CPU maxed out while browsing images

Discussion in 'ESET Smart Security' started by Capp, Feb 7, 2009.

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  1. Capp

    Capp Registered Member

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    This is something new that just started this in the last couple of days, and I can't figure out why.

    Anytime I open a folder that has photos in it, the ekrn.exe process jumps to 99% cpu usage and doubles its memory usage. Most of the time, it causes my computer to completely freeze up and I have to hard boot it (which I hate doing).
    The only way I can get it to unfreeze is to kill the ekrn process, if I can get the task manager to open up. If I manage to kill the process, I can continue browsing the folder at that time, but if I close it and re-open it, it does the same thing.

    I thought it might be a glitch with the version I had, so I uninstalled and redownloaded version 3.0.684 and it is up to date. I am also running Windows XP Home SP2.

    I also used RegTuneup and CCleaner to do a nice little system cleanup thinking that might help as well, but no luck.

    So far, the only solution I have been able to come up with is to add the .JPG extension into the exclusion list, but I really don't want to have to do this if possible.

    I've been using ESS since it launched and only started having these problems within the last couple of days. We download a bunch of pictures of my 4 month old son on to the computer and we can't even browse the folder without it locking up. We have hundreds of pictures of him on here and never saw any problems with viewing them until recently.

    Any ideas?
     
  2. Waterfox

    Waterfox Registered Member

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    Hmm... that's strange that you're getting this issue only recently and never before.
    I've had this issue from the beginning and the fix that worked for my pc was to uncheck scan on file open in real-time file system protection.
    Don't know if this will help in your case but you can try it out.
     
  3. elapsed

    elapsed Registered Member

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    Not sure what's happening, but they are all being scanned because of thumbnails. If you want a bad way to fix the problem without adding an exclusion, disable thumbnails.

    I've got a truckton of images in folders (photographer) and never experienced this problem, unfortunately I can't think of why it would sporadically start happening, unless you recently installed a video or audio plugin set, maybe a media player, maybe Nero or such, really anything that could potentially hook thumbnail creation.
     
  4. Capp

    Capp Registered Member

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    It is an odd occurrence for sure.

    I can't disable the option to scan files on open because that kinda reduces the usefulness of having a real-time protection.

    I haven't added anything new to my system in awhile. I installed a 3-in-1 printer over a year ago and we use it to scan in photos, but most of the time we just import them straight from the camera.

    I can't figure out why it would hang while browsing a folder containing less than 30 pictures. I also have my view set to "icon" now "thumbnail" as well.
     
  5. Capp

    Capp Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 16, 2004
    Posts:
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    Location:
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    A new discovery...

    It seems the ekrn.exe process is maxing out when accessing all kinds of things on my system that I have been using for years.

    Today, I tried to open my k-Billing software. Its my financial software and have been using it for 5 years alongside Eset. Today, as soon as I lauched it, my computer hung. I couldn't even get the task manager to open.
    I decided to let it churn away and see what happens. 10 minutes later, it finally started moving along and I got the task manager to open. I even had to disable AV/AS protection (you can see the Red Eye in the system tray) just to get it to stop choking my system. See Screenshot.
    I checked my setup and I do have Unwanted/Unsafe applications unchecked. See other screenshot

    I've never had this problem up until the last week when I noticed it hanging on the pictures, as I described above. If I choose to kill the ekrn.exe process, it auto launches like it should and runs just fine until I try to open something else.
     

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