Today one of my desktop computers froze up.

Pentium 4, 3.0 GHZ, 1GB DDRAM, 160GB HDD, XP PRO SP2

After hitting ctrl/alt/del and checking task manager I have noticed that explorer.exe is using 99%-100% of the CPU all the time from initial boot. This includes booting into SAFE MODE.

I have ran SPYBOT S&D, AD-AWARE, done the recommended Microsoft solution of removing text scrolling effects, and have tried every posted solution available. Still no results.

I have a hard time believing that a problem as severe as this has no known fix.

I should also mention that since the CPU is maxed out all the time it will not allow me to run My Computer, access any network resources, or launch windows explorer to look at any of the file structure on C. My DOS is too rusty to do all of this via DOS prompt...

I have also removed a couple registry entries mentioned in some other threads with no luck...

HijackThis has proided no useful info, but I will post again with the log file after I retrieve it.

Almost every thread I have seen says that a reload of the OS will not fix this problem.

If I can't reload, and I can't navigate the file system using the MS GUI, what can I do? This computer is VERY IMPORTANT to daily business functions and I need it back online ASAP..

PLEASE HELP!

Re-installing the OS should have high probability of fixing this problem. I fixed similar problem my brother had by re-installing the OS. Like you, I tried to fix the problem by removing ad/spyware to no avail.

Now, if the re-installing the OS will not fix this problem, then you have a HW problem (chip more likely than system).

Unfortuntely, I have seen nothing but "Reloading will not fix" on all the sites.

And I would agree it was a HW problem if the machine next to it wouldn't have started doing it too within the last 10 minutes...

It also could be one of those malware things... I just had one at work... It was running as one of the proccessors had to delete the file... That was a public PC for our guests to use, so it makes sense how it got on there.

In your case as mentioned above it could be a HW problem...

Well, I'd go along with a MALWARE problem, but subscribing to the HW problem on two different machines in 10 minutes is a little tougher to consider.

Problem is there seems to be no answer to what the MALWARE IS exactly. If you Google explorer.exe using 100% you'll get 17 pages and no answers..

Most relevant solution I've found so far...
http://www.cexx.org/dlder.htm

Best info yet!

But unfortunately, the explorer.exe that is using all the CPU thread is in fact the right one, and I don't have any DLDER.EXE instances...

Unfortunately it is taking this long for me to copy the HijackThis log file onto a floppy so I can post it over here...

WHOA! Weird!!

Now they are both shutting themselves down and rebooted directly into CHKDSK mode.

Get this... They are both showing the same bad sectors on the drives. (One is a SEAGATE, the other is a HITACHI)...

This is too strange.

Safe Mode now hangs up at

Multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\SYSTEM 32\DRIVERS\agp440.sys

I guess that's it then...

If I can't even boot into safe mode anymore on either one of them...

This can't be a coincidence. It's just not possible...

Are the two computers connected with each other. E.g. networked together... file sharing..

Looks like they might (the PCs) either BIOS update or a video card driver update... HOLD ON>>>

Some of the LINKS if you didn't get to them yet...

1) http://www.computing.net/windows2000...rum/21602.html

2) http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...40.sys&spell=1

You might even have to REPAIR INSTALL the OS... > http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Some of these might help.
GOOD LUCK!!

Well, I just returned from WalMart with two Seagate 80Gb HDD's... I'm swapping them out and reloading right now.

That's going to take some time...
Good luck!

Ghost Images.. :lol: Shouldn't take too long...

But I lost some data...

Oh-well...