High CPU Utilization cause by iexplore.exe or explorer

[Guest]

I have a 2 yrs old laptop that for whatever reason starting about 3 weeks ago
has a very high utilization caused by either iexplorer.exe or explorer.exe.
Taskmgr used to be 1%, but now ranges between 5%-12% without anything running.

When IE is started with home page set to blank, the CPU pegs at 100% for
about 5-6 sec. With more complex website, it's much longer. I scanned the
pc with spybot 1.3, symantec Corp Ed 9.0 both in normal mode and safe mode.
System was reported clean?? I thought perhaps there is some undetected
virus/spyware, so I bought a brand new and faster hard-drive, a 60 GB 7200
RPM hard-drive with 8 MB of Cache. As soon as XP Pro SP2 was installed,
nothing else was installed yet. Not even anti-virus. The same symptom was
displayed??

Another symptom is when I keep moving my mouse over IE, the util goes very
high, about 70-80%.

This is my laptop configuration: P4 M 1.7 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HD. Wireless
is not installed yet. Never had any problem before. I first noticed the
issue when working at a customer during a migration from Groupwise to
Exchange. Everything was ok when for unknown reason I started having the
symptoms described above. I am glad it was after the migration was done.

Please advise.

 

[Guest]

ITGuy,

It soulds like you were pretty through with your diagnostics, and the only
thing I can think of trying is to try a different network card. weather its
wired ot wireless, i dont think it will matter but it would have to be pcmcia
or usb. I would also try disabling hardware devices such as modem or
existing network card.

You may also want to try running a memory tester. There was one that I had
downloaded, and it gets burnt to a cd, which is bootable, but I can not
remember what it was. If I can think of it, I'll let you know.

Good Luck!!

another ITGuy.
Rob R.

 

[Guest]

Hi Rob,
Thank you. I am using the built-in network card, but I have an extra
linksys pc card wireless and I will let you know. By the way, I reformatted
my hard drive again and applied the Chipset driver from the CD that came with
the laptop. It is running better but not as good as before. I have tried
the other drivers that is in the CD as well as downloading the latest drivers
from Dell's website. The other drivers do not seem to make any difference.

I'll let you know. Thank you again,

 

[Guest]

Hi Rob,
It turned out that one of the dual-fan failed (found out after running
diags). I just replaced it today and the laptop worked like a champ again.