While using my laptop, it can run certain programs fine, for the whole day. Then if I open up certain programs, say, photoshop for school, it will run fine as well, for sometimes half and hour, sometimes for five minutes...but ineveitably the CPU usage will randomly rocket up to 100%, and I'll have to restart my computer. I've done everything I can think of....even reformatting. Only certain programs and things set it off though....I could be in word, autocad for school, MSpaint, all day and it'd be fine, but then I open solid edge for school, or even a crappy little flash game, and within minutes(usually, sometimes longer) of running fine, the CPU usage storms to 100%. Even when I end task everything that's doing something, it won't fix the problem. I have to restart. Anyone have any ideas as to whats wrong? Cause I'm lost for anymore ideas......Thanks.

......forgot to say that after it's up at 100%, it stays there....a straight line.....no dips in it at all.

Here are some possibles . There's a bug in XP that can cause your CPU to go to 100% and other operations (such as copying files, network connections or streaming audio/video) to suffer degraded performance when you right click a file or folder. Want to know why it happens and how you can work around it? See KB article 819101 at http://www.winxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=030923CO-Right_Click http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=819101 ================================= Clicking AVI Files on explorer causing 100% CPU Usage http://www.computerbastion.com/xpfixes.htm http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin/performance/index.cgi?answer=1036282972&id=1036282433 ======================================== Explorer.exe Process Uses Many CPU Cycles When Windows Is Idle http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=317751 To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: How to Obtain the Latest Windows XP Service Pack http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;322389 The information in this article applies to: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Microsoft Windows XP Professional ===================================== High cpu loads in idle condition . http://www.computerbastion.com/xpfixes.htm =================================== The Processor Performance State Is Not Restored to the Maximum State If the CPU Runs at 100 Percent http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330512 ===================================== Try performing an advanced clean-boot of XP to isolate the problem: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=316434 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=310353 ================================ There are four services associated with lsass.exe and most users (especially home users) do not need any of them running. They are: IPSEC services Net Logon NT LM Security Support Provider Protected Storage Type "services.msc" in run , press Enter and disable them. I suggest you visit the following URL for complete info: http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm ================================= Disable Indexing Services http://www.tweakxp.com/tweakxp/display.asp?id=1335 http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html Indexing services is a small program that hogs HUGE amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexing and updates lists of the files on your system, so you can search for them quickly, but it's completley unnessesary. To disable it, go to the Control Panel and click Add/Remove Programs. Click the Add/Remove Window Components. Simply unclick the Indexing services and click next!