Explorer.exe process at ~100%

Just in the last 72 hours I have started to have problems with my Vista
installation. Whether I start the computer in Safe Mode or regularly, the
explorer.exe process runs up my dual-core processors to 100%, or thereabouts.
The average usage for the process is about 60% - 80%. I downloaded
ProcessExplorer from the Microsoft website, and the culprit thread is
something titled

ntdll.dll!RtlIntegerToUnicodeString+0x67

There are now four instances of this in the Threads dialogue as I write, but
only one was eating up my processor. Does anyone know what this is, what it
does, or even better, how to fix it? I'm a Computer Science major and I
can't afford to have my personal computer out of commission for several days
like this!

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have already done every single
virus and malware/spyware scan I know of (HouseCall, McAfee, HiJackThis,
Defender, Windows Malicious Software Removal), and started up in safe mode
(the problem still occurs). On a side note, or perhaps this is related, my
taskbar is completely frozen. I cannot access the start menu, and the list
of open windows does not update past about 10 seconds into uptime. The clock
doesn't update (although the sidebar one keeps going) and the Notification
area icons are inaccessible.

Windows Vista Ultimate (clean install)
Intel Core Duo @ 1.83GHz
100GB HDD
2 GB RAM

Hi:

Try to use MSconfig and disable any 3rd party services, including
Antivirus.Just MS services. Also take out your machine network cable to see
if it is a malicious software.

I hope it helps.

--
Un saludo
Juan Perez


"Kemper" <> wrote in message
news:C70BDD96-E71E-4CAD-A64C-...
> Just in the last 72 hours I have started to have problems with my Vista
> installation. Whether I start the computer in Safe Mode or regularly, the
> explorer.exe process runs up my dual-core processors to 100%, or
> thereabouts.
> The average usage for the process is about 60% - 80%. I downloaded
> ProcessExplorer from the Microsoft website, and the culprit thread is
> something titled
>
> ntdll.dll!RtlIntegerToUnicodeString+0x67
>
> There are now four instances of this in the Threads dialogue as I write,
> but
> only one was eating up my processor. Does anyone know what this is, what
> it
> does, or even better, how to fix it? I'm a Computer Science major and I
> can't afford to have my personal computer out of commission for several
> days
> like this!
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have already done every single
> virus and malware/spyware scan I know of (HouseCall, McAfee, HiJackThis,
> Defender, Windows Malicious Software Removal), and started up in safe mode
> (the problem still occurs). On a side note, or perhaps this is related,
> my
> taskbar is completely frozen. I cannot access the start menu, and the
> list
> of open windows does not update past about 10 seconds into uptime. The
> clock
> doesn't update (although the sidebar one keeps going) and the Notification
> area icons are inaccessible.
>
> Windows Vista Ultimate (clean install)
> Intel Core Duo @ 1.83GHz
> 100GB HDD
> 2 GB RAM

Juan -

I took the computer into my campus computer offices, and among other things
we disable all third-party startup programs, plugged/unplugged it, and even
uninstalled a bunch of software. We did however find something very
interesting. The thread within Explorer.exe that was causing the problem was
ntdll.dll!RtlIntegerToUnicodeString+0x67
The tech guys told me that that means the function call is either being
repeated indefinitely, for some reason, or the function itself is looping,
for an equally unknown reason, because there was nothing but microsoft
software running after we were finished.
They suggested I try a "repair install" after trying everything else, so I
ran the "upgrade" install from my Vista disk again (since the only other
option it gave me was to re-format - not an option at the moment). This did
not fix the problem.

Any ideas?

Hi Kemper:

In that case, you have done well. I suggest to open a technical case with MS
and try to fix it before, reinstalling your machine.

--
Un saludo
Juan Perez

Este mensaje se proporciona "como está" sin garantías de ninguna clase, y no
otorga ningún derecho.
"Kemper" <> wrote in message
news:22113EAC-CCBB-4779-8E5A-...
> Juan -
>
> I took the computer into my campus computer offices, and among other
> things
> we disable all third-party startup programs, plugged/unplugged it, and
> even
> uninstalled a bunch of software. We did however find something very
> interesting. The thread within Explorer.exe that was causing the problem
> was
> ntdll.dll!RtlIntegerToUnicodeString+0x67
> The tech guys told me that that means the function call is either being
> repeated indefinitely, for some reason, or the function itself is looping,
> for an equally unknown reason, because there was nothing but microsoft
> software running after we were finished.
> They suggested I try a "repair install" after trying everything else, so I
> ran the "upgrade" install from my Vista disk again (since the only other
> option it gave me was to re-format - not an option at the moment). This
> did
> not fix the problem.
>
> Any ideas?

In case anyone is wondering, this is how it stands right now:

I spend about an hour or two in an online support session with a Microsoft
support dude named Abilash. Nice guy. He eventually started an Easy Assist
connection to my computer. After verifying that everything I was saying was
true, he suggested a clean hardware and software boot. I tried this the best
I could (starting up in diagnostic mode?) and it didn't fix the problem. I
couldn't give him my cell phone number at the moment, so he marked closed it
as "Not Resolved." I'm going to call tomorrow to reopen the case, because
his steps did not work. After looking at my Device Manager, he said that he
thought he had seen this problem before, and it was the result of corrupt
network drivers. However, I disabled, uninstalled, and reinstalled the
official Microsoft drivers that come with Vista, and this did not fix the
problem either.

Wow, I tried the recommendation of turning off the compressed folders
option (using link provided), and it fixed my problem!

I was surprised, as this problem had
a) just started happening, seemingly randomly, after 6 months of no
issue
b) there was no compressed file in the directory that was causing me
problems

Anyway - just saying "thanks" to the person who posted that - and
adding that it did seem to fix the problem for me...and I had the same
symptoms:

CPU 100%
process hang during file deletion
ntdll.dll!RtlIntegerToUnicodeString+0x67 identified by process explorer
as the thread causing the problem

Cheers,
-James


--
jmusick

Damn...and update - it looks like I was too optimistic in my last post.
I had restarted after the reg change and was able to delete the file I
was having a problem with...but then a little bit later I started having
the problem again - so doesn't look like it was a fix (at least for me).

Very odd - as I hadn't had this problem before at all...but have had it
consistently today in one particular directory - I just can't
move/delete files without the CPU pegging at 100%.

Doing all the standard anti-virus/malware checks (as the directory is
associated with bit torrent downloads), but doubt that is it.

-James


--
jmusick

I have had a similar problem since about noon of yesterday, where
explorer.exe takes up an entire core. According to ProcessExplorer, the
thread is the same as mentioned above,
ntdll.dll!RTlIntegerToUnicodeString+0x67

Around the same time as i noticed this, my start menu's recently opened
program list went blank:
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...kstartmenu.jpg

I had recently (that day) downloaded and installed: TeamSpeak Noise and
TeamSpeak Overlay (TSNoise didnt work, uninstalled and deleted it)
neither seems to be the trouble as far as i can tell.

I have tried several fixes that others on other forums and here have
suggested for similar problems, specifically those regarding: disabling
XML file indexing, the Windows zip support mentioned above, and I can't
locate any file that Windows appears to be trying to scan/open
continuously.(even working with ProcessMonitor) (like here:
'explorer.exe (ntdll.dll!RtIntegerToUnicodeString+0x67) - Microsoft
Windows Vista Community Forums - Vistaheads'
(http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/mic...ring-0x67.html))

ProcessMonitor including only that thread reveals nothing, and I can't
find any more info or ideas so i decided to post here in case those of
us with this problem can find a common "thread" (i made a funny!) or a
recent install or -something- that might help fix this problem.

Vista Home Premium 32bit with all updates "Automatic Update" installs.
AMD Turion 64x2 1.8Ghz
1 gig ram


--
mach327

mach327;703624 Wrote:
> I have had a similar problem since about noon of yesterday, where
> explorer.exe takes up an entire core. According to ProcessExplorer, the
> thread is the same as mentioned above,
> ntdll.dll!RTlIntegerToUnicodeString+0x67
>
> Around the same time as i noticed this, my start menu's recently opened
> program list went blank:
> http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...kstartmenu.jpg
>
> I had recently (that day) downloaded and installed: TeamSpeak Noise and
> TeamSpeak Overlay (TSNoise didnt work, uninstalled and deleted it)
> neither seems to be the trouble as far as i can tell.
>
> I have tried several fixes that others on other forums and here have
> suggested for similar problems, specifically those regarding: disabling
> XML file indexing, the Windows zip support mentioned above, and I can't
> locate any file that Windows appears to be trying to scan/open
> continuously.(even working with ProcessMonitor) (like here:
> 'explorer.exe (ntdll.dll!RtIntegerToUnicodeString+0x67) - Microsoft
> Windows Vista Community Forums - Vistaheads'
> (http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/mic...ring-0x67.html))
>
> ProcessMonitor including only that thread reveals nothing, and I can't
> find any more info or ideas so i decided to post here in case those of
> us with this problem can find a common "thread" (i made a funny!) or a
> recent install or -something- that might help fix this problem.
>
> Vista Home Premium 32bit with all updates "Automatic Update" installs.
> AMD Turion 64x2 1.8Ghz
> 1 gig ram


Hi all, I've been fighting this identical issue on a Vista 64x machine
for most of the night. Through a process of elimination, research, and
frustrated headbanging, I believe I have identified the problem - at
least for my system. I have all of the above symptoms, but killing the
process does not fix the issue.

Out of curiosity, and frustration, I started prodding around in the
user folders, and found on my user desktop a series of several hundred
1-2k files, with a series of sequential file extensions. It turns out
that 7zip, when given instructions to make a series of connected 100MB
archives of a large file, actually produced several hundred small files
instead. These were invisible on the desktop itself, but visible in the
user/desktop directory.

Thus far I have been going through and manually deleting these (about
10 at the time) which is taking several hours. However, I suspect these
files have caused a glitch in the indexing service, and that has caused
the above DLL to be called improperly.

I will keep you guys updated.


--
strixus