I've experienced this problem first hand with an old Dell Dimension 4700C that I had received refurbished. What would happen was that when I first installed XP, the computer would boot up fine with no problems. However, after about a month or so, I'd experience sudden and drastic processor usage. Using Process Explorer, I found that the "process" killing my processor was the "SYSTEM." I really couldn't find a fix for a very long time, and I was left with a computer that required me to manually suspend and resume threads (to use USB and reboot!) that was very fragile when it came to new software. About 4-5 months ago, a friend and I were adding new hardware to my computer and he suggested I disconnected it if I was having USB troubles. I'm not unaware if it was a manufacture defect or because of the previous owner, but there was definitely a big problem with the front-panel USB ports. Apparently (I'm not so hardware savvy, so pardon any assumed mistakes I may make) according to windows, the USB ports were drawing too much power from the motherboard (or the motherboard couldn't supply enough power?). Anyway, my fix was to go in and disconnect the USB ports and after that everything has worked just fine, as expected. Also, apologies if this was a bit of a ramble. Hope this helps.
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I've experienced this problem first hand with an old Dell Dimension 4700C that I had received refurbished. What would happen was that when I first installed XP, the computer would boot up fine with no problems. However, after about a month or so, I'd experience sudden and drastic processor usage. Using Process Explorer, I found that the "process" killing my processor was the "SYSTEM." I really couldn't find a fix for a very long time, and I was left with a computer that required me to manually suspend and resume threads (to use USB and reboot!) that was very fragile when it came to new software. About 4-5 months ago, a friend and I were adding new hardware to my computer and he suggested I disconnected it if I was having USB troubles. I'm not unaware if it was a manufacture defect or because of the previous owner, but there was definitely a big problem with the front-panel USB ports. Apparently (I'm not so hardware savvy, so pardon any assumed mistakes I may make) according to windows, the USB ports were drawing too much power from the motherboard (or the motherboard couldn't supply enough power?). Anyway, my fix was to go in and disconnect the USB ports and after that everything has worked just fine, as expected. Also, apologies if this was a bit of a ramble. Hope this helps.