Vista - Battlefield 2142 Issues in Vista Ult x64

I have a pretty decent system with 1800XT, P4 3.2Ghz, 2GB ram
Battlefield 2142 used to run OK on XP -- not stellar, but it ran ~ 30fps at max settings @ 1024x768
In Vista, I get 100% CPU usage as soon as game starts -- even while only menu is displayed.
In the game, at lowest settings @1024x768 I get about 15fps max, most of the time it is a completely unplayable <10fps. Moreover, it is not consistent, but lags for short period, then plays ok, then lags.

In my previous Vista x64 install (where game was running worse than xp, but ok), I accidentaly enabled EAX on non SB sound card which caused huge CPU load and therefore huge lag -- I checked the settings this time, sound quality is at minimum and EAX is disabled.

I'm out of ideas -- why is CPU @ 100% all the time? Why is lag not constant, but does not depend on the complexity or amount of displayed material? While I play a game like Need For Speed Carbon -- Videocard is noticably stressed as fans kick in to full power, but with BF 2142 -- videocard seems to be chilling while processor almost never drops below 100%!!!!

I have the most updated Videocard drivers available for Vista x64.
This is pretty much the only game I play so I would really love to see this solved.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Put your sound quality down. If you're running onboard then that'll be using cpu power as well as ram.

It's already at minimum, I honestly wish I could turn it off completely

Have you tried turning the graphics settings lower? Just a thought to see if there was any improvement!

Yeah, same intermittent lag regardless of graphics settings.

May be a stupid suggestion, but im not really sure what could be causing your cpu usage.
But have you un-installed and re-installed the game?

And are you sure its cpu usage at 100%. I played BF2142 the other night (see sig for my spec) and i was getting lag. But i think my problem is more of a ram issue. Just dont think 2 GB is enough to run 2142 under vista without any lag.
Even with XP, 2 GB was only just enough to run everything smoothly.

I have a logitech G15 keyboard with an LCD display so I can see the CPU/RAM usage during gameplay and there is most certanly enough ram. Even during the busiest scenes in the game, there is still about 200-300MB of physical ram free. CPU usage is a constant 100%.

BTW, i have exactly the same components as you do except for videocard -- 1800XT

No way....you've got same components as me lol!!!!!

In that case i really dont get why your cpu is 100%.
Have you posted on Total Battlefield 2142 to see if they can help??
They have a got a tech section, may be some help

When the game is running have you used task manager to see what processes are running and what is using the most cpu resources.

You could try disabling certain processes and programs, then run game.
Also what AV program are you using?

No, to be honest I didn't know about that forum. I'll try them.

A couple of times it was Nero Mobile (of all things) and after I killed it, the game started running much smoother, but sometimes, it is BF that is using up all CPU so there's nothing to kill.

Symantec AV 10.2 Corp for Vistax64