[XP Pro] Explorer.exe and CPU usage Issues

[tangents]

Specs: Windows XP Pro w/SP1; 1.5 Gig of Ram; AMD 3000 XP; 60 GB HDD.

Problem: Recently my computer started to run EXTREMELY slow. So I ran the usual virus scanner, adware, spybot, registry checker, and even defragemented, but I still couldn't fix the problem. When I press ctr-alt-del and under processes it shows that explorer.exe is using 99% of CPU usuge. Well since explorer is sucking my CPU I cant open any application because they take long periods of time to open as my CPU is for some odd reason devoting all its power to explorer. So anyway I click end process of explorer.exe; my icons go away etc but I am able to run programs and things at my normal speeds. But on occasion if I have more than one program up, the same thing happens of my CPU devoting all its usuge to one application, causing the others to "not respond". I know the best thing would be reformat, But I really hate doing that for every little problem I encounter. Any Ideas What's going on? Is my HDD integrity messed up? Windows corrupted?

[zjatkop]

got almost the same annoying problem since I'm using windows xp professional
before I used home and I didn't have these kinds of problems
tried the same things as you did, and I even tried formatting twice and fixing the windows install, only helped about a week, then the probs started again (they started again a few days ago: booting veeeeeeeery slowly - CPU at 100% with every program I start - can't even watch a movie in a decent way, getting desperate, really want home back, but need professional for school :<)

Specs: win XP pro with SP2, 768MB RAM, Pentium 4

anyone got an idea what this could be and how to (try to) fix this? any help is welcome and would be much appreciated

anyways, for you tangents, I would try to update my windows to service pack 2 and get the other latest updates too, might help you

[sapo_feo]

If you're running XP Pro go to the command prompt and type tasklist /svc
See if there are any strange programs running like windows.exe.
The 99% explorer.exe error is usually a virus, and even if you ran anti-spy or anti-virus it may not find it. Try running the free panda software scan at
http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/ActiveScan.htm

good luck

[NotMyBest2Day]

It won't help the startup, but for normal running and such, if you right-click on explorer.exe and change its priority to 'below normal', it'll allow your other applications to have processing priority and you'll have much better results.

However, explorer.exe shouldn't be at 100% all the time. It really does sound like a virus or something that's bad.

[Dizzious]

get your windows XP disc and install windows again - but DON'T format your hard drive.
here's what you do after your computer gets to the blue screen after you boot with the XP disc -
-go to Install Windows XP on this computer (or whatever that option is called)
-after you choose to install windows on the existing partition, hit R (i beleive it's R) to do a repair installation of windows. what this will do is reinstall only the system files - and you won't need to reinstall all of your software or back up any of your files. they'll all be excactly the same after it repairs windows.
since i really can't provide good instructions here, look for the beginners guide on here (wich i beleive Colin wrote) on how to change your motherboard without reformatting. i'm too lazy to give a link. it's in the beginners guides section.