WinXP Problem - Explorer.exe

[ryejay98]

I'm having this odd problem every now and then with my computer, running WinXP SP1 w/all necessary updates. I've run virus scanners and Adaware and come up with nothing funky.

I "seem" to have narrowed it down to running DivX movies via Windows Media Player, but it doesn't alway reproduce itself.

Basically, what happens is explorer.exe seems to balloon and hog up tons of memory, and my entire computer slows down to a crawl. The only fix is rebooting, or ending explorer.exe and restarting that. Starting to get real annoying ;p

Any suggestions? Need more info?

 

[ryejay98]

bump

 

[monzie]

Well, how about using a good media player to start with?

Try:
VLC (VideoLAN) (excellent and can bypass Windows overlay and plays DVD's)
Zoomplayer (de rigueur for TV-out work).
TCMP
BSPlayer
MediaPlayerClassic

Use FFDShow for the filters along with AC3Filter for the audio.

WMP8/9 is a resource hog and sends nice little packets of information back to M$HQ (and god knows who else) about the files being played, AVOID THIS FILTH............allegedly... use your MM2 (WMP6.4) if you must use XP's player.

You haven't installed any idiotware..... ooooppps I mean codec packs...... have you?

What does GSpot say about the filter/codec that is being used to play the file?

Google for everything...........I dont wipe arses.

 

[ryejay98]

Gee, thanks for the polite help *rolls eyes*

Believe it or not, I'm not a computer newbie. I've used other players, I've searched the net, all to no avail.

Now if you have some other helpful suggestions, without attitude, I'd appreciate hearing them.

 

[UCJefe]

This sounds like the avi problem. Basically when you click on an avi file, Windows tries to read the entire file to figure out length and all that fun stuff. But if a file is corrupt of incompletely downloaded or something, explorer will go to 100% CPU and end up very unhappy.

I know you can fix by using Windows Classic folders (Folder Options->General->Use Windows Classic Folders) but that messes up the look of WinXP (if you happen to like the common tasks). There is also a registry key somewhere that you can delete that will disable the AVI preview. I did a quick search and found the key below but please back this up first before you try anything. Give it a shot and see if it works. I'm on a Win2K machine right and that key doesn't exist for me so I'm not sure if it'll work or not.

Open up regedit
Goto HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
Delete the "Default" value which should be "{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}"

 

[ryejay98]

I enabled Classic Folders awhile ago when I searched on the net for this very problem. Indeed, it seemed to fix it. It used to happen fairly regularly (say 75% of the time) ... now it just happens infrequently.

I'll look into the registry key you provided a bit more and see if that helps. Thanks!