Wordpad and high CPU usage

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When Wordpad is run on this system I've noticed that CPU usage hits 47% and
uses ~5.2m of memory even when idling and with no document loaded. OTOH, my
notebook and several other computers show 0% and 4.7m under the same
conditions. The notebook has similar specs, with a P4 630 (3.0 ghz) and 2gb
RAM. The OS is XP SP2 with all updates. I do not get the same issues when
Notepad or Word 9.0 are run. These run as expected, with no CPU usage when
idling.

Needless to say, something is awry here, although I have no such problems
with any other app and the system is very stable. Having Wordpad running at
any time heats the CPU up 15°C or more than normal and has other obvious
side effects on performance. Any help with this bizarre quirk would be
appreciated.

System specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte 8KNXP v1 (non-Ultra), f13a bios
CPU: 3.0C P4 Northwood (not OC'd, HT enabled) with Zalman CNPS7000-Cu HSF
2gb RAM (4 x 512mb Kingston DDR400 in dual-channel mode @ SPD, matched
pairs)
PSU: Antec 480w Truepower in Antec full-tower case
Fans: 80mm x 5 (2 w/PSU, 2 on rear, 1 on HD housing)
OS: WinXP Pro (SP2)
Keyboard: Northgate 102 Ultra (via PS2 adapter)
SATA0 & 1 (ICH5R) - WD360GD x 2 in RAID0 array [C: 72gb, boot drive]
IDE1 - Master: Maxtor 6Y160P0 [D: 160gb]
Slave: Mobil Rack rotates six drives for weekly cloning.
IDE2 - Asus CRW-4824AH CD burner
IDE3 - Disabled
IDE4 - Disabled
AGP - Matrox G450 DH at 4x
Monitors:
- Sony E540 (21" ) primary
- Sony A240 (17" ) secondary
NIC (on board) - Connected to Linksys 4-port router
Networked computers: 3
Sound (on board): Enabled
Firewire (on board): Enabled (for extra ports)
PCI1 - Empty
PCI2 - StarTech firewire adapter
- Lexar Compactflash reader/writer [F:]
- WD1200BB 120gb on firewire adapter [J:] (Powered on when needed)
- WD1000JB 100gb on firewire adapter [K:] (Powered on when needed)
PCI2 - Empty
PCI3 - Extra parallel adapter (LPT2)
PCI5 - Empty
LPT1 - Brother HL-645 laser printer
LPT2 - Epson LQ-850 dot-matrix printer
USB 2.0:
- Canon LIDE80 scanner
- Epson Photo Stylus 2200 ink-jet printer
- Wacom pen tablet
- Digital Wallet (usually not connected)
- HP Pocket PC h2215 cradle
COM1 - USR Courier V-Everything external modem (for fax)
COM2 - Empty


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