IE 5.0 Using 97% CPU

I am using IE 5.0 with W2k pro & service pack 3. My system is a measley 300mhz 320mb RAM with a 40gig HD connected to the internet via DSL.
I recently have a problem with Internet explorer slowing me down by using 97% of my CPU. I have noticed this usually happens when logged into Yahoo Mail but has happened with other sites as well. Is there a quick fix for this or could it be just Yahoo slowing me down?
Thanks in advance
Hammer

 

Hi Hammer,
First thing I would do is update IE to latest version, or at the very least to version 5.5 sp1 as version 5.0 was full of very large "holes" and therefore a big security risk. See if this has any good effect regarding your issues.

 

IE 5.5 SP1 is an excellent suggestion. 6.0 with the latest SP is probably an even better version since they have continued to harden IE against a variety of attacks.

2K SP4 would also be a great idea.

As to the system specs - they are more than adequate to run 2K properly.

I don't know if you run any spyware protection or spyware removal apps but they can give this sort of symptoms. Look in quicklinks in my signature for Ad-aware, Spybot, and Hijackthis then:

Download, immediately update, and then run Ad-Aware SE (quicklinks). You want to run a full scan and delete all items if finds.

Download, immediately update, and then run Spybot. Delete all items it prechecks. The others are harmless and can be left alone. When the scan is finished, click on the immunize icon then on the green cross to immunize the PC against a large number of known bad items.

Download Hijackthis, put it in a folder of it's own (so not a temp folder and not directly on the desktop) then run it, scan, create a log which will open a copy in notepad after it completes and post the log file contents here.

 

Thanks for the replies, gentlemen.
I run Adaware regularly as well as an occasional Hijackthis. However, the Spybot program is new to me. I did as Newt suggested and found that Spybot eliminated a few things that Adaware couldnt. IE seems to run a bit quicker now, yet isnt quite where I feel it needs to be. I'll download the IE updates and see where I stand from there. The logfile for Hijackthis is listed below.
Again thank you for your help.
Hammer



Logfile of HijackThis v1.97.7
Scan saved at 9:55:36 AM, on 9/11/2004
Platform: Windows 2000 SP3 (WinNT 5.00.2195)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v5.00 SP3 (5.00.2920.0000)

Running processes:
C:\WINNT\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\services.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG6\avgserv.exe
C:\WINNT\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\regsvc.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\MSTask.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\ZoneLabs\vsmon.exe
C:\WINNT\System32\WBEM\WinMgmt.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINNT\Explorer.EXE
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG6\avgcc32.exe
C:\Program Files\KMaestro\KMaestro.exe
C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zlclient.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\PANICW~1\POP-UP~1\PSFree.exe
C:\Program Files\eBay\eBay Toolbar\4.3.0.9\ebaytbar.exe
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\1033\msoffice.exe
C:\WINNT\System32\taskmgr.exe
C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\msnmsgr.exe
C:\WINNT\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\YPager.exe
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\WINWORD.EXE
C:\Documents and Settings\Shaun Hammer\My Documents\Downloads\Programs\Security tools\hijackthis\HijackThis.exe

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {001F2570-5DF5-11d3-B991-00A0C9BB0874} - C:\Program Files\eBay\eBay Toolbar\4.3.0.9\eBayBand.dll
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {53707962-6F74-2D53-2644-206D7942484F} - C:\PROGRA~1\SPYBOT~1\SDHelper.dll
O3 - Toolbar: eBay Toolbar - {46AE04C0-BCFA-4728-90E7-00EB4A8B3863} - C:\Program Files\eBay\eBay Toolbar\4.3.0.9\eBayBand.dll
O4 - Global Startup: eBay Toolbar.LNK = C:\Program Files\eBay\eBay Toolbar\4.3.0.9\ebaytbar.exe
O16 - DPF: {8714912E-380D-11D5-B8AA-00D0B78F3D48} (Yahoo! Webcam Upload Wrapper) - http://chat.yahoo.com/cab/yuplapp.cab

 

I would indeed update your version of IE.
However, you cannot get IE5.5 from MS anymore, only 6.0.
There are third party sites from which you can get v5.5, but it really does not seem worth sticking with these older versions. Get 6.0 SP1.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/ie6sp1/default.mspx
P.S. Your version of HiJackThis is outdated.
Get the latest
http://ftp.officefive.org.uk/sites/www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
However, I am going to let an expert analyze your HJT log file.