"RS" <rbs747X@Xhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:pvdHb.66767$ss5.19922@clgrps13...

Since changing it to "1" CPU , it has been processing work units and
Motherboard Monitor shows the CPU maxed out all the time.

I'm on dial up here, and I noticed that Yahoo pager or whatever it is ...
can occupy all the CPU cycles by itself ... under some circumstances !!

In XP HOME (and other versions) you can view the CPU load in more detail by
pressing Control-Alt-Delete to get into Task Manager.
On the Processes tab, click on the CPU column header button to sort the rows
into ascending order of CPU usage.
Click it a second time to get it into descending order - i.e. highest usage
first.
View > Select Columns... will allow you to see lots more interesting stuff.

You should see your seti client at the top in most circumstances.
I am currently downloading a big file at 256Kbps, yet seti still gets ~96%
of the cycles.
It makes me wonder why we think we need faster computers.
(Its the profits, stupid.)  ;-)

Yahoo pager is not the only process that can incorrectly consume your cycles
without permission.
When I installed XP Home SP1 the SSDP Discovery Service (which looks for
UPnP devices on your network) was gradually consuming more and more of the
Low Priority CPU time until after a day or so it used the lot and Seti got
nothing.

A good site to find out what are all those strange XP services that launch
themselves is www.blackviper.com
and the non-Windows processes at www.windowsstartup.com
Be very careful about disabling services - if you muck it up it is very
unlikely that tech support will be able to untangle the mess without a
re-install.