IE 6 Hogs CPU

My WinXP IE 6 SP1 has started hogging the CPU. After a few minutes of use, IE hangs up and Task Manager shows 100% CPU usage with about 98% being allocated to IE. Have to use Task Manager to close IE, which takes a couple of minutes. I can then open IE again and use for a while before problem occurs again. Running AMD Anthon 1700XP processor on homebuilt computer using Soyo Dragon+ mobo with 512mb DDR-SDRAM.

 

Does this occur with you connected to the internet "without" opening IE? Sounds like you got a bunch of stuff running in the background. Do you have SpyBot?

 

IE Hogs CPU

DSL connection active at all times. No noticeable problem when not running IE. When problem occurs, Task Manager Processes reports iexplore.exe using 98-100% cpu time. Have Spybot Search and Destroy. Do not know of any activie spyware on computer at this time. Also, periodically go through msconfig startup to eliminate unnecessary programs that work their way into startup.

Thanks for interest in helping me.

 

Have you done a virus scan lately?

There are several free online scanners

PC Pitstop Virus Scan

or:

Trend Micro Housecall

*Housecall is sometimes very slow to get into and to use.

 

Yes. Have Norton SystemWorks. Automatic Live Update and automatic weekly scan. In fact, it just finished a weekly scan a couple of hours ago and found nothing.

 

System has been running basically unchanged for 13 months. Homebuilt, but has been stable for a long time. Also, if I run Opera browser instead of IE there does not seem to be a problem. Seems to be only when IE is running. Yes, minor overclock. AMD Anthon 1700+ slightly overclocked to 1900, but has been that way for at least 8-10 months with no problems encountered. Never pushed it much.

 

Try the suggestion made by Nickhm in this thread:

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=77893#post77893

He was having problems with IE6 and winxp

Repairing IE6

Windows XP:
1. From the desktop screen left click on Start
2. Then left click on Control Panel
3. From Classic View select Add/Remove Programs
4. Once Add/Remove Programs is Open click the Windows Components button
5. Then highlight Internet Explorer and click Next
6. Let the bar finish. Click next.
7. Click Finish and it is suggested to reboot.

 

I'm having exactly the same problem with my new system... could it be some deficiency with SP 1?

I've re-installed (clean) Win XP twice and the problem still persists and no repair action I've seen suggested is any help.

Any bright ideas would really be appreciated to fix this.

I have noticed that when I go to a web page with flash shockwave an IE plug-ins window pops up showing that only Sun Java is installed as a plugin... this is always the case after a clean install, I've manuallyinstalled plug-ins into the IE plugins folder, but that is no help.

In Task Manager IE shows 50% usage and System also shows 50%.

 

Upon further investigation, my system also locks up when I try to use RealOne player for anything other than playing music.

The lastest repair : Control Panel...Add/Remove... Add remove Windows Components... Internet Explorer that Miscrosoft suggests using doesn't fix this either.

I just installed Win XP upgrade from Win 98 (pre SP1) on another computer and it works just fine, so this definitely appears to be something induced into XP by SP 1 or Windows updates to SP 1.... what a pain, luckily I use Netscape 7.02 for most of my browsing.

 

I think this may be the source of your problem. I'm posting the following verbatim which I took off this site several months ago. Some of the references may now be a bit dated but the solution is current and applicable. At any rate, it worked for me.

"To prevent 100% CPU usage (and consequent slowdowns):

Finding that CPU usage spikes to 100% when using any folder is definitely a bug in SP1. Having looked at posts here, at IExBeta forums and at warp2search forums, its happening across Via and Intel chipsets, whether loaded as ACPI or standard PC. Also, as noticed at IEXBeta forum, if you go My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > General Tab and select 'Use Windows Classic Folders', the problem disappears completely.

To test for this Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up Windows Task Manager. Select Performance Tab and pay attention to the CPU Usage meter. Open My Computer, select any drive, even a CD drive, and right click and hold, leaving the menu drawn. Watch your CPU usage climb to 100% and stay there as long as you keep the menu open! Change to windows classic folders and repeat experiment.

Until a solution is found I suggest opening My Computer, go Tools > Folder Options - General Tab, select Use Windows Classic Folders, click apply, THEN select View Tab and click the button Apply to All Folder and then OK out, Reboot and you're away. "

 

Well, I fixed my problem with IE 6 freezing when I had Hyper Threading enabled ... I disabled the on-board Lan that I was using on my Asus P4PE and put in a 3Com nic and ,guess what... no more problem.

Don't ask me to explain why this fixes the problem... I'm too happy it's fixed to care.