full-text search at 100%

Looking for suggestions:
First off, I am not a DB admin. and I am unable to find any help in the specific help newsgroups or other blogs. Currently have a server running SQL2000 SP4. This setup has been working fine for a couple of years now. Within the last month or so I have started to have Full-text (mssearch) issues. For some reason that I can't seem to figure out, mssearch will run the cpu at 100% and gobble up all the RAM until it brings the server to a stop. Hard boot is the only option. This has happened multiple times. I have tried the clean-up options and even removing and rebuilding the full text indexes. Nothing seems to work. I have to keep mssearch disabled to keep the server running.
Additional info:
3 active user databases - approx. 10 gb each (email archives)
W2K SP6a - 1.5gb RAM - SQL2000 SP4 - member server in domain
My questions are:
1. Is this a hardware / software or database issue?
2. If it is a database issue, will back up of each DB and restore to a new DB help / cure this issue?
3. Will a re-install of SQL and/or SP4 help?
4. How do I throttle the CPU and RAM for MSSearch?
Thanks in advance for any input and direction you can provide
Gerald

[quote user="atexan"]W2K SP6a - 1.5gb RAM - SQL2000 SP4 - member server in domain [/quote]
Was that a typo or did you say 1.5GB? Even desktops these days seem to have 2 GB. Perhaps you need more memory? Its cheap these days.