TechSupport failed me... anyone know why a "Balanced" power scheme runs 100% CPU 24/7?

Everyone knows that the Balanced Windows power scheme is supposed to lower the clock speed/decrease energy usage when the CPU is not needed, and ramp things back up when a program does. But one machine I have is constantly 100% CPU usage with Balanced set, no matter how many applications I close, the application under it will just become 100% CPU usage instead.

The only way for the system to actually power manage correctly is if I specifically put it in Power Saver mode. This obviously causes problems because then everything running can essentially become crippled. In other words, if I switch from Balanced to Power Saver and then back, my CPU usage goes from 100%, to 0%, to 100% again. Something is wrong, but the question is what.

Media sharing and the like are disabled, checked the BIOS and every thing looks ok. Anyone here know what could be wrong? :/