explorer *process* is bunged :(

will my installation survive

from WinCustomize Forums
Hi all,

My computer has been freezing lately, probably some connection on the motherboard. I think I fixed that part of it, but...

During one session, it froze a number of times very quickly. During reboots, during ad-aware and virus checking sessions, etc.

It seems that now anything in the explorer *process* is verrrrrryyyyyy slow. Sys tray refreshes are slow, taskbar refreshes are slow, opening the start panel, opening windows explorer.exe (it loads quickly, but navigation is painful).

All ad-aware, spy-bot, virus scans are negative and I've used CCleaner.

Applications seem to be running well, but if I use an open/save dialog box and try navigating somewhere, it slows down. Very slow. Go make a sandwich and a cup of coffee slow.

I tried to set a restore point to a date prior to this all happening, but it didn't help. Same problems.

I REALLY don't want to have to re-install the OS, but what other options are there? Is there a way to "re-tune" the explorer process?

Is there anything I can check in the registry, are there any proggies which can do this? Does the system recovery option in the disk handle this?

**update** I just updated FastOne viewer and winamp and the installations were flawless. However, when winamp fired up, I can't do anything with it. Clicking the playlist button did nothing, media library same thing. Can't even move it around the desk top. Have no idea if this has anything to do with my problem or if winamps messed up.

Hope this isn't too much information I dl'd something using Firefox and when it was done I clicked "open folder". Explorer came right up (I performed those updates mentioned above) and while I had explorer going, I clicked the 'up' button and explorer moved up one folder level. I did this all the way up that one drive. When I clicked 'up' again it went to 'My Computer' and did it's crawling through molasses thing again.

Also, if I right click on something and my mouse hovers over the 'send to' item, I have to wait a couple of minutes before anything happens.
**end update**

Do any of you gurus have any suggestions? I really need to fix this asap.

I thank you so much in advance

David
243,920 views 103 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The first thing I do to rule out any problematic XP basic funtionality is to perform a clean boot.

You can read the knowledge base info here: WWW Link

Note - make sure to pay particular attention to the text in 'Step 5' concerning the "Load System Services" option. Disabling this one will clear all system restore points, so do not clear this one unless you have decided to do away with the system restore options for a fix.

Running XP on a clean boot (while admittedly not a visual masterpiece due to the vanilla vga drivers running) will allow you to determine whether the explorer process is being slow at the base level.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ok i'll try it

funny thing... I thought that since I thought it was explorer messing up, I'll just go into litestep. Came up great. As soon as i tried to access 'my computer'....phhhtt

Thanks and i'll get back to you. (it is booting up abnormally slow at the moment.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If you have a floppy drive try disconnecting it. I have seen instances where anytime you access the My Computer folder or open/save dialogs Windows will try to read the floppy even if there is no disk. This caused a stall until it finally decided nothing was there.

Also do you leave discs in your optical drives?
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
still working on it corky.

dragonmage: not normally, no. I have my xp install disk in there, just in case something needs to be fixed. This is not that kind of a slow down. This is a really bad, bad thing
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Have you booted into Safe Mode at any point in time, to see if things are still slow in that?
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
OMG...that was a bi***.

I was able to 'clean boot' but the problems remain.

cerebro, I will try that now.

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
currently in safe mode...no problems at all with explorer. so, what does that mean? there's a driver problem? I looked in device manager and all looked good.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
while cleaning up I found that using the 'urge' music store, wmp cached what looks like a thumbnail of every album in their database onto my c: drive
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
going to reinstall video drivers just for the heck of it
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Something is running in the background. Look in Task Manager for anything running that shouldn't be (while you're in Task Manager, see how much physical memory you're using). No luck there, turn off your security apps one at a time until your system returns to normal.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
yrag...everything looks perfectly normal, as far as normal can be in that mess. Obviously the svchost entries could be hiding anything, but there is no abnormal cpu usage, no extra memory hogs, no extra handles or gdi objects. everything looks normal. I checked taskmanager while the problem was happening, during the event, and still there was nothing odd going on.

The only extra thing I've got running is my firewall, because without it, nothing gets out. Unless I should turn off the true vector service. no anti virus or anything like that.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
werewolf, during the safe mode, try to make a deep virus and spyware scan., but just remember that some virus and spyware scanners dont scan during safe mode.., dont know why...


...btw, u can also try "Registry Mechanic" to found out if there is a bug in your registry.

Registry Mechanic
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
tycus: ok i'll give it a shot while I'm here. just dl'd the vid drivers and reg mech. lets see what happens
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Stop installing stuff or we'll never find it ......

true vector service


What version?

Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Stop installing stuff or we'll never find it ......


dont worry about installing Reg Mechanic.., this progry doesn't make any thing in the background., well., it wont do any thing unless u ask for it.., it wont load at start up, it wont do any scan unless you ask for it.., it is a passive progry...
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
btw.., if you have the system restore in active mode.., i suggest you to stop it!

System restore makes a copy of your system data (i guess), and that copy could have virus or spyware...
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Since my preference is to defer to 'yraq', I will pretty much watch the thread for the inevitable fix from 'yraq' (or at least, almost always!).

The only suggestion I would make is to record the processes running under safe mode which are listed in the task manager (assuming safe mode is just peachy). I would also say to use the 'View menu\Select Columns' option in task manager to select the 'PID' column. This will allow you to identify the various "svhost" processes which are running successfully under safe mode.

If needed, you can use this record of processes to "Not" turn off in normal mode if you go that route.

No popcorn for now.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'd follow yrag's advice...and NOT add to your woes with any new install, no matter how it's implimented.  The system clearly is choking as is...
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ok...all I installed was that reg mechanic. it gets to hkcr\ias.timofday.1 and just sits there.

i updated the vid drivers, hyperion 4in1, ran sfc /scannow still mussed.

will start listening to yrag...

TrueVector version:6.5.731.000
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'll assume that's '737'.....is it ZASS, PRO or Free?
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
i copied that version straight from the zone alarm free 'about' screen
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Oh my.........  

OK, one thing at a time. Turn off the ZA firewall (engage Windows). System Normal?
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ok...i see that there is an update available...but not going there unless you say so