Spikes in CPU usage

[joe2812]

I keep getting 'spikes' in my CPU usage on my laptop.

The only 'active' programs I have is an MSN chat window, but I my usage goes up to 90-100% on occasion before dropping down to about 3/4%

Any ideas what could be causing this? My Task Manager says I have 56 processes running at the moment? is this quite high?

Obviously it's proving to be quite annoying as it is happening more frequently, and seriously slows down the system.

Any help much appreciated..

[Mac the Knife]

It's probably the indexing service - you can stop it with no side effects.

[joe2812]

Sorry, i'm not too techy...

Indexing service?

[zoink]

have a look here

http://www.theeldergeek.com/indexing_service.htm