addressbooksync hogging CPU and Ram (>70% + up to 2GB Ram!)

Background:

I've just reinstalled my system software for the third time this year, and copied over a few document files (Mail, Calender, and some application information) due to ongoing issues with my mac for the last 2 years. have tried to solve the issue by buying a new macbook pro, to replacing the HD 3 times and reinstalling (Now my third time). Using Mobile Me. Deliberately tried to migrate as little information from my old system as possible, in case there were any corrupted files (even though I have ran several virus detecing software, as well as using disk warrior to repair directories and running disk utility many times a day.

Rather than copy over my address book contacts, and fearing that the mobileme won't sync properly. i thought it best to reset the mobile me sync

and copy all the contacts from the server to my mac. . However after several attempts at doing this (by going into the system preferences, selecting mobile me, selecting sync, and then clicking on advanced, selecting replace information on this computer with mobile me) nothing has synced as of yet. however each time i do get the system saying there are 2 conflicts that need to be resolved for the 2 contacts that come standard in address book - your contact details and apple). I was initially hopeful that it had all synced, but when opening up address book, there still only remains those 2 contacts.

Problem:

The mac was running slow, with the beachball frequently showing just switching between windows etc. so I ran disk utility. which took about an hour to repair all the permissions. Rebooted. the system now seems to be funning reasonably well, except the fans are on full speed so i checked the Activity Monitor and shows addressbooksync working overtime - 70% or more of CPU plus using up to 2.2GB of my 4GB of ram. the funny thing is no sync opration is showing (the mobile me icon in the menu bar is not moving, addressbook is not open, so have no idea why this is happening?

does anyone have any ideas?

Macbook Pro 13" 2.4Ghz, 4GB ram

Seagate 500GB XT drive

OS 10.6.7