Something is maxing out my processor. After just starting up, or restarting its ok. But after being left idle for awhile it becomes painfully slow. Going into System Monitor (under Admistrative Tools), the graph shows the processor to be constantly at 100%, but doesn't tell what program(s) is the cause. Any ideas on how to locate the culprit? Possibly something running in the background?... Thanx!!

Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up the task manager, click on the Processes tab and look through them, see which one is munching your resources and kill it. It sounds like spyware, d/load Ad-aware from Lavasoft, install it, update it, and then run an in depth scan of your registry and drives. Good luck.

If ad-aware fails to stop the problem, go to google and type in CWSHREDDER, download the program and run it. This program eliminates a peice of spyware which intergrates itself into the browser, causing IE to max out, which leads to 100% cpu. Good luck

Thanks for the tips so far, but no luck. The task manager only flashes open, then immideately closes, so I can't get a list of running programs--just that its at 100% from Performance. I downloaded and ran both ad-aware and cwshredder, but they didn't resolve the problem.... any more ideas??

If you can not open the Task Manager, then I have to lean toward the virus theory. Go to one of the online virus scanners and run a complete scan. Trend Micro has a great scanner. It's free and easy. Go to This site