Using ACPI fixes the problem; CPU useage is now quite low. Start line was sudo vdeq kvm -net nic,vlan=1,macaddr=52:54:a0:12:01:00 \ -net vde,vlan=1,sock=/var/run/vde2/tap0.ctl \ -boot d -cdrom /usr/local/backup/XPProSP3.iso \ -std-vga -hda /dev/turtle/XP00 \ -soundhw es1370 -localtime -m 1G -smp 2 I switched to -boot c later. I ended up doing a fresh install; my repair got mucked up and I got the message "The requested lookup key was not found in any active activation context" when I entered a location into MSIE, including when I tried to run Windows Update. Googling showed this might indicate some permission or file corruption issues. They may have happened during my earlier (virtual) system hang. My experience suggests a theory: if you use SMP with XP (i.e., more than 1 virtual processor) you should enable acpi, i.e., not say -no-acpi. It this is true, the advice to run windows with -no-acpi should probably be updated. It's possible single CPU systems are affected as well. Ross -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html