PC Slowdown when ripping/decoding DVD's

[illu5ionz]

Hi. I'm running an AMD Athlon 2700+, 512 DDR, WinXP SP2 pc. When i first built my computer about 7 months ago, i was able to rip and decode DVD's (using DVD Shrink) onto my C drive (took maybe 30-40 minutes), listen to my MP3's from an external hard drive, and surf the internet w/ several browsers open all at the same time without ever experiencing any slowdowns.

However, in the past month, i've noticed that when I rip and decode a DVD (still using DVD Shrink), it now takes anywhere from 50 minutes to an 1.5 hours and i can't even listen to my mp3's at the same time... they skip horribly and even surfing the net slows down.

CPU Usage is at 100%. all 512 DDR is still detected at bootup and in windows. What can be causing the slowdown? any ideas? any tips? I've tried running spyware/antivirus tools as well as defragging my drive but to no avail. I haven't installed any new big apps/games. Please help!!

[Gecko]

Have you tried typing Ctrl + Alt + Delete at the same time to bring up
the task manager, processes tab, to see what's using up allthe CPU?