Dual Core / Affinity problems with explorer.exe

D

d7a7z7e7d

Gawd
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Oct 19, 2004
Messages
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I recently purchased an AMD X2 3800+ and an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe. Here's my problem:

When I use windows explorer to browse the contents of my hard drive, I'm finding that it is lagging as I work my way into the directory tree. I'll click on "C:" for example, and it will take about 1 second for it to display the contents, then I'll click on "Program Files" and once again it lags and takes about 1-2 seconds to display the contents. I've never had this problem before and I've tried everything from over and underlocking my CPU/GPU/RAM and even switching my DMA Transfer Mode from DMA to PIO. I also thought maybe it had something to do with my RAID driver so I messed with that a few times to no avail.

Nothing seemed to work. HOWEVER, today I got the idea to set explorer.exe's affinity to use only one core. And when I do that, EVERYTHING is fixed and I can fly through windows explorer at the normal lightning speed I'm used to. So, my question are:

1) Does anyone else have this problem where Windows Explorer is laggy if allowed to run on both cores? If so, how do you fix it?

2) Is there anything I'm overlooking that will let explorer.exe utilize both cores without this annoying performance loss when file browsing?

3) If I absolutely HAVE to force explorer.exe into using one core in order to speed things up, Is there a way to have the affinity set automatically with each startup? It never seems to remember my settings once I restart; it always defaults back allowing it to use CPU0 & CPU1. And, well, that can get annoying to have to set with each boot if you know what I mean :)

4) When explorer.exe's affinity is set to only use a single core, what kind of applications will be restricted to this core? Will all of my other third party programs (Photoshop, Internet Explorer, Virus Scan, etc) and games be able to use both cores or does it all run under the explorer umbrella so-to-speak and inherit the single core limitation? Any explanation of what kind of hinderences I'd be inflicting by going this route would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot guys. I know one of you out there has an answer. I've already looked everywhere I could think of for an answer and I'm afraid that I couldn't find a single similar case :( So, the [H] to the rescue to is!

Anxiously awaiting a response,

Doug
 
I'm no expert, but right away I thought of starting up in safe mode and killing explorer.exe through TM, then using SetAffinity to get Explorer to permanently start in the affinity of your choosing. Windows File Protection is disabled in safe mode IIRC so you just have to hit cancel if WFP bitches after restarting, then you're home free, at least until a Windows update replaces explorer. Remember to back it up JIC. Hope it works.

edit- if SetAffinity doesn't work directly on Explorer after killing the process, try copying explorer.exe then using SA on it and then renaming the original file to something else and then setting the modded file in its place.
 
PliotronX said:
I'm no expert, but right away I thought of starting up in safe mode and killing explorer.exe through TM, then using SetAffinity to get Explorer to permanently start in the affinity of your choosing. Windows File Protection is disabled in safe mode IIRC so you just have to hit cancel if WFP bitches after restarting, then you're home free, at least until a Windows update replaces explorer. Remember to back it up JIC. Hope it works.

edit- if SetAffinity doesn't work directly on Explorer after killing the process, try copying explorer.exe then using SA on it and then renaming the original file to something else and then setting the modded file in its place.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your idea. I'll go ahead and give it a shot if limiting explorer.exe to a single core is my only option. I really only want to do it as a last resort as I would imagine that making the shell run on a single core would put a bottleneck on my system and I would no longer be taking full advantage of my dual core setup. Although I am still unclear on whether or not this would limit everything else in windows to the single core as well.

Does anyone happen to know why my Windows Explorer would be laggy when both cores are enabled? It's odd how as soon as I put explorer.exe on a single core, everything comes up without hesitation whatsoever. I just don't get it :(

Thanks again!
 
Ive never had that issue, have you tried the AMD driver and microsoft patch?
 
Are you sure the affinity fixed the problem? The first time you use my computer/drives, it takes longer to start. But after that, it gets cached and becomes faster. Defrag lately?
 
Yeah, forcing explorer.exe to a single core seems to make it all go away. I used the SetAffinity program (thanks PliotronX) to permanently set the affinity to CORE 0 and now everything seems fine! But, in the back of my mind I'm still wondering if I'm ONLY limiting windows explorer or if I'm limiting every thread ran beneath it as well. Do you think all of the standard windows applications or DLLs will be restricted to the single core as well? How would this affect other programs like Photoshop, Flash, Internet Explorer, etc? Since they are all opened as separate processes they shouldn't inherit explorer's affinity, right?

I have tried the Microsoft Dual Core WinXP patch found in the Dual Core Optimization Guide in the AMD HardForum. I noticed absolutely no difference regardless of what I was doing. What is this AMD Driver you speak of?

Also tried degragging, removing and re-installing my primary and secondary ide controllers, changing data transfer modes and even unplugging everything except my WD360GD raid. Still got the same laggy windows explorer :\

Thanks again!
 
d7a7z7e7d said:
Yeah, forcing explorer.exe to a single core seems to make it all go away. I used the SetAffinity program (thanks PliotronX) to permanently set the affinity to CORE 0 and now everything seems fine! But, in the back of my mind I'm still wondering if I'm ONLY limiting windows explorer or if I'm limiting every thread ran beneath it as well. Do you think all of the standard windows applications or DLLs will be restricted to the single core as well? How would this affect other programs like Photoshop, Flash, Internet Explorer, etc? Since they are all opened as separate processes they shouldn't inherit explorer's affinity, right?
Click to expand...

One core should be more than fine to handle that.
 
I don't think explorer has any dependencies.

From CMD:

tasklist /svc | find explorer
 
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