I have been displaying the CPU Monitor as a gadget on my Vista sidebar. I am
running RC 1 (build 5600), and my question is : Why is there a constant CPU
usage of anywhere from 25% to 100%. I understand some backround usage, but
this is constant and to the point of causing system slow downs. My system ib
running on a AMD Athlon 64 chip, with 3 GB of physical memory.

bladewing51

Yeah I've seen that happen alot on my build too not too sure what it is,
sometimes it idles between 0 - 8% and other times 25% and on but thats
usually when I try to install something that isn't actually Vista compatable.
Maybe its just that not everything works yet and causes some sort of slow
down while Vista trys to find out how to deal with the program.

Anyways I run a AMD Athlon 64 Duel Core HT, 1GB Ram

I may have found my problem, at least part of it, I am running an Internet
Security suite from Computer Associates, "EZ Antivirus". It was advertised
as compatiable with Vista but I have had problems, mostly small, since about
a day fater installing the program. I did disable it and the usage went way
down, 8 - 10%, But now I need to find another anti-virus program. Any ideas?

homer of nac‰ž®‡íiçb±ë¬²*²hœ®‹(~×(

Check your system logs. I had a similar issue and was able to track it to a
faulty NIC driver (Marvel Yukon). The driver installed OK, but was generating
hundreds of error messages a minute. Once I disabled it, CPU useage droped to
5% or less when I was idle. I am on AMD 64 X2 4200 with 4 gigs of ram. VIA
chipset.