it just so happen that i have to reinstall Vista RC1 every three
days? Because on the third day, every time the computer is started, it
renders itself unusable by way of 100% CPU usage. I finally checked on the
problem, using sysinternal process explorer, and sure enough, explorer.exe
takes up 90% of the CPU. It only starts doing this after about three days.
Everytime the computer starts it automatically gets slammed to 100% usage,
and this is an AMD Athlon 64, not some junk. After about twenty minutes
explorer.exe will calm down to 4% like it should, until i open any folder
then it shoots right back up to 100%. It is NOT hardware related as it works
fine for three days. My index rating is 4.1 and all drivers are updated and
perfect, so there is no way it is hardware related. Any one else having this
explorer.exe problem? And yes all software i am using is on the compatibility
list with the latest updates.

John
Sun Dec 31 08:36:53 CST 2006

I had a similar situation after installing and uninstalling a program. In
my case I reinstalled RC1 but didn't reinstall that program and everything
has been fine in that regards since. Sorry I don't remember what program it
was, but probably wasn't the same as yours. Just a flash from the past,
being able to run on its own and being compatible doesn't mean it isn't
software related, as sometimes a combination of programs will cause problems
the individual programs don't cause. Also, hardware drivers aren't
necessarily immune either. Numerous times this group has had posters find
that their systems would work with earlier drivers (BIOS's too) and wouldn't
work with the latest.
Have you adjusted any of the indexing settings? Maybe scheduled something?
When explorer is doing this is the I/O count incrementing wildly with disk
activity? What happens when you use task manager and stop explorer.exe and
on the applications page, restart it? I had to do that with XP at one time.
Just a couple of ideas. Others may have better ideas, but it will probably
just require you to isolate the problem in the usual manner, one piece of
hardware and one program at a time.

"Boboba" <Boboba@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:EDD3BAB9-0114-466C-9035-ABFCDAD2B472@microsoft.com...
> Why does it just so happen that i have to reinstall Vista RC1 every three
> days? Because on the third day, every time the computer is started, it
> renders itself unusable by way of 100% CPU usage. I finally checked on the
> problem, using sysinternal process explorer, and sure enough, explorer.exe
> takes up 90% of the CPU. It only starts doing this after about three
> days.
> Everytime the computer starts it automatically gets slammed to 100% usage,
> and this is an AMD Athlon 64, not some junk. After about twenty minutes
> explorer.exe will calm down to 4% like it should, until i open any folder
> then it shoots right back up to 100%. It is NOT hardware related as it
> works
> fine for three days. My index rating is 4.1 and all drivers are updated
> and
> perfect, so there is no way it is hardware related. Any one else having
> this
> explorer.exe problem? And yes all software i am using is on the
> compatibility
> list with the latest updates.

Boboba
Sun Dec 31 17:32:00 CST 2006


I have a feeling that it has something to do with the indexing service. When
i restart the exploer.exe process it comes right back at around 90%cpu usage.
However, the I/O flow remains fairly constant.
"John Barnes" wrote:

> I had a similar situation after installing and uninstalling a program. In
> my case I reinstalled RC1 but didn't reinstall that program and everything
> has been fine in that regards since. Sorry I don't remember what program it
> was, but probably wasn't the same as yours. Just a flash from the past,
> being able to run on its own and being compatible doesn't mean it isn't
> software related, as sometimes a combination of programs will cause problems
> the individual programs don't cause. Also, hardware drivers aren't
> necessarily immune either. Numerous times this group has had posters find
> that their systems would work with earlier drivers (BIOS's too) and wouldn't
> work with the latest.
> Have you adjusted any of the indexing settings? Maybe scheduled something?
> When explorer is doing this is the I/O count incrementing wildly with disk
> activity? What happens when you use task manager and stop explorer.exe and
> on the applications page, restart it? I had to do that with XP at one time.
> Just a couple of ideas. Others may have better ideas, but it will probably
> just require you to isolate the problem in the usual manner, one piece of
> hardware and one program at a time.
>
> "Boboba" <Boboba@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:EDD3BAB9-0114-466C-9035-ABFCDAD2B472@microsoft.com...
> > Why does it just so happen that i have to reinstall Vista RC1 every three
> > days? Because on the third day, every time the computer is started, it
> > renders itself unusable by way of 100% CPU usage. I finally checked on the
> > problem, using sysinternal process explorer, and sure enough, explorer.exe
> > takes up 90% of the CPU. It only starts doing this after about three
> > days.
> > Everytime the computer starts it automatically gets slammed to 100% usage,
> > and this is an AMD Athlon 64, not some junk. After about twenty minutes
> > explorer.exe will calm down to 4% like it should, until i open any folder
> > then it shoots right back up to 100%. It is NOT hardware related as it
> > works
> > fine for three days. My index rating is 4.1 and all drivers are updated
> > and
> > perfect, so there is no way it is hardware related. Any one else having
> > this
> > explorer.exe problem? And yes all software i am using is on the
> > compatibility
> > list with the latest updates.
>
>

R
Sun Dec 31 21:16:13 CST 2006

Hi, Boboba.

> on the third day, every time the computer is started, it
> renders itself unusable by way of 100% CPU usage.

Most likely that's the Indexing Service running so that future Search
operations will be near-instantaneous. This frequent 100% CPU usage problem
will probably continue for several days until your Index is finally
complete. Then it will occur only occasionally and briefly as you add new
indexable files to your hard drive. If you have a lot of email and news
files or many documents or other files suitable for indexing, the process
could go on for a long time.

I'm happy to report that this problem has almost disappeared with Vista RTM.
My computer (also an Athlon 64) was so slow using several of the beta builds
that it was almost unusable, and several other testers reported the same
frustration. We found partial relief by turning off the Indexing Service or
by assigning it a lower priority in Task Manager, but the slowdowns - often
full stops for minutes at a time! - were still bad.

I've been using a fresh install of Vista Ultimate x64 for about 2 weeks now
on my new AMD 64 X2. The Indexing Service took about a week to index about
100 GB of files on my 3 HDs. It was a great relief last week when I clicked
Start | Control Panel | Indexing Options and saw, "1,037,694 items indexed.
Indexing complete." Now there are only occasional interruptions to update
the index, probably for the hundreds of new emails and newsgroup posts that
arrive each day.

While waiting for RTM, you should NOT reinstall Vista RC1 to try to cure
this problem. It will just make it worse because the new installation will
have to start the index from scratch again! Either turn the Indexing
Service off and live without it until you get RTM, or reduce the priority in
Task Manager. Or let it run overnight or at other times when your computer
is idle so that it can complete the index. And then enjoy the instant
searches that all the Vista reviewers like so much. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista Ultimate x64)

"Boboba" <Boboba@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:EDD3BAB9-0114-466C-9035-ABFCDAD2B472@microsoft.com...
> Why does it just so happen that i have to reinstall Vista RC1 every three
> days? Because on the third day, every time the computer is started, it
> renders itself unusable by way of 100% CPU usage. I finally checked on the
> problem, using sysinternal process explorer, and sure enough, explorer.exe
> takes up 90% of the CPU. It only starts doing this after about three
> days.
> Everytime the computer starts it automatically gets slammed to 100% usage,
> and this is an AMD Athlon 64, not some junk. After about twenty minutes
> explorer.exe will calm down to 4% like it should, until i open any folder
> then it shoots right back up to 100%. It is NOT hardware related as it
> works
> fine for three days. My index rating is 4.1 and all drivers are updated
> and
> perfect, so there is no way it is hardware related. Any one else having
> this
> explorer.exe problem? And yes all software i am using is on the
> compatibility
> list with the latest updates.