CPU maxed out!

You should check Task Manager to see what resources ar running in the background during the process

Another option would be to check to see if you have the space to increase the virtual memory on system

Use System Monitor to check for memory leaks and system performance

To augment on the above answer (which is a great start), run msconfig from Start | Run. Select the Startup tab and you will see a list of check boxes. Many of these are unnecessary for Windows to run properly. Programs you have installed sometimes write themselves to your startup routine, taking up valuable resources. The worst of these are programs like Real Player (realtray, etc. -- you may find several entries for RealPlayer, WinZip and other non-essential programs. That will tax your resources. Uncheck these boxes, but only the ones that you are confident are not essential Windows files.

Secondly, the best way to run defrag is under Safe Mode. There, you will only have a small number of essential drivers loaded. To access Safe Mode, following POST, press the F8 key for a menu then select Safe Mode.

I'd also check how much free space is left on your drive. If it is nearly maxed, remove some unused programs (prior to defrag) and temp files. Also check your swapfilefrom System Properties.

Good luck and hope this helps!

Regards,
Jesse

Hi,
I fix Dell for a living here up north!!
I think it is time to fire up the old virus
scanner and start doing some scanning.
If you have a scanner installed (with current sig files) and it doesnt find anything try the on line scanner at http://housecall.antivirus.com/
Thanks, ---Mark--

WinXP?

The first thing I'd do is delete ~*.*, delete *.tmp, deleted everything found in Temporary Internet Files, and delete everything in c:\windows\prefetch (WinXP).

Then go to http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/ and download, installand run Ad-Aware. Delete everything it finds.

Test and you should be fine thereafter.

I have resolved the same problem by opening the task manager, click the view tab, then click update speed, then choose HIGH.

In response to the suggestions on how to deal with overdriven cpu on 8200 Dell, the task shows the " system idle process " as using a large amount of resources and the cpu slows down when I open the task manager screen. I have the factory setting for virtual memory and 60 gigs of hard drive space left. I ran Adware from Lavasoft and got rid of a lot of junk, but problem still persists. One of the suggestions was to open up c:\windows\prefetch and empty it out. It has lots of files in it would deleting them cause me trouble? I want to know before I start dumping this stuff Thanks Guys almost there!

In addition to the above, YOU MAY HAVE A VIRUS, also try downloading ADAWARE, you'll probably find that there is a bunch of junk runnig silently (or suppsedly silently) in the background.
Does sound like you have a Trojan though, VIRUS CHECK TIME!!

I performed everyone of the suggested remedies to fix my overdriven cpu problem and the problem seems to have vanished. A thank you to everyone who came to my aid. Thanks Angell de la Sierrajr.