CPU spiking, even after reformat

[Alexexex]

For some reason, my dimension 2400 has not been the same after I reformatted. I've reinstalled all the recommended drivers from dell and am running xp home edition. The problem is that my cpu is unusually strained. Not from a background processes, but from active processes. For example, if I were to run a simple animation the cpu usage would be maxed out. Even the lightest flash games strain the cpu to max. Now, I'm not sure if its the software or hardware to blame, but my first guess would be the software as hardware is meant to last for many a year. If you have any insight, please share.

Thank you, Alex.

 

[mailpup]

If you downloaded your graphics driver from Dell, try going to Nvidia's website to download the latest graphics driver. Click here