Explorer Uses 98% Of Cpu When Opening Folders!

Thanks for the reply… Searched for suggested files and this is what I got: C:\WINDOWS\system32 C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ wmv8ds32.ax 273 kB wmvds32.ax 252 KB Also went ahead with the safe mode reboot and deleted content of the temp file, as well as deleting files and cookies in internet options. About the Internet connection - I have a cable hookup and to be honest the internet is about the only thing that has experienced no problems. I will run with this for a day and tell you what happens…

OK… I am no longer experiencing the Explorer.exe problem, which deserves a huge thank you. BUT, I am still having problems with installing SP2, and attempts to update Windows Media Player and Winamp. As an aside I would like to know if at all possible what caused this whole mess - was it something downloaded on my CPU, or something installed? Being that I am relatively new at this whole thing, it would be nice if I knew what I did when I did what you suggested. If you have any more suggestions about how to remedy my continuing problems, I would greatly appreciate them. Thanks for the help thus far.

As an aside I would like to know if at all possible what caused this whole mess - was it something downloaded on my CPU, or something installed? Being that I am relatively new at this whole thing, it would be nice if I knew what I did when I did what you suggested.

little eagle had you fix the following:
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {83DE62E0-5805-11D8-9B25-00E04C60FAF2} - C:\WINDOWS\2_0_1browserhelper2.dll
That is related to an adware called Blazefind, it is a "plugin" (called a Browser Helper Object or BHO) for IE which alters the way the browser performs serches on the internet. BHOs can be good or bad, as you can see in your log you have SDHelper.dll that is a good one (put there by Spybot S&D).

little eagle also had you run System Security Suite which is a program that cleans up MRU (most recently used) lists, index.dat files, temp folders and such. I attached an image at the end of this post that shows a safe configuration which will keep your stored form data and passwords in IE. He had you run it to clean up any junk that may have been interfering with the operation of your computer.

I had you do the following.
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [WinampAgent] C:\Program Files\Winamp\winampa.exe
That is an entry to start winamp when your computer is started. I had you disable that because you were having problems with music files.

O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Office.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\OSA9.EXE
This is a resource hog and unnecessary to run at startup.

This one also if you don't use the Qucik Time toolbar icon
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
Another waste of resources if you do not actively use the tray icon.

Allot of programs set themselves to load at startup. One of the first steps in diagnosing a problem is to shut down unnecessary processes to see if they are causing the conflict and also to free up resources for diagnostic tools or to speed up a sluggish system.

In this post I had you clean out temp files. This was to eliminate any conflicts which may have occured as a result of corrupted, out of date or malicious files in those locations. I had you do it in safe mode to insure that no programs had any of those files open which would result in an access error when you tried to delete them.

I had you check wmv8ds32.ax as that was the one that your av was hanging on and it is also related to playing media as is wmvds32.ax. Given that they are the correct size they should be ok. An older or corrupted version would be a different size.

This post has gotten pretty long so I'll put further repair instructions in the next one. The following picture illustrates a "safe" setup of System Security Suite. In addition to periodic cleaning with this tool, I recommend running it before any full system virus or malware scans as it will eliminste unnecessary files thus shortening the scan time.

I am no longer experiencing the Explorer.exe problem, which deserves a huge thank you. BUT, I am still having problems with installing SP2, and attempts to update Windows Media Player and Winamp.

What type of problems are you having updating? Do you have the updates downloaded or are you getting them from the net?

Lets hold off on SP2 until all other apparent problems are resolved. You are missing the windows update BHO so we will need to deal with that also, after the other problems are fixed.

do you have a windows xp install cd or was windows installed on your computer when you bought it?

I installed Windows XP from a CD.

Put your windows install cd in the drive then go to Start>Run and type
sfc /scannow in the box and click ok.
When it finishes remove the cd from the drive and reboot.
If you are still having problems then download the winamp installer and reinstall winamp.
Then get the Windows Media Player installer and reinstall WMP.

If you cannot uninstall the ones you have now then just install over top of them.

Let us know how that works out.

Seems to be running like new! What a relief… At reboot after running sfc /scannow, an xp security alert popped up indicating that I have auto updates turned off, and that I have no anti-virus protection. I have Avast! installed but as it turns out it is not working properly. Other than this, everything looks to be as it should be - I updated programs with no problems, and installed SP2 without a hitch. I owe you guys big time. If you have any suggestions about anti-virus programs, please fill me in. Otherwise, keep up the good work, and many, many thanks.

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you O'SB79. I have been very busy and for some reason did not receive an email notification of your reply to this topic. Good to hear that your computer is working well again.

I recommend AVG Antivirus it is free for personel use and does an excellent job. Make sure you keep it updated and do not run two antiviruses at the same time.

Please post a fresh HiajackThis log so we can make sure there are no items left to clear out. Thank you.

Your log looks good O'SB79.

Many of the programs that peoples computers become infected with use vulnerabilities that are discovered in the Windows Operating System. Microsoft issues patches to fix these problems as they are discovered so one of the most important keys to keeping your computer clean is visiting Windows Update on a regular basis.
I recommend you read How did I get infected in the first place and follow Tony's advice. He will tell you about some ways to make your computer more secure and link to some excellent free tools to help with that.