[Burlg29]

Hello,
I've just joined the Forum as I'm in dire need of assistance. I've wasted too much time on this computer waiting for the screens to appear. OK, enough venting - here's the specs:
I have a Dell Inspiron laptop with a WindowsXP operating system. Over the last few months the system has been incredibly slow, the fan is always running and when I check under the Windows Task bar the CPU is at 100% with the largest culprits being explorer.exe, iexplore.exe and svchost.exe.

I recently purchased an external hard drive and restored my computer to the manufacturer's setting so I could start fresh. I've only added back things I need. I also installed McAffee security. I wondered if I should download a registry scan to see if that will help but I'd really appreciate any suggestions before I head down another unknown path.
Thanks so much!

[nothing2bdone]

I don't know about the processor at 100%, I wonder if it is possible that you have malware even after fresh install. Was it from recovery partition or discs? But I did use a vacuum on the inside of my very old computer a couple of months ago because my fan was running constantly, and would only shut off after a restart. After vacuuming out a TON of dust, the fan has stopped running constantly "for no apparent reason" (translation: overheating, i guess)