Opening folder makes CPU shoot to 100%

[knowitall]

Every time I open a folder I keep on my C drive my CPU goes to 100% and the only way to stop it is with a restart. The folder contains a variety of MP3, MPEG & AVI files. It just started doing this recently, seemingly for no reason at all. I am running XP with SP1. Any help resolving this problem will be greatly appreciated.

[cpugeniusmv]

see if this registry key does it...

[williamgatos]

i had the same problem with video files, turned out to be a codec problem. i got gspot codec analyzer and it showed me the problem. If im not mistaken it was one of the divx codecs imo "they suck". William Gatos

[knowitall]

When I check Windows Task Manager I see eplorer.exe is the culprit, running at 98 - 99%. Why would this happen?

[wonderboy2005]

When I check Windows Task Manager I see eplorer.exe is the culprit, running at 98 - 99%. Why would this happen?
windows tries to get thumbnails of AVI files. So every time you open the folder, explorer.exe is processing the first bit of each of the avi files in order to get the needed thumbnails.

You could just apply a different view to the folder (view > 'list for example)