I have a new Gateway dual core, 1GB, WinXP Media Edition pile of junk. After booting up, it it becomes mostly unusable within a couple of hours due to Win Explorer gobbling up more than 50% of CPU resources. Re-booting calms the beast down for another couple of hours. After customer support could not resolve my problem, I painstakingly re-formatted and re-installed Win XP. The same problem returned. Please note that this is not due to a virus, adware or other nasty. Also note that it is not due to a corrupt .AVI file. The few I have are stored on a separate disc, play good, and not accessed when the problem occurs. I tried using a windows explorer replacement, but can't access my desktop or other programs. Hitting the windows logo flag thing does nothing. If nothing can fix this, do you know of a Win Explorer replacement that will let me access all programs and my desktop.

Hi Aaron, welcome to the PCHF!

How long does the CPU usage go up to 50%? It shouldn't be that noticeable for you if you have dual cores. Infact, it shouldn't be noticeable at all unless you're sitting there like a hawk watching it.

What are you generally doing with your computer when it happens?

I don't have to be doing anything in particular. The only time I take a look at it
is when my 'pooter gets so sluggish in response that it's almost unusable. Maybe it's not explorer's fault but something else??? Can you suggest what else I can investigate when it happens again? I just re-booted again so it'll occur within the next 2 hours.

From what you're describing...it sounds like malware..why are you saying that it's not?

A patch/file that you've saved from your previous install may be causing it...

I hope it is, but I don't understand how a re-formatted, re-installed XP OS
can still be infected. The only programs I added after the clean install were:
adaware
spybot
windows defender
spyware blaster
getright download mgmr
adaware

Unfortunatly just being on the internet these days can infect your pc....which is a bit sad

It could be just that one of the programs you've got there is being set to a full system scan...and you weren't aware of it?

I'll check...thanks for the suggestion.