Explorer.exe @ 100% Usage

[YoungBlood]

I have spent the last hour or so going through the suggestions that google throws up to fix this, but so far to no avail.

Starting today, in task manager my cpu usage for explorer.exe is constantly @ 50% as it's a dual core. So sorta technicaly 100%. As a result, gaming is pretty much a no no and I can see no reason for this to suddenly start happening.

I thought I would post here for suggestions while I continue to go through the suggestions on google, which so far have done nothing.

A full virus scan and spybot s&d was done today as it is every friday, anyone else ever exsperianced (sp?) this and could post there fix's. Im running XP SP2.

 

[YoungBlood]

What did your spyware and antivirus runs find then? Is this a home machine? Do you have any network drives mapped?

Virus found nothing and spybot found nothing of intrest just the same thing about the windows built in firewall being disabled. It's a home machine and has no mapped drives I assume. It is not on a network so I guess it can't have? It does share a router with another PC though. Just for net access, no files/folders/drives are shared.

Just ran windows update, still same problem though.

I will also just add, that it is at 50% constantly no matter what I do, most of the google reports seem to say that it only happens when something is right clicked/opened. I have it all the time from bootup.

 

[YoungBlood]

Just a little update on this. I found a programme called Process Explorer, it's just like task manager but a lot more detailed. It enables you to see the exact file that is causing the 100% CPU usage (in the case explorer.exe was calling on a .dll) and delete/un-register it.
Problem seems to be soved for now.