WTF CPU usage 100%

Thanks will look into it, don't see how that will cause the defragger to go off like it did but I'll disable it, I don't need it.

P.s. since there's been no post back in awhile I assume the "grinch" is working on it. I wouldn't have even caught it if it wasn't for the fact that in his initial post where he quoted his specs:

SB Audigy Gamer

The PC seems to be running fine. My CPU usage was normal this morning. Why would EAX be a problem? The card is supposed to support it. Is it a driver issue? Or is it a fuction that just isn't fully supported yet?

*shrug -- I'd guess it's probably a conflict between the card the driver and XP or any combination of the above. Anyway, I guess that took care of your problem by the sound of it?

So far so good. Thank you very much

what about going to start menu...programs...accessories...system....system restore....and restore your compuiter to befor you installed your games then try installing just one game at a time like one per day and maybe help you narrow down your problem

I hate system restore with a passion. Quite honestly I don't know if installing the games was the problem. All I did was put the disk in and hit install and walked away, checked to see the progress and inserted disk 2 if necessary. So I didn't notice a performance problem during install because I wasn't really paying attention. I did check to see if one of them installed properly and I know that game uses EAX. So me disabling EAX seems to have fixed the problem.