# CPU hog ... is explorer.exe ?



## Stratelier (Jan 5, 2010)

So from the Google results I've found so far this is quite a complicated issue, but:

Tonight XP is running a bit weird.  About an hour ago Windows seemed to stop responding for about 20 seconds.  After which it was back to normal.  It also occured again, about 30 minutes ago....

Now that I'm taking a closer look at the problem . . . I find Explorer.exe listed in the Task Manager consistently eating about 90% of my available CPU usage.

This is not normal behavior for Explorer.  Further details from Process Explorer state that a thread called SHLWAPI.dll!Ordinal505+0x37a is what's consuming the CPU.

So the mystery is . . . why is it so busy all of a sudden?  The only app I am running at this time is Firefox, I have no other windows (aside from Process Explorer atm) open.


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## Runefox (Jan 5, 2010)

According to The Google, SHLWAPI.dll is a framework for URL/UNC paths. By any chance, do you have any mapped network drives or similar? Of course, I wouldn't rule out a malware infestation, so you should probably put MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware through its paces, but it could just be something to do with that. Either that or the file's become corrupt in some manner; Could try popping a Run dialogue and typing *sfc /scannow* just to be sure.


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## Ricky (Jan 6, 2010)

hmm...  interesting.

Did you install or upgrade anything recently?  That would be the first place I'd look.

You could always do a:

cmd > net start

and see if anything weird is there as well, on top of process manager.

As far as "not being normal" for explorer though I'd tend to disagree.  Microsoft and "memory leaks" are often synonymous.


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## Stratelier (Jan 6, 2010)

Given it was two nights ago, let's see...

- Nothing installed/changed recently.
- Firefox runs with minimal extensions/add-ons.

- The only open task when it occured was Firefox, and I was merely browsing my usual sites (FA, dA, and so on).

I've rebooted long since then, and have yet to see it recur.


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