Paul,When you get at the end of the rope with no solution in view then it will be time to spend a $60 or so to get professional help from Michael Greenblatt.Some (or many) people here cannot stand the idea to spend money for this. They think it is "balloney".But I asked Michael for his help (I live in Belgium and Michael in California). After several sessions of several hours I had a FS previously working at 9-10 fps with many sliders to the middle or left, working at 30 -35 fps with all the sliders at the right.This guy works on the PC parameters and services and on the FS options.I have NO interest in his business . But if you are desperate then go to him (if you are not desperate do it also); what are you to lose.Here is his web site: http://www.fs-gs.com/ Have a look at it and give him a call or send an e-mail.

Hi Jim,According to his original post, NOT FS9.exe is chewing up 99% processor time (which indeed would have been normal) but the System.SYSTEM process, leaving no CPU cycles for FS9...

Hi guys, an update - with a brand new HD and fresh install of XP/SP2 with FS9(9.1)... Still the same problem. No added hardware except for the video card. I can only think thats it's a motherboard issue. I did try the suggestions of you all, and your suggestion Denny after the reload. I guess i could call that chap for $60 but thats half the cost of a new mobo :-). Im pulling the machine apart one last time, cleaning all contacts, testing voltages and flashing the BIOS again, updating any firmware I can find for my HW. If it's still happenning I'm either going back to WIN ME or buying a new Mobo ..... Ok, only kidding about Win ME.. :-)Thanks again to all of you for your replies.. fantastic response to this. Paul.

Sorry if this has been mentioned earlier but there is one more thing you can try.Go to WindowsSystem32Driversetc and look for a file called Hosts.Yes there is a Directory call etc LOLThere will be no file extension on the Hosts file. Open it with notepad and look for more than one instance of '127.0.0.1 localhost' Some software has a habit of adding numerous entries of this value and they cause a cyclic process resulting in SYSTEM hogging all the cpu power. Delete them leaving only one entry, and save the file ensure that no file extension is added to the end of the file. You may need to enable view file extensions for known file types in tools, folder options, view also you may need to enable 'Show hidden files and folders'Hope this may helpCarlhttp://environments.flight1.net/gepro/GEPRO_BANNER_CARL.JPG

HI Guys, I managed to get a loan of a P4 Socket 478 board and plugged all my Hardware into it... Booted up and ran FS9... No problem at all. Everything running sweet. It seems it was my mobo all along. I don't know what could be wrong with it but changing it out seems to have worked. At least I know what I need to do now... closure :-))I'd like to thank you all for your suggestions and time in helping me outwith this one. It's very much appreciated. Paul