Toshiba Tecra M4 dual processor 1GB RAM 100Gb HDD.
XP Pro SP3; Trend Micro IS 2007; a-squared antimalware
I have scanned the entire PC with the latest updates of all the above and found nothing that might indicate the problem described below.
Symptom: its another High CPU usage problem but does not seem to be the same as others that have been reported. Basically everything works fine [well the PC seems a little sluggish sometimes taking ages (2 - 3 secs!") to perform a trivial task (e.g. show the dialog box after File->Save)].
Then (for no apparent reason) one application (usually windows explorer) will start to run the CPU flat out. It actually shows in task manager as one CPU locked at 50% and the other behaving normally but the computer behaves as if both CPUs are running flat out (sluggish, takes ages to open a new window etc) In fact the only thing that works well is Alt-Tab to move between processes (much faster than clicking a window of a background process).
If Task Manager is used to terminate the process things usually go back to normal but you have to wait 5 minutes before starting up explorer again or it will just lock up once more.
Sometimes, it is almost impossible to fix the problem with out switching off. In this situation, every time you terminate a 50% CPU process another process goes to 50%. Even shut down does not work with each running process in turn going to 50% (well I got bored after 5 or 6 and pulled the plug!!)
The normal culprits are explorer, Firefox (v3) and Outlook but it seems it can happen to anything especially after terminating a process with Task Mgr.
I have restored an image from July 2007 (when I did not have the problem) and the problem seemed to go away) I then let the various automatic updating processes (Windows Update, Software Update etc) loose. Shortly after that the problem started again.
I am running:
Trend Micro Internet security 2007 but disabling that did not seem to help
Spigot Search and Destroy but I have uninstalled that (no change)
A-squared anti malware
It seems as if an update is causing this but short of rebuilding, updating one at a time with a days testing in between I am never going to find which. Has anyone got any ideas where I might start.
TFAI
R
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