Windows Explorer Running Slow

[Yorkie]

I have a PC where the Windoze Explorer runs so slow it appears to have locked up. All other programs run fine, and you can even load files into Apps while Explorer is locked /running slow. This problem only happens now and then, but only this PC is affected. Other PC's on the network are fine.

It's running Win98 SE and it has only just been re formatted and reinstalled.

I've looked at the other threads but they don't quite fit the bill. We don't use Norton products etc. It is probably some other App that is hogging the resources as Dave_H suggests, but why is it only Windows Explorer that is affected.

Any help gratefully accepted.

Regards

Yorkie

[rmanet]

okay - couple of possibilities for what they're worth - but you didn't give system specs so I dont know if this is a newer system or something older? because its explorer it's having some sort ofproblem going thru the drives - all new or in good shape?


1. running alot of programs in the background - what's your cpu usage? maybe make your swap file min and max the same at, say 2 1/2 times installed ram, and disable checking for new floppies in windows - how much ram you running

2. if you're not using norton but using mcafee I got rid of that app for that very reason - go with avg or some other light but effective av software

3. do you have power management enabled? disable it?

4. does explorer hang as it checks the floppy, then move more quickly thru the other drives - when you open it it checks all drives, including your cd drive

5. if it's having problems reading any of them, it will hang until it's done - any pattern there? it could be a problem with one of the drives - see when explorer stops and hangs on which drive if that even happens - could be a problem with that drive, or even how you have them cabled (another way to check this is to use your bios autodetect drives (if it takes awhile for the bios to ''recognize" might be a hardware problem with the drive or cabling) - I have a new system that ended up being very picky about how I cabled two HDDs and a cd burner

[BipolarBill]

Try Clean9x.bat from here:

http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm

[Yorkie]

Thanks for the quick response.
Sorry about the missing specs, I kept getting interupted while I was writing the thread.
The machine is a Tulip Pentium II 400MHz with 128Mb of ram. We run CA Inoculan. It's exactly the same machine as I use, with basically the same software, and both were installed by me. They are not Ferrari's but they usually do the job required.

The problem is intermittent. It was reported to me three times last week and has done it once this week. It can be anything from opening a file, locally or on the Novell network, to creating a folder. Only explorer seems to be affected. I have even open a file in Word while the problem is active, which I find very odd.

I've asked the user to check the task manager (Ctrl Alt Del) when the problem arises to see if we can find some pattern.

Of course since I wrote in it has worked perfectly.

Flaming computers. :rolleyes:

[Sickboy]

I am having the exact same problem with my Windows XP box.
Athlon XP2000
ECS K7S5A board
Philips DVDRW
Artec 40x12x48 CDRW
Maxtor 80Gb HDD

When I open Windows Explorer it seems fine, but when I try to explore My Computer it takes an age (sometime 2-3 minutes before expanding the tree. Once the tree is expanded it works fine. A little quirk is that if I click on shortcuts to folders from my desktop they work great. This happens whether there are discs in the floppy/DVD/CDRW drives or not. My Windows XP installation was a clean install yesterday, and the HDD is only about 2 months old as are the optical drives.

[Sickboy]

I think I may have found the solution (at least to my problem); I've been using Sygate Home Network to share my Internet Connection (had loads of hassle with XP's inbuilt effort), and if I have it running I have the problem. If I shut it down the problem seems to vanish. This obviously isn't actually a solution, more of a workaround, but it works for me and I can't be bothered to find out why SHN should do this. If anyone else can, please feel free to enlighten me.