[chris547]

I have a Dell Inspiron 530 with an Intel Core 2 Duo Quad CPU and 4GB of RAM running Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2.

With nothing loaded except start up programs and Task Manager CPU usage is typically 35% and physical memory in use is around 40%. Do these values seem correct? I would have expected the CPU figure to have been 1 or 2%.

How does one investigate if anything is wrong and needs remedial action?

I have done a scan with MSE, Super Antispyware, Malwarebytes etc and apparently all is clean. I suspect my software may be at fault and loading and unloading programs has caused some issues but not sure what to do. Can anyone give some guidance please.

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What does Task Manager show you? What processes are using the most CPU?

Here is a method I use to see if programs running at startup are causing a problem, or in your case using a lot of CPU.

How does it behave if you boot to Safe Mode with Networking? If better then something is starting at boot that is causing the problem.

Advanced startup options - XP
Advanced startup options - Vista
Advanced startup options - Windows 7

Use msconfig to determine what is causing the problem

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP, Vista or Windows 7:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista
How to use msconfig in Windows 7

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs better.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.

[Ztruker]

What does Task Manager show you? What processes are using the most CPU?

Here is a method I use to see if programs running at startup are causing a problem, or in your case using a lot of CPU.

How does it behave if you boot to Safe Mode with Networking? If better then something is starting at boot that is causing the problem.

Advanced startup options - XP
Advanced startup options - Vista
Advanced startup options - Windows 7

Use msconfig to determine what is causing the problem

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP, Vista or Windows 7:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista
How to use msconfig in Windows 7

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs better.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.