Author Topic: This Fixed Slow XP (Read 594 times)

Halo · « **on:** March 22, 2006, 08:15:09 PM »

For several days I was vexed by XP running painfully slow. I checked and tweaked everything from disk cleaning to virus/ad/spyware/malware scrubbing but could not find the problem. Then I found this brilliant 2004 article by Carey Holzman, 23 Ways To Speed WinXP Without Defrag, on TechBuilder.org:

http://www.techbuilder.org/recipes/59201471

If you ever remotely think you'll need to fix a rundown XP, by all means read this article, print it out, and add it to your Favorites list.

The solution for me? No. 8. I had to go into Device Manager and enable DMA on the Secondary IDE Channel. I have only a vague idea what that means, but by doing it I have my computer restored to its healthy fast self instead of a lumbering irritating cripple.

Huge thanks to Carey and all the other unselfish Internet sources who so generously share their expertise for the benefit of the entire computing community.

JTs · « **Reply #1 on:** March 22, 2006, 08:28:41 PM »

this is the simple answer. direct memory access is where data can be transfered without asking the cpu if its ok. basically it removes a bottle neck.

Halo · « **Reply #2 on:** March 26, 2006, 12:10:52 AM »

I spoke too soon. That "fix" didn't hold -- explorer.exe started hogging about 99% of the CPU on rebooting the next day.

Since then I've tried many more XP tweaks but none of them work except this work-around:

1. ctrl-alt-delete to Windows Task Manager, right-click on explorer.exe, and click on End Process.

2. (upon seeing blank screen) ctrl-alt-delete, run explorer.exe.

Doesn't seem like it will be a good thing to do over a long time, but I'm willing to try it to restore my computer to healthy speed instead of continuous choking by explorer taking up 99% of the CPU most the time.

Amazing as it may sound, there are lots of Internet complaints about this for the past several years so it seems to be an enduring Windows XP aggravation that eludes any permanent fix for all users.

I'm mentioning this problem here because one of the best tests for computer health is to run Aces High. If Aces High runs well on my computer, so does everything else. I run several other tests but Aces High is always the fastest thermometer or the canary in the coal mine.

GunnerCAF · « **Reply #3 on:** March 26, 2006, 01:27:22 AM »

I wonder what explorer is doing? I have never seen this. Is is looking for updates, or downloading them? Or do you have anything scheduled to run?

Gunner

The Fugitive · « **Reply #4 on:** March 26, 2006, 11:57:55 AM »

It sounds like an adware program is using explorer to send info or something. My sons computer had a program that poped up and was crushing cpu cycles. After a boot it would run great for an hour or so then it would start slowing down. It took me a couple hours of hunting to find all the pieces and get rid of them.

Start hunting

Tigger29 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 27, 2006, 01:22:31 AM »

Log on as another user and see if it gets fixed.

I've had some XP computers doing that same exact thing.. it was actually emailing THOUSANDS of people in the background (I found the .txt logfile in the root directory of drive C). The computer would speed up and release the explorer usage when disconnected from the network (IE unplugging network cable). Once connection was re-established it would get goofy again.

Only way to fix it was to create a new user account, and delete the old.

Good luck

Halo · « **Reply #6 on:** March 27, 2006, 06:20:32 PM »

It's quite a mystery. I had a worse problem a couple months ago with SpyAxe, one of the most vicious malwares I've ever encountered. Took me a week of research and fighting to kill it, eventually going to safe mode and manually extracting files to desktop and then death in recycle bin.

The problem affects all users of this computer and there is no indication of WHY explorer persists in taking up 99% of the cpu except when grudgingly yielding slightly to other programs.

I at first suspected malware because explorer goes ape only when the internet cable is connected. If I start the computer without the cable connection, explorer quickly goes to idle as it should after startup.

That sure looks like an internet attack, but at this point I'm guessing it's a separate Windows problem, although always triggered through the cable connection when turned on.

I have a physical firewall via a wireless network, the XP firewall, and McAfee virus protection through AOL. I run AdWare and Spybot periodically, and just installed Spyware Doctor which seems exceptionally efficient.

But none of these have ever solved the explorer.exe slowdown. The only relief I've had is through manually messing with it. I've again gone into safe mode and examined the entire file setup by function and date and find nothing suspicious.

Internet searches show explorer.exe slowdown to be a long and enduring XP problem that apparently has nothing to do with any virus, spyware, or malware. I "fixed" it first time by refining cable connection, but it was back the next day. I looked for a reported leak when running mopic but no joy.

One side benefit is I've really scrubbed my computer settings and have them optimized as far as I can tell. With explorer.exe tamed, the computer seems to run fast as new.

Thank heaven this weird practice of disabling explorer.exe after startup and then running it again keeps my computer running smooth all day.

I'd still like a permanent fix, but it may come eventually from another XP update sometime in the future.

Meanwhile, if you hear of any fix for this problem, please let me know.

GunnerCAF · « **Reply #7 on:** March 29, 2006, 06:22:38 PM »

Sounds like some type of virus that uses an infected program called explorer.exe in the startup. When you shut it down, and restart the correct explorer, you have no problems.

I did a quick search and found these types of viruses like this:

Trojan.Eurosol installs itself on an infected system so that it is run at startup. It does this by modifying the System.ini file and appending itself to the shell = Explorer.exe line in the [boot] section. It also creates a copy of itself in the \Windows folder as the system file NetBios32.exe.

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.eurosol.html

There are many more:

The Backdoor.Xenozbot Backdoor Trojan copies itself to the %Windir% folder as Explorer.exe .

NOTE: There is a space in this file name following the .exe extension. As a result, this does not overwrite the legitimate Windows file Explorer.exe.