Explorer hogging system resources

I have noticed over the past few months that every once in a while, maybe
once every other day, for whatever reason, my computer will experience an
onslaught of poor performance that can only be fixed by manually restarting
the explorer process (with this approach, the problem usually resurfaces
after an hour or two), or, ideally, restarting the computer.

Basically, to briefly describe what I normally experience: resizing any
window to any size, whether it expands/collapses by one pixel or if I
minimize or maximize, takes 100% of the CPU cycles. Granted, minimizing a
window is normally very quick, so the sudden tax on the system is brief, but
when one is working in multiple windows, toggling back and forth, sizing
this, minimizing that, etc., this frequent lag can become quite aggravating.
I haven't noticed any specific program or event that causes this problem, so
I don't really know what to avoid. Sometimes, certain full-screen games will
cause the problem if I multi-task to the desktop, but the problem surfaces
even without the presence of these culprits.

Could this be a sign that my video card (which is maybe around 3 years old)
might be dying, or could there be something else behind the scenes that I
might not realize? I've done spyware/virus/malware scans multiple times, and
the programs I use cannot detect anything malicious that might be causing
problems. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

--
RickyTheFish.

I apologize, this message was apparently posted to the wrong group. I
clicked on "Performance and Maintenance," and this apparently means "Windows
Vista Performance and Maintenance." Such is not the case for me, as I run
Windows XP. Apologies for posting in the wrong group, I will try to find the
correct place to post.

--
RickyTheFish.

"RickyTheFish" wrote:

> I have noticed over the past few months that every once in a while, maybe
> once every other day, for whatever reason, my computer will experience an
> onslaught of poor performance that can only be fixed by manually restarting
> the explorer process (with this approach, the problem usually resurfaces
> after an hour or two), or, ideally, restarting the computer.
>
> Basically, to briefly describe what I normally experience: resizing any
> window to any size, whether it expands/collapses by one pixel or if I
> minimize or maximize, takes 100% of the CPU cycles. Granted, minimizing a
> window is normally very quick, so the sudden tax on the system is brief, but
> when one is working in multiple windows, toggling back and forth, sizing
> this, minimizing that, etc., this frequent lag can become quite aggravating.
> I haven't noticed any specific program or event that causes this problem, so
> I don't really know what to avoid. Sometimes, certain full-screen games will
> cause the problem if I multi-task to the desktop, but the problem surfaces
> even without the presence of these culprits.
>
> Could this be a sign that my video card (which is maybe around 3 years old)
> might be dying, or could there be something else behind the scenes that I
> might not realize? I've done spyware/virus/malware scans multiple times, and
> the programs I use cannot detect anything malicious that might be causing
> problems. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>
> --
> RickyTheFish.