Critical bug: explorer.exe CPU consumption 100%

[VirusType2]

Kind of boring, but I just wanted to see what you guys think about this.

I have discovered a bug in Windows XP (professional, service pack 2, all updates)


I spent all morning here - about 3 or 4 hours before finally fixing this. Did not want to re-install.

My computer froze, and taskman shows 100% cpu usage on expolorer for minutes on end, and the programs will not close.

I figured out to end the task explorer.exe - which basically ends everything... the only thing still visable is task manager and your wall paper.

Thats when I used task manager to 'Run...' a different copy of explorer.exe. from a different computer and it would still do the same thing when trying to access my 500 gb hard drive. (i got the explorer.exe from another computer using my thumbdrive)

Of course Windows would not let me move this critical file under any circumstances, even in safe mode. It's basically the program that handles all the windows. Anyway, so I closed it with taskman, and reloaded a different one.

So I couldn't find the answer. I wasn't sure if it was a bug/virus/malware or a corrupt explorer file, or just some program gone crazy, so it was difficult to fix.


Anyway, the hard drive still worked fine at about 325 GB and less.

Of course I never suspected I would be the one to discover a critical bug in Windows XP, after as long as it's been out.



If you have something like a 500GB hard drive with something like at least 327GB used, in Windows XP, windows explorer (explorer.exe) will lock up anytime you open a folder.

explorer.exe is the program that allows you to browse through the various folders that you have.

To fix it, change all, or most of the view settings for the folders on that drive to 'List' mode instead of thumbnail views. (with a folder open, click view, go to folder options...)


Something causes it to stay at 100% CPU cycles permanently if you try browsing such a large amount of data on such a large hard drive.


I've submitted this to Microsoft. Can't wait to see what they say.


Interestingly Vista launches at the same time as the availability of the cheap 500 GB hard drives now flooding the market. Call me crazy and you'd be right. But that doesn't mean I'm not on to something.


It's interesting because I have heard that XP isn't natively able to recognize over ... 120GB hard drives.

When you install a drive larger than that, the hard drive software should confirm this. WD software does.

What's also interesting, is that simply installing this 500GB hard drive on my old copy of windows completely destroyed my OEM copy of windows beyond repair, and I had to buy a new copy.


Anyway, just a heads up, If you have problems, disable the thumnail, tile, and icon view, details view and just use list view. List view is the most simple view and just displays the small folder icons and the name of the folder.


What's the old Bill Gates 'quote', "Nobody will ever need more than 64MB of RAM"

yeah, I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same. "Nobody will ever need more than 325GB of hard drive space".


EDIT - They aren't going to fix this. one more reason for people to have to buy Vista. If they fix it I will have a great amount of respect. I'd REALLY like to have a 500 GB hard drive with photos and videos, and still be able to use thumbnail views. Not possible until they fix it.

 

[AtomicSpark]

Wow. If you're going to rant, get your facts strait. Bill said "640K ought to be enough for anybody". Remember this was in 1981 and the processor back then had issues with memory over that limit (I did a quick Google search for "Bill Gates RAM quote").

I have never had issues with XP Pro. I think there are too many "garbage in, garbage out" users out there and they always blame it on someone else. Just like when my roomy's computer **** up. Does he blame himself and his millions of viruses? No, it's the routers fault or the internet provider.

</rant>

Next time try a repair with your XP CD (assuming you aren't a pirate). I've seen OS files get corrupted on others machines. Usually by bad hard drives, viruses, etc.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=NOf&q=explorer.exe+CPU+100%25&btnG=Search

That link gives you answers to your problem. Also it sounds like people with that issue, have spyware, viruses, etc. Just like I said.

 

[VirusType2]

Wow. If you're going to rant, get your facts strait. Bill said "640K ought to be enough for anybody". Remember this was in 1981 and the processor back then had issues with memory over that limit (I did a quick Google search for "Bill Gates RAM quote").

I have never had issues with XP Pro. I think there are too many "garbage in, garbage out" users out there and they always blame it on someone else. Just like when my roomy's computer **** up. Does he blame himself and his millions of viruses? No, it's the routers fault or the internet provider.

</rant>

Next time try a repair with your XP CD (assuming you aren't a pirate). I've seen OS files get corrupted on others machines. Usually by bad hard drives, viruses, etc.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=NOf&q=explorer.exe+CPU+100%25&btnG=Search

That link gives you answers to your problem. Also it sounds like people with that issue, have spyware, viruses, etc. Just like I said.

I don't give a shit whether he said 10k or 200 MB. You are missing the point. Just because you are nerdier than me doesn't make me a ****ing tool.


Not sure why you bothered to irritate me with the rest of your reply since I've already said that I have found the problem, and found a work around.

It wasn't a rant, it was a heads up for others here that have >325GB hard drives.

Don't think I didn't type the exact same thing in the browser. 'explorer.exe 100% cpu', and several variations of it, and use all the resources available on the net. None of the fixes the helpful people suggested worked for me, but luckily, I ended up figuring out the problem. It's a bug.


Now, I will rant:

I scan my computer with 6 different pieces of security software on a daily basis. I don't browse shady sites, I'm an intelligent user, I don't do foolish things like open email that I don't know who the sender is, I don't click on things that say, "I'm a virus", etc.


It's not spyware, malware, corrupted files, it's not someone elses fault, the internet provider, a virus, lack of my search engine effort, or a pirated copy or whatever.

I've already said it wasn't any of those things!

It's not my fault.


More rant:

I'm fed up with software that goes through so much trouble to keep people from stealing it that they automatically assume everything is stolen. It's not stopping anything anyway.

I've heard you can install OSX without any of these measures. Put the disk in, and install it. You don't have to prove anything.

I just spent time on the phone with Microsoft and they want to know all kinds of personal information to make sure I didn't steal it. I'm like.. um.

I've got things to do, do you want a bug report or not. Don't have time to have you check my activation key and do a background check on me. I ended up loosing my temper and it's not even her fault, she is just doing her job.

I spend $50 on a game or $300 dollars on an Operating System, and I get a dialog box that says something like, "Your key appears to be valid!".

Of course it's ****ing valid. Now, every time we want to play a game, we have to locate and put the delicate disc in the drive, even though it won't be used for anything other than to make sure I have the disk. The damn game is on the hard drive - I installed it, and activated it, what more do you want from me?

Like my brother said, his kids want to play a game on the computer, but they can't because they would end up scratching or losing the discs.

'security measures'


Reading comprehension guys. God damn. I don't appreciate getting insulted or chewed out by a fan boy every time I say anything that doesn't hold Sony or Microsoft's in a gleaming light.

I expect their business grade software to do it's ****ing job and not make me work on the debugging team.

I found a god damn bug, it ruined my morning, then I had spent some more time out of my weekend as a favor, and typed up this warning for others so they don't have to go through the same shit.



If they have the same problem, they can do what I did, and save 4 hours of their time.


Don't waste everyone's time typing a response if you aren't going to take the time to read what is said before responding.



I'm sorry if I'm a grumpy asshole, but you are rubbing me the wrong way. Do you know what I've been through? Where your computer doesn't work anymore? Not exactly a fun way to start your day.


You could have just made the correction in a comrade kind of way, and left it at that. I'm one of the most active members on this forum. Show a little more respect next time instead of saying I'm computer illiterate, and taking the opportunity to insult my intelligence.



Thank you for the correction on the quote, although it doesn't seem very important.

Have a nice weekend,
Tommy

*throws up*

 

[Asus]

That's very interesting. I have 2 500GB drives and I have never had any issues. They are usually full but have been at many levels recently. Tried thumbnails and nothing. /shrug

I have noticed with previous lockups I've had where Explorer.exe is pegged at 100% usage, a lot of times it isn't explorer.exe that is actually causing the issue. Some other task is using or accessing explorer.exe and holding it up. And if I close that other task then explorer.exe goes back to normal. Although sometimes explorer itself is causing the issue.

Yeah, XP could not handle larger drives natively at first. But I believe SP2 can natively. And I don't believe I installed any WD tool on my Windows 2000 (SP4) machine (media box) and it recognized my 500GB drive right away.

 

[VirusType2]

That's very interesting. I have 2 500GB drives and I have never had any issues. They are usually full but have been at many levels recently. Tried thumbnails and nothing. /shrug

I have noticed with previous lockups I've had where Explorer.exe is pegged at 100% usage, a lot of times it isn't explorer.exe that is actually causing the issue. Some other task is using or accessing explorer.exe and holding it up. And if I close that other task then explorer.exe goes back to normal. Although sometimes explorer itself is causing the issue.

Yeah, XP could not handle larger drives natively at first. But I believe SP2 can natively. And I don't believe I installed any WD tool on my Windows 2000 (SP4) machine (media box) and it recognized my 500GB drive right away.

Yeah. I think if I were to be wrong, that sounds like it could be the only other thing that could have been the problem, I was about 90% convinced it was the thumbnails of all things... either way a bug .. anyway... I guess I should try putting them back to thumbs to know for sure, but I really don't want to go through that again. Seriously.


The thing is, taskman didn't show anything running. Rebooted and restarted about 6 times, cleaned up my registry and uninstalled all new applications, things like that - for hours this troubleshooting went on.

After rebooting, why would there be another program trying to acesss explorer when I click the folders on the drive to view/access the files? I had checked for all of the startup programs and there wasn't anything but my soundblaster and - hmmm maybe AVG antivirus could have done it, windows defender, and my video card. Thats it, besides the usual windows startup progs.

Beats me.

Can you think of any programs that might hold it up? I know in the past I have occasionally gotten that error message, "The program is waiting for a response from you", when clearly that is not the case. That always makes your system hang. You never really can tell, since OS's with dozens of other apps are so complicated

I must have had to end process (close) explorer.exe two dozen times. Very frustrating to get that ****ing hourglass of doom over and over when you just want to open a folder.


BTW Asus you are really helpful every time man, I can't thank you enough. I'm just glad it's over! I was preparing to re-install. Thats always an entire week-end shot re-installing everything again.


And atomicspark85, I'm sorry. I was insulted, but I believe I overreacted. I was in a bad mood to begin with, I was more frustrated than anything.

 

[Asus]

Where you viewing 1 folder that had a many many files? What was it exactly.

 

[VirusType2]

Where you viewing 1 folder that had a many many files? What was it exactly.

I kept trying to access one of these folders and it would instantly freeze up. Didn't really try opening any others on this drive.


1 contains like 130 GB of my CD collection in MP3 format. Each CD was in a seperate folder. Some thumnails scattered in here.

1 contains like 200 GB of video clips, movies, and MPEGS, again, thumbnail view.

1 contained like 20 GB of photos in various folders in thumbnail form.


I was thinking maybe it would freeze from trying to scan all the details like file size and whatever else for each folder. Like overwhelmed it.

It's possible it could be a shitty processor or ram though, as I have noticed that if I stuff 200 cpu cycles worth of shit down it's throat it just gives up and freezes instead of doing them in turn.


The more I speak about it, the more it seems it could have been something else here.

 

[Barney Fife]

I kept trying to access one of these folders and it would instantly freeze up. Didn't really try opening any others on this drive.


1 contains like 130 GB of my CD collection in MP3 format. Each CD was in a seperate folder. Some thumnails scattered in here.

1 contains like 200 GB of video clips, movies, and MPEGS, again, thumbnail view.

1 contained like 20 GB of photos in various folders in thumbnail form.


I was thinking maybe it would freeze from trying to scan all the details like file size and whatever else for each folder. Like overwhelmed it.

It's possible it could be a shitty processor or ram though, as I have noticed that if I stuff 200 cpu cycles worth of shit down it's throat it just gives up and freezes instead of doing them in turn.


The more I speak about it, the more it seems it could have been something else here.

This is not your explorer problem nor is it memory usage problem: Anytime you try to access a large folder with 120, 200, 20 gigabyte of data; your explorer will freeze momentarily, because; of slower speed of your HDD.
200gb of data moving about; will have the HDD slowing down the system and, memory/CPU usage at 100%.
If you give a little time and not try to close explorer; while explorer prepares the 200gb folder; it will eventually display. But, if you try to close windows explorer while it prepares to load the folder into ram; explorer will become unstable (due to memory process interruptions by user) you may end up loosing some of your icons and the Task-bar momentarily, until next reboot, and, explorer along with some background running programs may stop functioning, till you restart system.
This is the fact that the HDD being the slowest component and, explorer just hangs there waiting for HDD to load data into ram; is why it seems system is hanging. Matter of fact if you look at HDD activity indicator light on the front of the case; the little light is actually going crazy, meaning HDD is loading.
XP is the best our lord Gates ever came up with and, most stable thus. Better than Vista when it comes to memory usage.

Good Luck.

 

[VirusType2]

It froze. Immediately after, the system is no longer responding - 5 minutes later It was still no longer responding. 10 minutes, 15 minutes, it doesn't matter, it was never coming back. Every time. (3 hours worth of trying) Switched the view (without even restarting this time) and never had a problem again. By the way, the access times are almost instant now since it doesn't have to display all those extra details. Besides, my hard drive never took more than a couple seconds to display everything in a folder before the problem, or anymore.

It sounds crazy, even to me. Like to find out for sure what exactly happened.

 

[Barney Fife]

It froze. Immediately after, the system is no longer responding - 5 minutes later It was still no longer responding. 10 minutes, 15 minutes, it doesn't matter, it was never coming back. Every time. (3 hours worth of trying) Switched the view (without even restarting this time) and never had a problem again. By the way, the access times are almost instant now since it doesn't have to display all those extra details. Besides, my hard drive never took more than a couple seconds to display everything in a folder before the problem, or anymore.

It sounds crazy, even to me. Like to find out for sure what exactly happened.

Call Jim at Microsoft support.

 

[Kyorisu]

Never had this problem and I have 5 full 500gb drives, then again I don't use "My Computer" I use Total Commander a vastly superior file manager. This isn't a bug or fault in windows at all mate.

 

[VirusType2]

This isn't a bug or fault in windows at all mate.

Yes, because computer lock ups every time you open a folder are completely normal?


Unless you are saying that it was a separate program that caused it.


Even though this problem is gone, I'm still constantly using most or all of my resources now. My cpu is always maxed or near max and memory is always high.

I can't wait until prices come down on processors, I'm going to get some seriously powerful shit, at least as powerful as what you guys are using. This celeronD is good for basic stuff, but I'm not doing anything basic.


I'll have to check out Total commander... it sounds like something I may have downloaded in the past but never installed...isn't that a free utility? I think I have it, though I might be thinking of something with a similar name. I also have BSA commander so I might be thinking of that.