Hi,

I hope I'm posting this in the correct forum. I have a Dell with 512MB RAM, P4, with Windows ME. The problem is, about 5 minutes after start-up, my processor starts running at 100%. Of course, most programs run quite slow, if they run at all.

Also, and I'm not sure that this is related in anyway, but when I try to open Microsoft Word, it crashes my computer and I get the "blue screen of death."

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi Legaleez,

This is caused for one of two reasons - either there is a process (i.e. a program) running that is corrupted and has made Windows go crazy trying to run it or there is some kind of virus or spyware on your PC that is causing a similar effect.

Boot up your PC and press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del] when the desktop has loaded. If there is a Processes tab (sorry, I'm not familiar with Windows ME), select it and you should see one process running at 99-100%. Can you tell us what it is?

Incidentally, could you confirm that this PC has previously been working OK and whether you've added or updated any hardware or software just before the problem started?

It would also be worth looking in Device Manager (right-click on My Computer and select Properties) to ensure that none of the hardware is highlighted with a yellow 'exclamation mark' symbol to denote a driver problem.

Hi DJ,

Thanks for replying. When I press C-A-D, the shutdown window appears, but there is no way to identify how much each process is using. In that respect, ME is identical to 98. Is there another utility that will tell me what processes are running?

My PC has been running well, and I haven't installed anything new lately. Also, I've checked the Device Manager and there are no exclamation points, question marks, red x's, or anything else. Everything seems fine.

Also, I've run AVG, Ad Aware, SpyBot, and Trojan Hunter and everything comes up clean. Additionally, as far as I know, my HiJackThis log looks clean too.

Could you please try rebooting into Safe Mode (press F8 as soon as the "Starting Windows" animated screen appears) and let us know if that is any different? That should hopefully identify if it's a driver or an application at fault.

Another thing to try would be to boot normally but disconnect any peripheral hardware, e.g. printer, scanner and, particularly, your Internet connection.