theBlackman on 18/8/2010 at 06:29

---

Any suggestions on why my CPU will run up to 100% and lock up now and then?

I am running with a 450 Wt PSU, 2.16 Ghz CPU, 2 Gig RAM and minimal background services. The opsys is XP Pro.

I don't think it is heat as the CPU is running well within the Temp limits, however, every now and then the system will take forever to bring up an application, or file.

If I check the Task Manager the CPU will be processing between 75 and 100% and lock at 100 requiring a hot boot or restart to continue to function.

Regular Defrag; virus/trojan scans and cleaning (usually Zero result) and, in most cases, no more than two apps multi-tasking.

Indexer and scheduler are turned off as well as all the unused services (battery backup and so forth).

Any ideas appreciated. Any suggestions considered. :confused:

Thanks.

theBlackman on 18/8/2010 at 07:55

---

Good idea, I've checked once or twice and not seen anything outstanding. Next time I'll look really closely.

Thanks, I forgot that that is the first thing I should do.

I'll keep TM up all the time so I can easily check.

Thanks.

Brian The Dog on 23/8/2010 at 22:53

---

While this is the Internet Explorer program, many viruses pretend to be this so you don't delete them. If the PC locks while you've not got IE open, then you may well have (http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2002-061113-2401-99) this virus. Malwarebytes and also Spybot Search and Destroy could help if you can't get rid of it.

If your PC only locks up when you're on the internet with IE, then it could be something like Flash or certain webpages that cause the problem. You could try different web browsers (I know you had issues with some, but this is just to see if the PC locks with them as well!).

DJ Riff on 24/8/2010 at 07:17

---

(sorry for ugly font here, but I want all letters to be distinctive)

That iexplore.exe may be a fake. It may contain capital I instead of small l or some Cyrillic letters that look like Latin ones. I suggest you to start a console and get a list of running programs using a tasklist command. Then you may copy the exact program's name from the console output and start a file search for it. Everything that is not "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" may safely go to a trash bin.

If it's really Internet Explorer that got corrupted, then there's a way to overwrite all your system files without losing all your programs and settings.

1. Boot from Windows installation CD.
2. Choose Install Windows.
3. Choose the same partition where the Windows is installed.
4. When you asked if you want to reinstall Windows or repair it, choose repair.
5. Wait for the files to be copied and restart the system.

Note that if you choose 'repair' option on the second step of this instruction, it will not copy anything, but just open a repair console of some kind which is not useful at all.