Hi, ever since I moved to my new apartment I've noticed drastic reductions in framerate in all of my games that I'm playing. I've also noticed that the startup sound when starting Windows will hang for 2 to 3 seconds and make a weird, stuttering sound before going to the desktop. Also, when I'm playing iTunes and try to start any other application, even IE, that little stutter will interrupt the music for a second or two. I ran a CPU benchmark with Sisoft Sandra, and my CPU clocked in at about half of what it should be. I noticed that even when I had all programs disabled from msconfig and did a clean boot, that the CPU usage graph on the performance tab of the task manager is sitting at a constant 50-52% usage level... but I have nothing running. I have all the latest Windows updates, the latest drivers for everything, the latest BIOS version, I've run PestPatrol and AVG AntiVirus and come up clean with both. I'm thinking that the problem is somehow related to the motherboard, but I've exhuasted every option I know of. Can anyone help? My build: Intel P4 2.8ghz w/HT 800mhz FSB DFI LANParty Pro 875P Mobo 1GB 400mhz Corsair Dual Channel DDR RAM Seagate 80GB 7200RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive ATI Radeon 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder SB Live! 5.1 Sound Card Linksys Wireless-G NIC

See performance monitor and start with default log. Then add or change as you get closer to what is causing this.

In reply to jefro: The % processor time is at about 50% at all times, also the processor % interrupt time is at roughly 50% at all times. The most surprising discovery however, is the processor interrupts/sec. It was at 100% constantly. Does this mean anything specific?

UPDATE: After removing all drivers (video, sound, and NIC) and physically removing the NIC and sound card, I determined that the culprit was the faulty wireless NIC. As soon as I restarted once it had been removed, CPU usage was down to 0% when idle, and my games work like they should now. Everything has been reinstalled, and I'm off to newegg to find a new NIC. Thanks.

i have had to service two laptops in the last month which were running very slowly, the problems were similar to yours, although not quite as pronounced, and the onboard wireless (Intel Proset) was the major cause. "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." - BILL CLINTON