Help - Random restarts and 80% CPU Utilisation

Hi all, my computer has had a spack attack a few days ago. All has been going mostly fine for months.

My computer is just randomly freezing or shutting down. It started with a quick flash of a BSOD, then a restart. These occured every time I was getting into a game or the comp had been up for a few hours. Also the computer after that started to load up very slowly also. The windows loading screen would pause before it became bright for 15 odd secs and then when the little blue dots that show the loading progress came up, it takes 7-8 times across instead of 1-2.

I checked various things inc;
reset all cards/memory
Reset CMOS
took of my O/C
unpluged all but one HDD
MEMtest checks ok
removed audio card
updated all drivers and BIOS
checked HDD's with WD program

No good. I then tried a repair install. (Repair install wont come up in the windows setup as an option unless all other HDD's are unplugged!)

I didnt get the BSOD+restarts anymore but I do get total system freezes after that at random intervals. Also something strange. Most times after windows loads (and while it does) the cpu useage shows at 100% and things load very slowly (ZA, Norton etc) After an age and the startup programs have loaded, the useage stays at around 75-80% useage. Task manager shows 'system idle process' as using it up.
This is happening more and more frequently now and its tough to get it working. Sometimes a boot into safe mode first will get it working, but not always and only for a time before it freezes.

I tried another repair install to no effect.

I think I've eliminated most things except the M/B or CPU as faulty.

Any help please? I'm out of ideas.

Thanks in advance

If you're hitting 80% cpu useage, getting random crashes and you're not overclocked anymore, it could be a spyware issue. Try installing, updating and running from safe mode lavasoft adaware (http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10319876.html?tag=lst-0-1) and Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10289035.html?tag=lst-0-2).

I'm using MS antispyware and it picks up some little browser hijacker and deletes it.

Are the others any better?

Different scanners often pick up things that the others miss. That said, MS Antispyware seems decent. I'd still try the others.

What process uses up the cpu time? THe one you're currewntly using? A specific one?

Well it was working for a day or so after a norton scan (dunno if it had anything to do with it) so I didnt mess with a good thing by trying to fix it.
All of a sudden I noticed the CPU utilisation was back up again. I left it like that and went to bed, but in the morn there was only a black screen to greet me.
I had to try about 5 times to get the computer to boot as it would freeze while loading.
Its obviously on now, but the CPU is sitting at 80% used.

One thing I have noticed is that the sound is playing up. I get crackles and squeeks in games sometimes. More importantly, in device manager the "Multimedia audio controller" shows as being without driver (yellow question mark near it) I have an audigy 2 S/C and a reinstall of the drivers dosent fix it. Still shows as problem.

Is there some other drivers I can use/need to get this working? Could it be causing probs?
I took the thing out yesterday to see how I went but the computer still seemed to load slowly as described above. I didnt bother waiting to get to the desktop proper.
I heard maybe I have to put the card in the orange slot somewhere?! It has been working for months in the third slot tho...

Any ideas?

I would check the following:

- Is the CPU cooler attached properly? Perhaps it is overheating and throttling back to avoid frying. May explain high CPU usage, slowness in general and instability.

- Grab memtest86 from www.memtest86.com and run it. This will test your RAM and let you know if there is a problem. Bad RAM is a common source of BSODs and general instability.

- Checked PSU rails?

Cpu at max hits 45deg. MBM runs all the time. Mem test has checked out fine a few days ago.

I think it is software/bios related as I got a beta bios (1.52) and reinstalled my chipset and onboard sound drivers as well as only loading essentual programs at startup.

It seems to work ok, except windows loading screen does still pause as its starting. I've re booted 3 times since then and it seems stable (no O/C yet) Lets see how I go.

well my windows install died. I have been getting corrupt messages and having to use the repair console to fix the boot files.
I got this message yesterday after another freeze up and hard restart;
The following file is missing or corrupt "<windows root>\system32\hal.dll"

I couldnt repair console it or repair install it so I totally re installed windows.

As soon as I installed the chipset drivers and restarted, the problems begain!!!! If I just do a system restore to before that point I get no problems (except no performance/no real use of computer)

wtf?? The chipset drivers are causing me grief?

Firstly are their any other drivers except the MSI ones on the site?

I dont think so, so is the motherboard to blame? I think my only option is to RMA it but Ive never taken anything back before. Will they accept it? Common problem I'm having?

THat's an nvidia chipset, right? Try getting the latest drivers right from their website.

All the drivers I've tried dont work. The only thing I can do to get it to boot is to reinstall windows and run with NO chipset drivers aside from whatever windows use. As soon as I install them, I get the probs. Take them of via a system restore and its fine. Even the ones on the orig driver disk cause probs where origionally they were fine.

Obviously something has gone wrong and I better take thing thing back whe I get a chance.