Hey all. I know that this has been dealt with before but I have been riding the 100% usage for about a month now and would really like to know how to fix the problem. I have tried almost all of the methods out there. I have stopped the "explorer.exe" process in the task manager and then retyped it in "start new process". No dice. I have scanned and scanned and scanned in safe mode with sys restore disabled. No dice. I do not believe there is a driver conflict. Any help would be most appreciated. I have a hijack this file if it is needed. Thanks. virtue is not what we do but who we are.

just a thought, but it is what I would do to get more of a lead on the problem. Download a copy of Process Explorer from SysInternals and run it from boot to see exactly what is using the processor time. Chances are it is a svchost, but whatever, it will pinpoint the offender so that you can work on from there.

Download a copy of Process Explorer from SysInternals and run it from boot to see exactly what is using the processor time I need it in laymans terms. I am new to this area of life. I only use my PC for writing papers, email, and playing games. Thanks virtue is not what we do but who we are.

It's also possible that it's a trojan. There is a trojan which opens a process called explorer.exe. I had it once myself. Do a search with Google to find out about it. You can also check this page out: http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/explorer/

autumntree go to http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html that will tell you about Process Explorer and enable you to download the correct version for your system. When you unzip it you can access it by clicking on the .exe. If you tick 'replace Task Manager' in the options menu and then press on Ctrl-Alt_Del after you have booted, it will bring up the active processes and you can see which one is taking the processor time. Hover over the highlighted process and it will tell you what it is. If it turns out to be DNS, disabling that service will probably solve your problem. If you want more help PM me and I will give you my e-mail. Not that I am a guru, but maybe I know more than you do, and am happy to share.

Pawz, So I have downloaded both the wintasks 5 pro and the process explorer and it all pretty much looks like sanscrit to me. So a little more help would be great. On the the process "explorer.exe" When I hover over it in process explorer I give me nothing. I double click on it and I am looking at sanscrit again. Although, what you said about DNS has some relevance. When I double click on explorer.exe in process explorer, and then go to the "threads" tab it said that i needed to download something. My firewall popped up and asked me if I should allow or block and it was a DNS. However, since I cannot disable explorer.exe without thereby rendering windows useless, I need to know what specifically I should disable. Please help. ps. I tried to PM you and the site would not let me. virtue is not what we do but who we are.

autumntree. When you first bring up process explorer, after booting, look in the white, pink and blue sections and notice the right hand column of numbers in which you will see values appearing and disappearing and changing. These represent the cpu usage. The maximum value would be 99.something. If a process is hogging the resources ( as they say) you will see that something with a high value next to it, and that value will stay there for some time. If you CAN identify a particular process doing the hogging, then click on it to highlight it, hover the mouse over it and it will tell you the name. Once you have an identity we can begin to figure out what to do about it. You do not need to download anything at this stage, so please thank your firewall for being so sharp and forget about the download thing until ( we hope) the culprit is clearly identified. Incidentally, if you should 'lose' explorer and find yourself looking at a desktop with no taskbar, press the three keys Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up Task Manager, click on New Task and type explorer.exe in the little box, click on OK, and you should be back in business.