Normally I have no problem running multiple tasks at the same time. Before this started happening, I had no problem running WoW, now I can barely run WoW alone, let alone with AIM or a movie. The problem seems to be with the CPU, as it seems to always be at full or very high load. Any suggestions?

have you gone to the Task Manager/ services tab and see what's running your processor at such a high load? If it's broke, then blow that sucka up!

Yeah, what's causing the problem varies, but it seems like things will take up inordinate amounts of CPU for what they are. One thing I've noticed is that the problem is much worse, if only occurring when I have my external hard drive on and plugged in. Could the external hard drive be sucking up a bunch of CPU power, and if so, how could I fix it? (The external hard drive is a Western Digital 320 GB MyBook connected by eSATA)

It shouldn't the processor seeing as your processor can easily handle an external device such as a hard drive. Have you taken a look at your msconfig startup menu and unchecking some of those items that run in the background all the time that don't need to be? If it's broke, then blow that sucka up!

I always take care to keep my msconfig background items few, so that's not a problem. I suspect the external hard drive because whenever it's on, the CPU usage goes way up, even if the drive isn't being accessed. One odd thing is that even when according to Task Manager System Idle Process is at 99%, the Performance tab shows CPU usage at 30-50%. Any explanation? Another curious thing revealed by task manager is that my page file is being used even when there's plenty of RAM, for example currently I have over a GB of available physical memory (I have 1.5 GB installed) and yet my PF file usage is at 241 MB. Could that be a problem?

"even when according to Task Manager System Idle Process is at 99%, the Performance tab shows CPU usage at 30-50%." Run Process Explorer. It picks up where Windows Task Manager leaves off. It'll definitely show you where that CPU time is going. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/... Replacing Super P3: Pentium M Dothan @ 2.82GHz (166x17) 3GB PC2-6400 @ 667MHz 9600GT Blu-Ray Modified PowerMac G4 Quicksilver case Homebuilt 1920x1200 projector Vista x86

Hmm. I opened up Process Explorer and it certainly seems like something fishy is going on with System Idle process. It seems to be hovering around 40-60% CPU usage. Deferred Procedure Calls take up about 15-20% usually and Hardware Interrupts is normally in the 30-40% range. Services However, that all means next to nothing to me. I assume that my System Idle Process shouldn't be taking up half of my CPU cycles, but how would I go about remedying it? Thanks!