explorer.exe 50% cpu

Hi, I hope someone can help me. For the past few weeks my pc has been very slow to start and I have to wait up to 20 mins before I get any response.

Task Manager shows explorer.exe at 50% cpu. I have been Googleing this for weeks and tried everything I could but no difference.
I have run the following:
Full Avira scan,
CCleaner
Windows registry Repair
Malwarebytes
Spyware Blaster
Nothing shows up. I did read that it could be a rouge media file so I moved all my .avi files to a removable dist and deleted all the .wav files. No difference. Also someone reported their problem was caused by an icon on the desktop that explorer couldn't find ??
I have HP Pavillion zd8000 running XP with SP3 and all updates. I have hijackthis installed.

Please could someone help???

 

A rogue media file would usually cause explorer to crash altogether when it tries to reads the file's metadata.

Have you done a chkdsk on the Window's partition to check for file corruption? I usually associate a slow startup with trouble with a particular system file. My Computer>rightclick C: drive and select Properties. Under Tools tab select Check Now button. Leave the first box ticked and hit the Start button. It will schedule for next boot so go ahead and reboot. After it runs it will restart, see if it still stalls.

 

Hi,
Yes, I have done chkdsk 3 times scheduled on start up and also from the windows recovery console with the /r switch ... no difference.
Another thing is if I log off and log in as guest the problem doesn't happen???
Any time I try do do anything involving file reading or writing that program grinds to a halt showing 50% cpu including chrome, I think it must be trying to write cookies?

 

I'm not sure why explorer would be hanging in only one user. If it was a problem writing files it should happen as both guest and your usual account.

Perhaps you could create a new user account and see if it is slow. I'm just wondering if it could be something about your current user profile that is causing the problem? I don't think a corrupted profile would act the way your computer is acting but if Guest is working maybe trying a new user would shed some light. If it actually worked well for a few days it might be worth transferring your documents over and begin using it as your primary account.