*cough* Uh.. I already told you... if you didn't read.. its not constant. and it is whaever program is dominantly running at the time.
That means:
I run one program-- Firefox for example.. cpu goes to 100%, open another program, Dell Jukebox, firefox then takes its normal CPU size 10-20% and the Jukebox fills the other 80%.. I switch back to Firefox CPU kicks up to about 70%, and Jukebox(still playing at same patchy rate from CPU malfunction) suddenly claims to be using 30%. Put ANY program you like in place of Firefox and the Dell Jukebox and you get the same result.

Also just dragging a window around makes it use up 80% CPU.. I think its some kind of Graphics driver issue, but there are no drivers available for download for the Inspiron 8200.. (GeForce4 440Go Mobile)

Hunh? No I didn't dump Norton, because it has Nothing to do with the CPU lag. All of the Norton applications and processes when they are running take up very little of the background process... I'm surprised that people complain so much about it, because you can set the big scanner to operate when your NOT using the computer... bleh.

Ah.. now the fan won't stop.. and if it keeps this up its going to burn out.. *sigh* I might have to wipe the HD again and be much more careful about what I put on my computer.. >. And thats gonna take about 3 days to restore everything.. *tch*

Finally found a Graphics driver from here.. They were well hidden.. -.- .. and I still don't know if its a graphics driver problem I have, as there were 6 drivers and the only difference or detail between them was the number at the end of the file 01 to 06, and they ask what does your card use?.. I checked.. nothing about a number suffix..>,

;.; it might be hardware failure from age.. this laptop is like.. 3-4 years old now.. Ah.. so unless I can find out what it is.. the only option to save this computer may be by wiping it.. again... heh. o.o;;

Good suggestion to run AV and AS programs but that doesn't sound like the issue.

You might be running into a few different issues here some look like hardware some software.

First lets talk about the hardware:

It sounds like your laptop may either be overheating or the motherboard things your CPU is overheating. What I would do is pull the keyboard out and the thermal shield, then reseat and reapply NEW thermal grease after cleaning the heatsink and CPU surfaces. Next you'll want to use canned air to clean out the thermal assymbly fan as well as the chasis for dust. This isn't hard to do but if you need specific instructions I think I still have my DCSE (Dell Certified Systems Engineer) walkthroughs that can give you a step by step.

This should resolve your fan issue. If it doesn't it may need to be replaced. If that doesn't fix it you might need a new mobo.

Now onto software:

The next thing would be to remove uneccessary programs from your startup. If you are familier with working with your registry continue otherwise you may not want to do this as deleting wrong entries in your registry could cause your OS not to boot or load properly.

Anyway, click Start, Run, type regedit then hit enter.
Browse to this location in your registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\RUN.
From within this directory are most of your startup items. You can safely remove MOST items but make sure you understand what you are deleting before you do it. Example you can delete a QuickTime startup item but you shouldn't delete a hardware driver or antivirus entry.

If that doesn't help at all, I'd sugggest a Windows Repair. Let me know if you need help doing the Repair.

Message Edited by pcgeek11 on 02-24-2007 02:35 AM

I have the exact same problem with my Inspiron 8600 since Thursday:

-The symptom: some application uses 100% of my CPU. (which is normal for that task because it's a peak value). But instead of dropping the CPU load stays at 100%. When I kill that process with the task manager, suddenly another running app (like winamp, smartFTP, firefox,...) starts eating up all the leftover CPU power so it totals to 100% again. When I kill all the apps, it sometimes lowers, but when I start something up the CPU rises to 100% again. After a short while of 100% the fan starts blowing of course, but that is just normal, since a CPU with 100% load really heats up fast...

-What I tried:
1) I did a clean install of Windows XP. I installed the drivers that Dell provided with my computer.
2) I opened up my laptop and used a vacuum cleaner to remove all dust etc. After the clean install (Friday) everything worked fine again, but today some app used 100% CPU power and the same problem started again.

-A possible explanation: some Windows Update patch causes this issue. That would explain why my install of windows that has worked flawlessly since 2003 suddenly got this problem. It also explains why my clean install worked without problems for a while, but after receiving all the patches got the problem again... One update I did today is were two security patches for IE7...

Could all Inspiron users who have this problem please report their experiences? That way we could see if this is symptomatic for our computer model...

Message Edited by anzbevrct on 02-25-2007 11:29 PM

PCgeek: Sorry about the gruff comment o.o; I had stayed up all night pestering my machine for answers.

Okay.. I opened my machine up and took a look inside.. a hair seemed to be fried in place between two wires on the motherboard between the power inlet and the cpu.. O.o;; I removed it of course..
Ran a diagnostics program.. and uh.. it started beedeling at me >. loudly .. it said this:

DST Short Test: Error 1000-0142
Unit 4: Drive self test failed, status byte 69

Running the rest of the diagnostics now...
Uh.. when I plug it in. the fan starts up again.. -.-;

Now that I think about it.. it did perform well until a recent update that shut the computer off... o.o Hmm....

Edit: Just completed diagnostics of most of my computer.. everything seems to be fine.. except for one little anomaly.. The diagnostics of my motherboard returned fine.. but.. in another test the the motherboard cannot detect the RPM's of the fan! O.o Yet the driver of the fan itself gave back perfect results.

The error was: 3700-011B

Message Edited by Baeron on 02-26-2007 11:52 PM