SLOW notebook, CPU at 100% all the time, explorer.exe hogging CPU

[Guest]

Using an Inspiron 2200. I have a 1.4GHz processor (Intel Celeron M). I use
WinXP Home. 20GB hard drive (I know it's small but I have 300+ GB worth of
externals, but that's besides the point, or is it?). 1.24GB of RAM. I have
every spyware and adware program on earth (the legit ones like Ad-aware and
Spyware Sweeper) and I run them regularly. I have a paid subscription to
Norton Internet Security, and I use it. I defrag and empty my temp files
regularly. I usually have Adobe Photoshop CS2 (and work with very large
graphics), Microsoft Outlook, AIM and a web browser or two open regularly
with my high speed internet connected. Task Manager tells me on average I
have 35-45 processes running at any given time.

My CPU usage is usually at 100%, which is NOT right. In task manager the
process that is hogging anywhere from 95-100% of my CPU is explorer.exe

EVERYTHING I do lately takes forever to load, and sometimes just locks up.
Especially when using Outlook, and when loading large files into Adobe. It's
getting really bad and I don't know what to do to speed things up. Buy and
install a better processor? Is it a virus? My drivers? Should my on-board
hard drive be larger? Memory optimizer programs don't really do the trick,
but something tells me that my memory isn't a problem and that it is my CPU
and explorer.exe

PLEASE HELP!

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Using an Inspiron 2200. I have a 1.4GHz processor (Intel Celeron M).
I use WinXP Home. 20GB hard drive (I know it's small but I have 300+
GB worth of externals, but that's besides the point, or is it?).
1.24GB of RAM. I have every spyware and adware program on earth (the
legit ones like Ad-aware and Spyware Sweeper) and I run them
regularly. I have a paid subscription to Norton Internet Security,
and I use it. I defrag and empty my temp files regularly. I usually
have Adobe Photoshop CS2 (and work with very large graphics),
Microsoft Outlook, AIM and a web browser or two open regularly with
my high speed internet connected. Task Manager tells me on average I
have 35-45 processes running at any given time.

My CPU usage is usually at 100%, which is NOT right. In task manager
the process that is hogging anywhere from 95-100% of my CPU is
explorer.exe

EVERYTHING I do lately takes forever to load, and sometimes just
locks up. Especially when using Outlook, and when loading large files
into Adobe. It's getting really bad and I don't know what to do to
speed things up. Buy and install a better processor? Is it a virus?
My drivers? Should my on-board hard drive be larger? Memory optimizer
programs don't really do the trick, but something tells me that my
memory isn't a problem and that it is my CPU and explorer.exe

Uninstall NIS.
See if that alone helps.

 

[Guest]

You have a PC with a 20 G hard drive and over 1 G of RAM? I would guess a PC
with a small hard drive would have 128 M of RAM, barely enough to run Win XP.
You sure about the RAM? Open "My Computer". Right click on the white field
and click "properties". (If you haven't already!)