Computer Problems - High CPU Usage - Computer Lag

[aspinn]

Im having issues with my laptop... im finding that its CPU usage is running insanely high even when i dont have anything running.... it has been running at 30-60% (jumps) leveling out at 40%.... which for me causes intense computer lag and only allows me to open 1 or two programs.

Becuase of this i often have my internet, windows media player or whatever else i may be running at the time freeze up and crash (forcing me to end task).... even then after i have end the tasks of this i have sideaffects and my entire computer crawls enless i restart..... even then it still is laggy


When i look at my proccess i notice the main cause of this problem is that my Explorer.exe (NOT iexplorer.exe) is taking up 15-25% of my cpu... This WAS NOT happening a few weeks ago.... My CPU usuage was always in the 3-8% when nothin is running and i was able to run multple programs included photoshop CS2 (which i had to unload from my computer because it no longer runs anymore) with programs behind it... in total i was able to run 4-5 firefox tads, windows media player and photoshop CS2 with VERY little lag.... now i am only able to keep 1 program open and if i attempt to oopen more my computer freezes up..... i tried everything i culd think of to solve this problem, i even restarted my computer to its factory defualts and STILL the dam thing keeps running so high.....

My question is.... does anyone have any idea why this is happening? could my proccessor or ram be damaged and would that have been caucing this itnence system lag/cpu shortage..... becuase evem after i reinstall everything over and over it STILL occurs. Well leme know and if there is any information i can provide then let me know that too thanks!

oh btw im using an

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Acer aspire 3620 (laptop)

Windows XP Home Eddition (SP2)
Intel{R} Celeron{R} M Proccessor 1.50GHz
504mb of ram


And thank you for reading all that... leme know if you have any ideas! thx!

[CujoRbd]

does this only happen when on battery power?
if not, are you connected to a UPS or another power backup system?

how much free space do you have on the hard drive that windows is installed on?

when you say that you 'restarted my computer to its factory defualts' are you saying you put in the CD and restored the computer's software and such to how it came? did Acer or the place you bought it give you a Windows install CD? If so, and your personal data is backed up, try formatting the hard drive and installing a clean copy of windows.

maybe you're running into what Microsoft is detailing in the following document, and you can request the hotfix they have:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/890582/en-us

[nemowolf]

try running spyware, antivirus, and defrag. Sudden jumps in processing might be caused by some nasty on your system.