when ever i try to run more that about 2-3 programs my CPU's usage goes to the roof. i thought that i might not have enough ram so i doubled it but that didn't seem to help. i rum TCP optimizer, pcpitstop optimizer, spybot search and destroy, ad-aware and registry mechanic. i even tried the driver scan but the driver that they tell me to install for my Intel chip set is older than the one i currently have installed according to Intel's web page. also when the CPU's loads are high the page file size only slightly goes up. thanks for the help rivman