Everything checks out on the compatibility with board and videocard, new updated drivers for video card and motherboard. Also used drivers on cd it came with also updated it, then removed and downloaded driver from ECS and AMD websites altogether.

This is a fresh install of xp with all the updates.(SP3)


When viewing ctrl, alt and dlt under task manager there are no process running, yet it shows the cpu usage at 100% when video card drivers are installed. If driver is taken out.. all is normal and cpu usage goes to 0-3% and PC is fast once again.


I am using a goal3+ motherboard, sis761gx/965L chipset, 754 cpu socket. AMD Sempron 3000+ , 2 gigs ram which is all new 2 weeks ago. No viruses or malware.

This PC is not being used for gaming just normal day to day email and surffing the net or watching movies.

There is nothing running under processes other than the task manager exe. When I am opening it. Task manager shows 2% cpu usage when clicking something for a brief second then goes to "0" This is normal when the driver for the video card is not installed.

When video card drivers are installed cpu is at 100% usage and PC is slow as hell until removing it. There are no conflicts or error reports in system hardware.

Video card is a Radeon HD 3450 used in the pci express slot on motherboard


Thanks for the help and suggestions.

As you say there is nothing related to the video card in processes, it would be a service that would be using the resources


With ATI drivers, there are some services that you do not need to have running 'all the time'

When installed, check out services and see which services are associated with the ati card.

If unsure of something, you can Google the service name or post it here -

There is ATI Hotkey poller which is safe to set to disable
ATI smart is safe to disable

To view services, click start, run and type services.msc
Hit enter

Go down list, to change priority, right click on ATI service and go to properties
-Use dropdown box to change and click apply

See if this helps