Like the title says taskmgr.exe is running @ 99% most of the time or fluctuating up and down btwn 18 - 99% even while no programs are running. ( save for the background programs like codecs and windows blinds, but other than that nothings running! I tried using a Avast anti-virus, but it took 12hrs to get half way done scanning. It found some cracks I use, but those are months older than the problem so I left'em alone.

I'm ready to back up my music and then weipe the drive clean, although I a boot disk I don't want to go through the hastle. Please help me obi wan!

Have you checked your start up items?
Start,run type msconfig, then the startup tab
Is there anything starting with windows that you may not need to be running on startup?

Have you installed anything recently?
In task manager and processes, end processes one by one and see if resources go down to try and narrow dodwn what might be taking up the resources

Have you tried a system restore point to an earilir time when this was not happening?