Hello, For the past few years, I have had a slight CPU problem. It was however bearable. Maybe every once in a while I would suffer extreme lag for a few minutes, but in the last month or two it has gotten much much worse. I am at the point now where, whether it be Firefox, a game, media player, or any random program, that it consumes anywhere from 40-90% CPU. Now, it is so bad that sometimes the whole system freezes for a second or two. It happens when the CPU is at 100%, and it is intermittent, about every 15-20 seconds, and everything including the cursor freezes. The sound also gets stuck, and skips for those 2 or so seconds. I don't know what to do. I have had my fan cleaned about a year and a half ago, and it helped, until now. I have ran all kinds of scans(primary programs are AVG, Ad-Aware, and Spyware Blaster. I also use Winpatrol, Process Tamer, and Process Explorer). I have tried so many things. I have read that high CPU can be caused by loose wires also, and have noticed that my screens back light flicks on and off. Could that be the cause? I will provide System specs, and also Hijack This! if needed. The NOSPIN Group is now offering Free PC Tech support at our newest website: http://freepctech.com