Shogakusha I think we are not talking about the same thing. My problem is not that the processor will not go over 50%, it will do that in bursts during a task. And often it is running down around 10% or so. The problem is that I may walk into the room with my computer at 4am because I can't sleep, or some other time, and I can HEAR the computer being active. Then I check the cpu and it will be active at around 50% or so, but I am not actually using any programs!! Then if I close down each program that is open, like e-mail, poser, word, etc. it turns out to be Poser that was making the sound and running the cpu high. But this does not happen all the time, just often. For example right now I have poser open but I am not using it, and also Eurdora e-mail, and even a couple of websites. And I am typing to you, and yet the computer is quiet and the cpu is jumping between 4% and 18% only. This morning, though when I got up I heard the computer being active and checked and the cpu once again was being used at around 50% even though I had not used it for hours.