Windows XP: System lag and CPU 100% when downloading

[Nitrothegreat]

When I download anything larger than 100mb or so, my system lags and the cpu runs at 100% until the download is done. Be it from a torrent or just download League Of Legends today...it never fails. I have used different torrent programs to no avail.

HijackThis Log is attached.

Edit: Forgot to add system specs...

Windows Xp Home Edition SP3
Intel Pentium CPU 2.80 GHz
2GB of Ram
NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT

 

[gbhall]

Often a large download is not written directly to where you want it to be - it is first cached somewhere and when complete, the cached data is finally written to where you asked for it to go.

Why is this relevant? Because you have no control over the cache location. The system uses internet cache, and this is typically full of HUGE amounts of rubbish. There are several ways to clean out download caches. Internet explorer delete browsing history, Disk cleanup, Ccleaner (for the more expert only). If your hard drive is more than 90% full, Windows will take all it's time trying to find some place to save the data.