Search
Forum Home | Login
Ynglaur
Ynglaur
Join Date 05/2006
+11

Explorer.exe consuming 80% of one CPU

Ever caused by Fences, Windowblinds, etc.?

December 16, 2009 5:07:37 PM from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

My Explorer.exe process is consistently consuming around 80% of one CPU, even when I'm not actively using it, searching, etc.  I don't have Windows Search 4.0, Google Desktop, or other file indexing tasks running.  Has anyone ever seen a Stardock app cause this?  Fences, WB, or Multiplicity perhaps?

I'm running WinXP Pro SP3.

If not a Stardock app, does anyone know a good way to turn off Explorer.exe hooks, context menus, etc. other apps put in?

Locked Post
Search this post
Advanced Search
Subscription Options
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Ynglaur
Rosco_P
Join Date 07/2009
+178 sdemployee
Reply #1 December 16, 2009 5:21:40 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

If it is one of our products, I doubt it would be Multiplicity, as that uses its own process.  If you want to be sure about the others, you could try uninstalling them one at a time, rebooting, and seeing if it's still happening.  (Don't worry, as long as you don't tell the uninstaller to delete settings, it should restore your fences when you reinstall).  If it is one of our programs, email us at support@stardock.com and we'll go from there.

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Ynglaur
Ynglaur
Join Date 05/2006
+11
Reply #2 December 16, 2009 9:22:32 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Thanks Rosco.  Will do.

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Ynglaur
milksama
Join Date 09/2005
+62
Reply #3 December 17, 2009 10:30:30 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

You could also grab Process Explorer, find the Explorer.exe process, double click it and look under the "Threads" tab to see if it indicates what is using all the CPU.


Mike

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!

Sign Up or Login and this ad disappears!
There are many great features available to you once you register. Sign Up for a free account and browse the forums without ads.

Ynglaur
Ynglaur
Join Date 05/2006
+11
Reply #4 December 17, 2009 11:44:46 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Already tried that.  It just shows the main explorer.exe thread.  None of the .dlls are causing it.  I tried the "bad AVI" registry fix, which seems to have worked so far.

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Ynglaur
Rosco_P
Join Date 07/2009
+178 sdemployee
Reply #5 December 17, 2009 1:54:43 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Some have mentioned the 'Lock Fences' option as being the culprit.  While we're looking into it, try disabling it, and let us know if that helps.

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Ynglaur
grndady
Join Date 09/2001
0
Reply #6 December 19, 2009 9:28:02 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Same here. Fences Pro using up to 90% of CPU. Must uninstall to repair. Very frustrating. Task Manager says Explorer is consuming 189 Mg of memory also.

 

The only cure is to uninstall Fences.

 

Help!

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Ynglaur
Neil Banfield
Join Date 04/2001
+1104 sdemployee
Reply #7 December 19, 2009 10:32:13 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting grndady,
reply 6
Same here. Fences Pro using up to 90% of CPU. Must uninstall to repair. Very frustrating. Task Manager says Explorer is consuming 189 Mg of memory also.

 

The only cure is to uninstall Fences.

 

Help!

Are you running any other explorer addins like Deskscapes?

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Ynglaur
JMB1984
Join Date 03/2001
+47
Reply #8 December 20, 2009 1:45:46 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Yikes - Ok, CPU issue was indeed a problem on XP systems; thanks to the help of users sending in their debug log we were able to figure out what happened! Please give Fences an update using Impulse to the new version released today and see if that helps. Thanks...

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Ynglaur
Ynglaur
Join Date 05/2006
+11
Reply #9 December 22, 2009 9:52:32 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

The new build seems to have resolved the issue for me.  By twiddling with explorer settings and fences settings I was able to get it down to 20% utilization, but the new build has explorer idling properly around 2%.

Btw, a four-day response time to fix this--and having the fix on Sunday--is really good.  Thanks for the extra effort.  Cheers!

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Ynglaur
JMB1984
Join Date 03/2001
+47
Reply #10 December 22, 2009 1:53:14 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

you're very welcome. happy holidays!

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Ynglaur
stefanaaltenvoogd
Join Date 06/2009
0
Reply #11 January 8, 2010 4:45:57 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Hi,

I've had the same issues: extremely high disk activity caused by Fences writing non-stop to a debug log. Explorer.exe process running at 90%, disk activity continuously extremely high. IBM ThinkPad T60 with 3GB RAM, running Windows XP.

Uninstalled Fences and immediately my system started to behave normally again.

Downloaded Fences again from the Stardock site just now (8 Jan 2010) as thread above suggests there has been a fix. The CNET download page says it's "v1.0" but looking at the version number in the downloaded file this has "v0.95.0.0" (date 4 Nov 2009). So am guessing the fix has not been made available publicly yet?

Anyway, I installed the downloaded version from CNET and disk activity straightaway shot up to crazy levels again. Inspecting I confirmed this was due to continuous writing to a Fences debug log - i.e. same issue.

Uninstalled again immediately and back to normal - idling - activity again.

Is there an updated version of Fences available that corrects this issue? Where can I get this?

Many thanks.

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Ynglaur
Lantec
Join Date 07/2003
+346 wcwizop
Reply #12 January 9, 2010 10:46:03 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Try the link below....

You need to install Stardock's platform (Impulse) to keep it up to date.

Fences (Free)

More Info

Download Impulse

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
View all recent posts
Mark all posts as read Delete cookies created by the forum Return to Top
Stardock Forums v        Server Load Time:   Page Render Time: