Progams Freeze, cpu at 100%

I have two systems, one devoted to digital video and photo editing and producing. I can't find a way to attach something, so below is a copy of what I have documented. I also have a 130+ page report from AIDA32.
The problem is I am quite often getting a program not responding, and when I do a CTRL-ALT-Delete and click end the program it takes several minutes to close, like 15 minutes or more. I have tha AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+, and understood it was a dual processor, but only one shows up in the Task Manager and I was told both should. This might be my problem, but I have no idea how to get the second processor up and running, or even if I really have a dual processor - it was sold as dual by the guy that put it together.
Thanks for any advice.
Jack

Here are my specs:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+
Promise Technology Inc Ultra IDE Controller
VIA Serial RAID Controller
1394 Net Adapter
Marvel Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller
ATI WDM Rage Theater Video
ATI WDM Specialized MVD Codec atinmdxx.sys
Audio Codecs
Aisio Codecs
imaadp32.acm
msadp3232.acm
msg711.acm
msgms32.acm
tssoft32acm,
msg723.acm
Windows Media Audio Codec
Sipro Lab Telecom Audio Codec,
Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec
Microsoft PCM Converter
Legacy Audio Drivers
Audio for Wave sound driver for the TotalRecorder
Mixer for Wave Sound driver for TotalRecorder
Legacy Video Capture Devices
WDM Video for Windows Capture Driver (Win32)
Media Control Devices
mciavi32.dll
mcicda.dll
mciqtz32.dll
mciseq.dll
mciwave.dll
RealtekAC'97 Audio for VIA (R) Audio Controller
Video Codecs
Cineform HD VFW Codec
iccvid.dll
Indeo video 5.10,
ir32_32.dll
ir41_32.dll
iyuv_32.dll
msh261.drv
msh263.drv
msvidc32.dll
msyuv.dll
tsbyuv.dll

 

Have you ran any spyware checks or virus scans? Also, if you do the ctrl+alt+delete, if you click on the process tab, and close what ever process you want through that it ends almost instantly. Much faster than end program.

 

Yes, I do have several programs to maintain the computer. Diskeeper and often defrag, Spybot, AMUST Registry Cleaner, Reg Cleaner, Registry Mechanic, and Ad-Aware, and Norton Anti-Virus. All have been run, often, but no fix. I haven't used the process to close, because I don't know what I'm doing and their warning scares me.

Jack,
The Frightened

 

Please visit the Spyware Specific page of this forum, read the sticky notes at the top, follow them, and if you aren't infected with spyware, viruses, and adware, it will give you a good feeling knowing that. I'm suggesting this because I noticed that you are running Norton AV. While I'm not knocking it, it has been known to let some viruses through, and the earlier versions didn't detect spyware/adware. Hope this helps!

 

Yes. Norton pretty much sucks. Especially if you pay for it. I would personally advise Avast!, since that is what I have used problem free. On the spybot and adaware subject, since you are scanning, are you updating too?