Explorer.exe causing 100% cpu utilization, need to re-install expl

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff
  • Start date Start date
J

Jeff

Greetings,

My environment is Windows XP SP2 with Word and Excel 2000. At random
intervals my cpu goes to 100% utilization, with explorer.exe at 75% or more.
This often happens when I open a Word document or Excel spreadsheet, but it
also happens during other regular non-cpu-intensive work. I have tried every
fix I have found online, but to no avail. I have confirmed that this isn't
spyware. I conclude that explorer.exe is broken and presume the only
solution is to re-install it. How is this done? I haven't found any
reference to this online, which is amazing. Please note my Thinkpad T43 did
not come with an XP CD, so I cannot re-install explorer.exe from that, nor
format and re-install XP (I will live with the problem before doing this, so
please don't suggest this).

Thank you.

Jeff
 
Jeff said:
My environment is Windows XP SP2 with Word and Excel 2000. At
random intervals my cpu goes to 100% utilization, with explorer.exe
at 75% or more. This often happens when I open a Word document or
Excel spreadsheet, but it also happens during other regular
non-cpu-intensive work. I have tried every fix I have found
online, but to no avail. I have confirmed that this isn't spyware.
I conclude that explorer.exe is broken and presume the only
solution is to re-install it. How is this done? I haven't found
any reference to this online, which is amazing. Please note my
Thinkpad T43 did not come with an XP CD, so I cannot re-install
explorer.exe from that, nor format and re-install XP (I will live
with the problem before doing this, so please don't suggest this).
Click to expand...


No XP CD - likely no fix without involving one.

SFC /scannow comes to mind.
 
Jeff

Instead of looking in Task Mamager try Process Explorer. CPU usage
relating explorer.exe in Task Manager may relate to a subsidiary process
where explorer.exe is acting as the parent. Thus in Process Explorer
just I had Process Explorer and Teatimer showing CPU usage which then
got repeated in explorer.exe. However, explorer.exe acts as parent for
any number of processes and you may need to dig deeper to find the cause
of the CPU usage.

For further information about Process Explorer see here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

A new addition to Process Explorer is that you can now right click on a
process and search Online for relevant information.

You should have a system disk. Read the User guide to see what you need
to do to get one. Start here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-58646

However, your CPU problem will not I suspect be resolved by reinstalling
Windows XP. You can virtually never confirm you do not have spyware.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Thanks, Gerry. I've been using Process Explorer for a few months and it's a
great tool, but your suggestions had not occurred to me, so I'll dig deeper.

If it turns out that explorer.exe is simply broken, is there a Microsoft
website where it can be downloaded and installed over my existing
explorer.exe, or is it not that simple due to explorer.exe's integration into
many XP functions?
 
Jeff

sfc / scannow is able to replace problematic or missing drivers when
they originate from Microsoft.

Instead of looking in Task Manager try Process Explorer. CPU usage
relating explorer.exe in Task Manager may relate to a subsidiary process
where explorer.exe is acting as the parent. Thus in Process Explorer
just I had Process Explorer and Teatimer showing CPU usage which then
got repeated in explorer.exe. However, explorer.exe acts as parent for
any number of processes and you may need to dig deeper to find the cause
of the CPU usage.

For further information about Process Explorer see here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

A new addition to Process Explorer is that you can now right click on a
process and search Online for relevant information.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've tried SFC/scannow but didn't find useful information.
Click to expand...
 
Jeff

Let's not try to cross bridges before we have to. The problem may well
not be anything to do with your copy of explorer.exe.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Gerry, the problem has just occurred when I opened a Word 2000 doc. Many
times its the opening of a Word 2000 or Excel 2000 file that causes this; any
possibility of a problem with these products?

Now that I've got the 100% cpu utilization, what am I looking for in Process
Explorer when I right-click explorer.exe? Which tab and what info will
direct me to the possible cause as you previously described it?

Thank you.

P.S.: I don't know why, but even though I check "Notify me of replies" I
don't get any notice.
 
Jeff

Explorer is the parent. Inset and under Explorer are the children.
When explorer shows 100% does one of the children also show usage of
100%?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Gerry, there has never been a child under explorer (no + next to it so it can
be expanded... I presume that's what you mean).
 
Jeff

There is no + in Task Manager. There should normally be a - in Process
Explorer or + if it is not expanded. The grouping of childen of explorer
on my computer is some size so I would expect a group on most computers.
It does , however, depend on what software is installed and what is in
use at the current time.

In yiour previous post you linked 100% cpu to opening a Word document.
Word will appear appear as a child of explorer whilst you have word
document open. Same applies to an excel document. However, does opening
a Word document generate 100% CPU activity for any significant period of
time? That would not be normal.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Looking in Process Explorer, right now explorer.exe is a child under
procexp.exe. I just opened Word and it is also a child under procexp.exe. I
had not noticed this before. I just opened three Word documents, attempting
to force the 100% cpu, but that didn't happen right now (of course). I just
opened four Excel spreadsheets (while keeping the Word docs open) and now
have 100% cpu with 75-85% of that going to explorer.exe. Excel is not a
child under explorer.exe, but is a child under type32.exe.

When this problem occurs, regardless of whether it's Word, Excel or some
task that drives explorer.exe and cpu to high utilization, it stays this way
until I stop explorer.exe and restart it.

I will leave this as is until I hear back from you, as I'm leaving the house
for a few hours. I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate your help.
 
Gerry, I had to open multiple Word and Excel files to get the 100% cpu and
75-85% explorer.exe use. Word is a child under explorer.exe, but Excel is a
child under type32.exe.

Once this problem occurs, cpu and explorer.exe use stays high until I kill
and then restart explorer.exe.

I've got to leave the house for a few hours, so I'll leave this as is until
I hear from you. I can't thank you enough for your help.

Jeff
 
Jeff

type32.exe is a Microsoft component of Microsoft IntellitypePro and a
child of explorer.exe on my computer. I would not expect Excel to show
as a child of type32.exe; it should show as a child of explorer.exe.

Do you use Excel and Word templates? A corrupted template can cause
unending CPU usage.

Does your anti-virus scan Excel files when they are opened?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Gerry,

I have created several Word templates, but just use the default Excel
template. Every once in a while Word asks if I want to restore the Normal
template, or something like that. Does this, and Excel not being a child of
explorer.exe, indicate likely problems with Word and Excel? Should I
re-install them?

I have the current ZoneAlarm suite and it isn't set to scan Excel or Word
 
Shenan,

At first I couldn't get scannow-sfc to run. After reading
www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html and doing several of the registry edits and
still not getting it to run, I concluded my c:/i_386 folder had corrupt
files. I borrowed an XP SP2 disc and then successfully ran scannon-sfc...
and I still get 100% cpu with explorer.exe as the culprit.

Any ideas what to try next?

Thank you.
 
i've got a similar situation where explorer is using exactly 50% of cpu utilisation. it seems to happen most (but not only) when i launch a word document.

if i subsequently close word, explorer still uses 50% of the cpu and the only way to reclaim it is to kill the explorer.exe process. i can even kill the process and leave word running, cpu goes back to 0% even after i re-run explorer.

word does show up as a child of explorer in procexp, untill i kill and re-run explorer.

i have latest norton and have run a scan.

ps it may be 50% and not 100% usage because i have a dual core cpu?
 
it was a rogue word document - first thing i noticed was that it was only one word document causing the problem, when i opened other docs the problem didn't occur. then i noticed that when the problem occurred when i hadn't opened the document, it was because i had viewed the folder (in thumbnail mode) that contained the document.
so my solution was to delete the document and berate the person who gave it to me ;)
problem solved. (silly windows/office)
 
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