Slow Explorer

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Guest

I am having an issue on a data drive lagging when opened in explorer.exe. I
cannot tell why explorer is slow to react, and no new programs have been
added.

I have a pretty good basic understanding of this XP, but I cannot determine
the cause.

I have a P4 2.4gb cpu, 1.5gb RAM, and my performance info is as follow:

Commit Charge -
Total = 613688
Limit = 3045740
Peak = 927084

Any help will be appreciated!
 
How large is your hard disk and how much free disk space?

Do you leave the computer on 24/7?

What Error / Warning reports ( if any ) appear in the System log in
Event Viewer when you last booted the machine?

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in
the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for the last boot. No
Information Reports or Duplicates please. Indicate which also appear in
a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you
should double click for further information. You can copy using copy
and paste. Often the link will, however, say there is no further
information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
The disk is 320gb (~300 actual), partitioned into a 250/50 arrangement. The
250gb partition is the one I am having problems with, and it has 54gb free
space. I leave this computer on most of the time, but I do perform regular
shutdowns, many overnight.

I do move files around on this disk quite a bit, but I also perform a
regular defragmentation.

I have an extensive amount of files and folder on this partition as well.
According to "Properties" it is as follows:
107k files
4600 folders

Many of these I have not looked at for a long time, but for convienance I
keep them on this drive. I have considered using compression, but have not as
of yet performed it.
 
Do you close programmes after use? What programmes are you commonly
using? Your memory usage is high?

What is your anti-virus?

Event viewer reports?

What particular operation in Windows Explorer are slow?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Yes, I close programs after use, and no my memory usage is not high.

I use AVG anti-virus.

Nothing in event viewer out of the ordinary, no errors or critical events.

Windows Explorer is slow to open, access and list contents on the drive in
question, but on no other drive.
 
You're idea and mine as to what is high memory usage do not coincide.

What programmes are you running, which causes a peak of 927,084. There
are many that might do it. Do you get higher figures than 927,084?

One thought you might explore:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

Do your get any Warning reports in the Applications log?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
My idea of high memory use would be more than 30% peak, which is the highest
it shows. I could be wrong.

I run a variety of programs, from FTP clients, video transcoders, media
players, word processors, etc. I cannot tell what is causing the peak. Right
now it shows peak as ~100k.

It is not a right-click problem, or a bad context menu. I looked into it.

I get no errors or warnings in any event log.
 
Any files with an avi file extension?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Yes, a great deal though I could not say how many.

I know that explorer can show a preview of the .avi file, but I keep my
folder view in "List" or "Details".

Would this slow me down?
 
I can get up to 100% cpu usage for a few seconds, then it drops off ass soon
as the folders open.

The explorer.exe application is generating all the cpu usage.
 
Explorer is a parent process, which controls a number of children:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parent_process

You cannot see the children using Task Manager. Process Explorer
provides more information than Task Manager.

Download Process Explorer.

For further information about Process Explorer see here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

What version of Windows Media Player are you using?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
I am running WMP11.

I have downloaded ProcessExplorer, as well as a couple non-explorer file
browsers. I will check in tomorrow to tell you what I find :)

Thanks for all the help so far!
 
I just thought I would throw this out there too:

When I open explorer, and use the "folders" button to navigate in the left
pane, I do not notice nearly the lag as I do without using it. It is still a
little slow, but much faster than standard view.
 
So I ran Process Explorer and it showed explorer.exe as the program using all
the CPU, not any child program.

I ran a couple non MS file explorers, and they had no delays in the same
folder, so it is definatly a explorer.exe issue.

I also ran through the Google search concerning .avi files, but no help was
found in registry edits.

Any ideas?
 

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