My CPU sounds like it's being murdered

For the past few weeks or so, I've been struggling with my CPU wailing and working extremely hard. I was obsessively watching my task manager and seeing that the CPU usage was through the roof, rarely under 75% and most often around 100%. This was extremely frustrating, especially when I'm trying to do my yoga and my tower sounds like it's being murdered by the class that I'm streaming. Heck, logging into Gmail made it sound like it was being murdered.

So I decided to do a few things. If you're like me, then you are no computer whiz. If your CPU is really working hard, you might try a couple of these things:

• First, I tried to do a custom start up from my administrator account. I stopped the computer from loading all this nonsense during start up. That sort of worked, but every now and then some program would lock up, not open, whatever and I'm certain it was due to my start up meddling.
• I cleaned my hard drive and then defragged. Although these actions were necessary they did not quell my CPU's suffering.
• I purchased a registry mechanic. I had been installing, uninstalling and battling viruses and my registry was a disaster. When my registry mechanic was finished doing the deed, it had fixed well over 2000 problems. The murderous screaming of the tower carried on, however.
• Here's what worked in the end. I got down on the ground and cleaned the layer of filth off my CPU where the fan cools the tower. It instantly quieted my machine. In fact, I was halfway done and the machine started chilling out.

This brings me back to the old acronym KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid!