Explorer.exe high cpu usage on disk access

[LeftyAce]

Hi all,

I've searched around to no avail, trying to track down the cause of extreme sluggishness on a machine at work. The machine in question is being used both by the receptionist as a desktop, AND as a file server for the 6 person office...most of the files needed on a regular basis by everyone are stored on this machine (mostly word documents). The access time has progressively gotten worse, and now it is almost unusable most of the time (sometimes it's fine).

The harddrive is only 28% full, and defragmented.
When I go to open My Computer (which takes forever to open) I notice that explorer.exe starts using 100% of the cpu. I think that's the cause of the slowness.

The machine has Norton on it, active all the time. Last full scan was a week ago, but I'm running another scan just in case.

Any idea what's causing the bog-down?

System specs: "Power Spec" on the front of the case
Intel Celeron D 3.2GHz
2GB Ram
150 GB harddrive (28GB used)

[glc]

As a test, uninstall Norton.

[LeftyAce]

That's what I figured. It's not my machine, and removing Norton isn't an option.

Might getting a newer multi core machine also solve the issue? The guy in charge is more likely to go for that than to go without antivirus. Unless there are better antivirus options...I know the free ones are for non-commercial use.

Thanks for the info!