Problem seems to have been using square brackets instead of parenthesis.

The fact that you're running Windows means you're starting with a bloated system, and on top of that, anything (malware or legitware) could be leeching copious amounts of CPU.

Try adding a linux partition.  You'll at least have a lean and stable platform to start with.  From there, the Maple GUI is quite a hog.. it leaks 2 gigs of heap space in a few hours, then crashes.  So also avoid the Maple GUI.  Ideally, you want to be using a text editor that knows maple code (eg. emacs), and you want to execute that text file from the commandline (using maple, not xmaple).  Maple 13 runs well in that scenario... just avoid the GUI.