Quote - Checked NVidia again, and it appears you are not using the latest drivers, latest drivers are 197.45
(8.17.11.9745), maybe you should dl them and see if the performance is back? The fact that your problems happen with non graphic intensive programs also make me think there might be a flaw, either in the drivers you are using, or something went wrong upon installing them, but no memory leak, more like Windows lost communication with the graphic drivers.

I re-checked the HP site and the latest driver they have for my system is the one I have.  But then someone at the NVIDIA forum told me about the 197.45 driver that you mention.  

I'll try John's idea for today and see what happens so I'll know whether it was the theme or the driver.  If that works, I'll download the newest NVIDIA driver.  I am assuming I can download it directly from the NVIDIA  site?  Again, thank you for taking the time to help me.