Comment 17 for bug 256188

On my system it's definitely related to gnome-settings-daemon somehow. As soon as I log into gnome, even on a newly created test account, /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon jumps to 20% cpu with X at 60% cpu. Killing gnome-settings-daemon stops the problem, but, of course, gnome doesn't look as pretty. Re-launching the program crashes X. I have no issues with unusually high CPU usage when using flash (it's high when playing flash videos, but that's always been the case and drops when the video is done.)

$ X -version

X.Org X Server 1.5.2
Release Date: 10 October 2008
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.24-16-server x86_64 Ubuntu
Current Operating System: Linux Lappy486 2.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP Tue Nov 4 19:33:06 UTC 2008 x86_64
Build Date: 24 October 2008 09:06:49AM

$ apt-cache show gnome-settings-daemon

Package: gnome-settings-daemon
Priority: extra
Section: gnome
Installed-Size: 3448
Maintainer: Ubuntu Desktop Team <email address hidden>
Original-Maintainer: Debian GNOME Maintainers <email address hidden>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 2.24.0-0ubuntu3