Computer Issue\ - Lag - Extreme CPU Usage - Programs Freezing

[aspinn]

Im not sure if this is the right forum -.- realyl had a hard time nagigating lol (as you can see im new to forums)

Im having issues with my laptop... im finding that its CPU usage is running insanely high even when i dont have anything running.... it has been running at 30-60% (jumps) leveling out at 40%.... which for me causes intense computer lag and only allows me to open 1 or two programs.

Becuase of this i often have my internet, windows media player or whatever else i may be running at the time freeze up and crash (forcing me to end task).... even then after i have end the tasks of this i have sideaffects and my entire computer crawls enless i restart..... even then it still is laggy


When i look at my proccess i notice the main cause of this problem is that my Explorer.exe (NOT iexplorer.exe) is taking up 15-25% of my cpu... This WAS NOT happening a few weeks ago.... My CPU usuage was always in the 3-8% when nothin is running and i was able to run multple programs included photoshop CS2 (which i had to unload from my computer because it no longer runs anymore) with programs behind it... in total i was able to run 4-5 firefox tads, windows media player and photoshop CS2 with VERY little lag.... now i am only able to keep 1 program open and if i attempt to oopen more my computer freezes up..... i tried everything i culd think of to solve this problem, i even restarted my computer to its factory defualts and STILL the dam thing keeps running so high.....

My question is.... does anyone have any idea why this is happening? could my proccessor or ram be damaged and would that have been caucing this itnence system lag/cpu shortage..... becuase evem after i reinstall everything over and over it STILL occurs. Well leme know and if there is any information i can provide then let me know that too thanks!

oh btw im using an

-------------------------------------------​

Acer aspire 3620 (laptop)

Windows XP Home Eddition (SP2)
Intel{R} Celeron{R} M Proccessor 1.50GHz
504mb of ram


And thank you for reading all that... leme know if you have any ideas! thx!



Also forgive me i am VERY VERY new when it comes to computers so if you could explain in detial i would apperciate... im still a noob when it comes to this lol =) thank you!

 

[ski]

Update your AV program, and remove any viruses. Also, remove any malware with Ad-Aware, Spybot, and Hijack This.

 

[BionicJohn]

Your laptop is not much above the minimum spec for PhS CS2 and WinXP, so it's going work hard at the best of times.

Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and click on the "Processes" tab. Click on the "CPU" heading to put the processes in numerical % order.

Report back on anything which is very high.

Do you have McAfee AV installed?

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[PRPhx]

Also download, install and run the following programs (all are free):

1) CCLeaner - will cleaner your hd and system registry of junk you don't need.

2) AUSLogics registry defrag - more indepth registry cleaner

3) AUSLogics disk defragger - works better than the defrag program included with XP.

After running the above programs, open a command prompt and run the following: chkdsk c: /r and press the return key. Press the y key (to run chkdsk at next boot up). Then reboot your pc.

The above should help you get some performance back. Like SlimJohn stated, 512 mb of RAM is barely enough, but if your pc ran fine before, it should run fine now.

Also, make sure that you have all the service packs in place. MS knows of this condition and recommends all patches and sp's be installed.

IF your laptop still is using a lot of cpu, you may have a trojan and you'll need to do some further investigating. Do a google search for Explorer.exe.

 

[dglienna]

Contact a pro, to save yourself headaches. Good to have someone to call when you have a question.

-David
2006 & 2007 Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP)
2006 Dell Certified System Professional (CSP)

 

[kiddpete]

Try disconnecting it from the internet. If it speeds up shortly after the disconnect, you've got a nasty like a keylogger or trojan on your system.

 

[firewolfrl]

run Process Explorer

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

you can see what is loading and running in the explorer.exe

lots of programs run in the explorer.exe mode and just seeing explorer.exe in the task manager is not good enough to figure out the actual process that is running.
you could have a legitimate program running or you could have some spyware/adware running. Process Explorer will tell you what is running within the explorer.exe and even give an option to shut down temporally the program with in explorer.exe

hey its worth a shot

good luck