Processor running constant 100%

Laptop PC, 2+ Ghz, gig DDR.
The RAM registers as installled and running at less than 50% load, but the processor registers as running 87 to 100% all the time.
Applications take forever to load, if ever.
Error messages concerning not enough memory to perform the requested function appear perodically.
These are new RAM chips, but quite sure that they are the correct pieces for this machine, even though not PC manufacturer brand.
No processes, out of the ordinary appear to be running to make the processor work this hard.
What else should I be looking at? Am I missing something? Would the pagefile have any berring on this situation?