Why is my computer running so hard?

[Richlife]

Lately my computer's CPU has been running really hard (i have one of those gadgets on my windows sidebar). Usually it runs around 1-20% when I'm surfing the internet, but nowadays its running at 50%+ when I have no programs open and I'm just sitting on the desktop. I don't know what is going on. Maybe some of you do?

Specs:
Dell XPS M1210
Intel Core 2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz
Windows Vista Home Premium

Hope this info helps

[pat]

Welcome to Poasters.

I suppose the usual suspects should be checked first, scans for viruses, spyware and other malware. Check to see that your system is not too fragmented by defragmenting the hard drive.

You may also want to check into a program like Whatsrunning to help identify the running processes on your system when the CPU is cycling so high.

[pat]

JA, Works fine for me on Vista 32 bit.

[Chandler]

I use SysInternals Process Explorer.  If you run that you will see a detailed list of what's using resources.  Typically if it's under Interrupts or DPCs, you have a piece of hardware or driver causing the high CPU usage.  Those won't show in the normal Windows Task Manager.