Windows 7 - Flash, video playing, sound and generally high CPU Usag

Getting some feedback from Microsoft at this forum, going to try a hotfix someone pointed me to as a possible fix.

Windows 7 High CPU Usage

Looks like I have finally solved the problem, thanks to some of the information in the Get Satisfaction forum.

A few people had fixed their problem by vacuuming their CPU heat sink / fan. So I thought, what the heck, doesn't sound like a solution but I will give it a go. And it has fixed my problem. So the dust on the heat sink (which it had a bit as it was a few years old), looks like the problem, well more specifically the CPU getting to hot.

Although I don't suppose that every user will be comfortable with pulling their CPU heat sink apart, it did fix my problem.

I also had noticed that my Hardware Acceleration in Windows Media Center would stop, so it got me to thinking it wasn't just Flash that was turning off Hardware Acceleration. I mainly noticed this when watching High Definition tv, which puts more CPU load on the system.