CPU usage 40 - 60% all time

[tweeve2002]

My friend and I are having a problem with his computer...The CPU is using anywere form 40% to 60+% CPU usage at all time.
the system is a
OS - Win 2000 Pro - all service packs installed
CPU - 1.3GHz OC 1.5GHz P4
Motherboard - Abit TH7 RAID
RAM - 1GB Samsung RDRAM 800MHz
Video - ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128MB
Sound - onboard - AC97
NIC - RealTek
PSU - Unknown 350W

We are not sure what the problem is quite yet...We disabled the onboard so we disabled the Sound, that didnt help...then we uninstalled newest video drivers that we downloaded, ran with no video drivers and it was fixed ...then took the driver disk and reinstalled the drivers from the disk and the problem came back

do you think that the video card has gone bad? he got the card at X-mas!
or could it be another problem that we havn't thought of?

update: we have ran spy- bot and got rid of some wild tangent spy-ware and CPU usage droped to 10 - 30%
ran Adware found nothing exept for a few internt cookies CPU usage jumped back up to 40 - 60+% :frown:
diabled windows messenger, and two start up items...still nothing

we are starting to think this is software or driver related?
any Ideas?

Also he is starting to think about trying linux...how is the windows emulator for it...he has alot of games he like to play?

 

[squirtle24]

First, you need to find out what is tying up your CPU.

Ctrl-alt-delete, go to the Task Manager, click on the Processes tab, and then on CPU. This shows you the processes that are using your CPU the most.

 

[tweeve2002]

Originally posted by: squirtle24
First, you need to find out what is tying up your CPU.

Ctrl-alt-delete, go to the Task Manager, click on the Processes tab, and then on CPU. This shows you the processes that are using your CPU the most.

Done that...it dosnet say what is using up so power