Netzero High Speed - x1exec.exe becoming CPU bound

Question

My dad has a Dimension 4600 (I think) - it's fairly new (less than a year old) P4 2.8Ghz box with 256Mb of Ram.   The machine performs great - but he recently started having a problem with his Netzero software - and we can't get any kind of straight answer from Netzero technical support.  I thought I would see if anyone here had seen this before.   The problem is a program called x1exec.exe - which from what I can find out is the 'high speed' component of the Netzero Highspeed service.  As I understand it there are many ISP's that use this application for the compression/decompression end of their high speed services.   What happens is occasionally (very intermittent) the e1exec.exe application becomes CPU bound - it starts using 100% (Well - 99% really since the idle service always uses 1%).  As a result the computer begins to get sluggish and slow to respond.   I believe it began when one of my sisters friends installed both McAfee VS 8.0 and Norton AV 2003 both on the computer at the same time.  I have since removed all AV software and all traces of both McAfee and Norton - then reinstalled McAfee ONLY.  I'm not 100% sure if it this is exactly when the problem started - but it was around the same time.   The AV software is running fine and trying to stop services and or applications after startup to try to determine the culprit has been unsuccessful because there are too many people in their household that are sharing the use of the computer.   I was hoping someone here may have seen such behavior and could advise me on this.  **Crosses Fingers**  I have Google searched myself to death and have come up empty handed.   Anyone?   Andy

WhidbeyTomas · Answer

Hi Phantomandy. Thanks for your excellent post. I have a similar situation. We both are suffering from low RAM. I wonder if you have increased yours since your last post. I use netzero on my laptop which has four times the RAM and I have not had trouble with x1exec.exe. Also, on the the computer that is giving me the problem, I have an older version of the netzero software. I wonder if upgrading would help. I have not yet tried that because despite the great drain that x1exec.exe has placed on my CPU (96-99), hispeed is not actually working!

I realize I am not giving you much here, I just wanted to validate your experience and keep the issue alive. Perhaps more information will come. I will reply again if I learn anything. tg

phantomandy · Answer

Thanks for the reply. That is one thing that my father has been considering anyway - so I may suggest that he take a look at going ahead and upgrading the memory to see if that makes any difference.

One interesting thing was that we found that disabling the Microsoft Fax Service seems to have had an effect in reducing the problem somewhat. He has not experienced any more lock ups since disabling that service, but my mother and sister both say that it has had problems when they were using the computer a few times.

It's hard to verify whether they are experiencing the same issue or not as they are not computer savvy enought to look at the task manager to see what program is hogging the cpu cycles. It took me a while to get my dad to that point - and my sister and mother just use a computer as if it were a toaster. If it quits working they just unplug it (not litterally) and to tell dad LOL.

Thanks for keeping the topic alive.

Anyone else experienced similar issues out there??

Andy

andy (a.t) andyandersons c0m

WhidbeyTomas · Answer

That is interesting.  It sounds like your problems may be related to MS Office programs.  What version of Office are you using?  And, have to considered checking for upgrades?  What suggested a link between the fax service and the x1exec.exe program?  Was the fax program also hogging cpu?

phantomandy · Answer

The fax program wasn't doing any thing like hogging the cpu - but I just started eliminating programs one by one that were unnecessary.  When we got to the fax program - things improved.   I believe it's Office XP - but the fax agent is the one that's built into XP Home - not one related to the office install.   I'm hoping memory might help as well - but still hoping others have seen the same thing.

ncmarshall · Answer

I was wondering if you had any luck finding the solution to the problem with the CPU bound at 99%? I am currently working on my sisters computer, and she too is having the same thing happen. She also has a dell (8200) computer and is running 256megs or ram, Windows XP SP2 Home edition. I have connected her computer to my cable modem download all of the updates that I can, ran all of the nortons system checkers, spybot, windows updates....you name it I probably done it. I have also sent Netzero an tech request email explaining the problem, and I am waiting to here what they have to say. I have uninstalled, reinstalled netzero the current 8.0 version and still had problems. I then remembered when I set up the machine at first that Netzero worked perfectly, so I found the installer I had then (version 7.0) and installed it. That X1exec.exe file didn't run at 99% - it was lucky to run at 3% even after restarting the computer. I ran the program - connected and everything is working fine for the moment clicked disconnect and now the program is downloading its UPDATES. To me it seems as if there is something in that upgrade is conflicting with WinXP SP2 (I know that doesn't seem possible...lol).

Anyway after it's done downloading I will let you know if that worked or not.

Chris

ncmarshall · Answer

That did it. I removed all of Netzero 8.0 and reloaded Netzero 7. Then I let Netzero do its update, and it works like a champ. No more CPU bound computer. The only time the processes go up is when it is actually opening a window.

I hope this works for you.

Windows General

Netzero High Speed - x1exec.exe becoming CPU bound

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