[chris b]

its possible spyware, I was going to say more ram until i saw the P.S. Could be a program that has a massive memory leak?

Is it a %50 even right after startup? I mean not during startup because thats expect because its loading everything. I would turn on the machine or restart and let it boot, after about 3-5 minutes after everything has loaded check it there. What processor is in there? speed? I mean if your running a 700 mhz p3 even with 3gb it will be slow, I am assuming its not that slow but still curious. More details on your system.