Scrolling Apps = High CPU Utilization

["M. Kirchhoff" <spam@0ubliette.org>]

First, let me describe the problem:  When using the wheel on my logitech wheel
mouse (PS/2, ImPS) to scroll up and down in various apps (Mozilla, AbiWord), I
see very high CPU activity as reported by "top".  The faster I scroll, the
higher the CPU utilization.  For example, if I continously scroll in either
direction, util. quickly reaches upwards of 90+%.  As soon as I stop scrolling,
util. drops to around the normal 5%. Note that the same thing happens if I drag
the scrollbar up and down manually, too, it's just that I generally use the
mousewheel instead.

Now, let me describe the system briefly:
AMD Duron 1.2GHz
768MB PC133 SDRAM
nVidia GeForce2 MX 200, 64MB vRAM
Debian Woody, stock bf2.4 kernel, stock "nv" video drivers, *no* kernel patches


Any ideas why CPU util. is shooting so high? Is that normal? I understand that
I'm just using the generic stock "nv" drivers for my video card, but would using
the proprietary nVidia drivers make much difference for simple 2D use? Would
recompiling my kernel to better suit my platform make a significant difference?

Thanks for any hints!

Sincerely,
M. Kirchhoff