agent177

Hi there,

This is my first time posting a thread here as I normally consider myself quite computer savvy, but I have this really irritating problem that's suddenly come up in the past couple of weeks that I can't get to the bottom of.

Basically what happens is this: my laptop will usually start up normally -quite quiet and quite fast, the way it used to always be. But after a few minutes (it could be 1min or 10min, it varies), it will suddenly get extremly noisy and very slow for no reason, and stay like that until I shut the computer down. Opening the task manager shows cpu usage of 60%+, no particular program causes this, just whatever is open at the time. For example, as I type firefox is using around 40%, but literally any program I open uses a high amount of cpu (even something like solitaire or minesweeper!). I downloaded Process Explorer to see if this would help get to the bottom of it, but it only shows itself using around 30-40% cpu when I have it open!

I've run many virus scans, spyware/adware scans etc. and they always come up clean (I always try to keep my laptop clean as a rule anyway). I've tidied up the registry, defragmented, error checked the hard disk etc. and there are never any problems. When the computer is sitting idle, cpu usage jumps around between various different applications, but no individual one is causing the problem.

Below are my system specs for info (it's quite an old laptop, but it's always run well and I don't put a lot of crap on it):
Dell Inspiron 9100
3.2 GHz Pentium 4, 1GB RAM
Windows XP Service Pack 3
ATI Radeon 9800

Sorry I don't know what else you might need, but let me know and I'll post it.

As I said, this has just started to happen randomly in the past 2-3 weeks, and I'd really appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks.

agent177

Does anyone have any ideas?