Hello to all, my first post and its gonna be a bit long :-) I know this is a common request so hope theres someone out there that can help me. Firstly, My System: [CPU-z v1.2] Processor: Palomino AMD Athlon XP 2000+(1666.6 MHz) FSB Frequency 133.3 MHz Bus Speed 266.6 MHz Speed 1666.6 MHz (Full) Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A7V333. Chipset VIA KT266/333 AGP Data Transfert Rate 4x RAM: DRAM Size 1024 MB DRAM Frequency 133.3 MHz OS: Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (Build 2600) Now the problem; I have been having issues with the explorer.exe process, after 10 or so minutes of booting, my computer begins to lag until it takes 20 to 30 seconds to open a folder or open My Computer. Opening a folder or right-clicking on the desktop takes more seconds than it should and causes explorer.exe to shoot to 80% - 90% and even 100% as viewed in Task Manager. There doesnt appear to be any spyware there but if you have a solution to my problem, any help would be great. Secondly, If its any further help, I have also recently been recieving this following message upon booting just before Windows XP loads, I dont know if its connected to my explorer.exe problems or a seperate issue all togeather. The Boot Message: Award Medallion BIOS v6.0, An Energy Star Ally Copyright(c) 1984 - 2001, Award Software, Inc. ASUS A7V333 ACPI BIOS Revision 1005 AMD Athlon(TM) XP 2000+ Memory Test: 1048576k OK Award Plug and Play BIOS Extension v1.0A Initialise Plug and Play Cards... PNP Init Completed Trend ChipAwayVirus(R) On Gaurd Detecting Primary Master ...WDC WD1000JB-32CWE0 Detecting Primary Slave ...Maxtor 6Y120P0 Detecting Secondary Master ...Samsung DVD-ROM SD-616F Detecting Secondary Slave ...HL-DT-ST GCE-8520B Hardware Monitor Found Error. Enter Power Setup Menu for details. Press F1 to continue, DEL to enter Setupr Post Flash Utility 03/14/2002-VT8367/VT833A-A7V333 -------------------------- NB. P.M. is my main hard drive and P.S. is my second HD, the S.M. is a DVD drive [that doesnt work] and the S.S. is a CD-RW Drive. -------------------------- A final point, when I Exit explorer.exe in Task Manager by clicking End Task the CPU usage remains high, then svchost.exe begins to take up 90%+ CPU usage. Then when executing iexplorer.exe through Task Manager that process begins to max out my CPU usage. I hope all this info will help in the diagnosis. If anyone has any vague ideas/soultions that I could try I would value any response. Many Thanks.

download these three programs ad aware spybot s&d and spyware blaster. run them delete anything they find spyware possible causing the lag Athlon xp 2000+ @1.7 pc 2100 256mb ram radeon 8500 win xp home oem several other things new pc on way

Hi, I already have have Spyboy S&D installed and Ad-Aware Pro and Norton, have scanned and deleted but nothing they have deleted previously has cured the problem. It was where I looked first but on this occasion it didnt solve the problem. Thanks.

have you always had this problem or is it recent? Athlon xp 2000+ @1.7 pc 2100 256mb ram radeon 8500 win xp home oem several other things new pc on way

Hi Simon, Its been a fairly recent problem. I have had theories that its related to my power error message and case temprature or a malfunctioning fan but am unsure of the validity. Would it cause the explorer.exe process to go crazy? Any further thoughts? Thanks.

Hi, I have the same problem as Nexus. I formatted and re-installed Windows Xp about 3 weeks ago. About 4 days ago explorer.exe began to take up all the CPU processing power. If I kill the process and run it afterwards it stays okay for about 10 minutes or so. I have scanned with ad-aware and McAfee. Please help!

My fix was to create a new log in account. The new one is fine. Bringing over my email and other files is sure a pain though.