Think you can figure out whats wrong with my Latitude? Overheating may be the culprit:

Am running today without the Nvidia driver; how come I can use multiple screens?
The CPU is still spiking violently when I scroll or open new windows.

I8Kfangui.
John-im not sure I understand your statement on CPU usage

 

You haven't mentioned finally what power mode the system is currently in.

 

Whn docked, almost always High Performance.
When undocked, mostly Balanced.

 

If you're really determined to find the cause then suggest you install and run Process Explorer to pinpoint the resource issue. I usually only suggest for advanced users - but if you don't want to take the easy way out by accepting a new system from Dell, this might be your only other alternative without having to guess.

 

Ill look into it-thanks.

 

I never use the High Performance profile since it keeps the CPU running at full speed even if there is no work to do. The Balanced profile should let SpeedStep control the CPU speed according to the workload.

Run the wPrime benchmark using each modes and see if the performance difference is significant.

John