CPU/Memory problem?

[Good Companion]

System setup:

MSI KT7 Ultra 2
AMD Athlon XP 1700
2x 256 Crucial DDR sticks
120 MB HD
Win2k SP4

Here's the weird thing. I've had 256MB ram in this machine for a while and wanted to upgrade. I purchased a 256 MB stick from Crucial by using the guide to pick the right ram for your motherboard. I put it in, and now it seems like certain programs cause the CPU to go to 100% and just stay there. For example, Roxio EZCD 5 Platinum and windoze own disc cleanup.

Is this bad ram from crucial? Should I have done something more than stick it in when installing?

TIA,
Dana

[Good Companion]

Steve:

I just tried that, and it seems like the problem is still here. I haven't tried to burn a CD yet, but I ran Windoze disk cleanup and my CPU usage jumped to 100% with only that the Kodak software updater running (Kodak in the background).

Dana