CPU Meter shows "inverse" activity present

My computer has started being sluggish, not responding and the CPU meter indicates that it is in the about 90% active most of the time. Oddly, there is a jump when I close programs (most notably Explorer). I have used CCleaner, run both Spybot and Malwarebytes and nothing. Closing off processes in Task Manager seems to have no effect. There were some "Bing extentions" that freed up a bit, but this is still not what I am used to. Generally, the CPU meter reads no activity when I'm just reading something in the browser. That is no longer the case. Does anyone know anything about this. Is it a new Explorer problem (version 9.0.6) or do I have a bug maybe?:confused

 

I'm not sure which is the best tool. Go here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb795533
and download and run (one at a time) process explorer and process monitor. One of the two, most likely, will show you what exactly is using CPU resources.

 

-> fixrite

I would like to know how (and if) you solved this problem.

Dumb_Question
20.May.2012
Compaq Presario S5160UK DT261A (Celeron 2.7GHz, 1.5GB RAM) - MSI MS-6577 v2.1 - XP/SP3