Using way more page file than usual

Usually my machine will use 100-150mb of page file. For some reason on saturday it randomly started using 250-300 making my machine VERY slow. Ive gone into msconfig and set nothing to start up,closed everything I could in the task list and still its using a lot. Ive also ran a spy doctor and deleted what it found as well as a virus can which found nothing.

Any suggestions? Maybe just reinstall windows?

I'd try some less drastic measures first. Check to see which processes are hogging the most memory. If you have a Gb you could shut the PF off and see if it gets re-created.

Running 512mb of memory. Reason im considering reinstalling anyways is bc I wasnt thinking when I reformatted two weeks ago I installed windows to my 5400rpm hdd instead of the 7200.

Ah. Well if a re-install is in order anyway...