system.exe hogging up the CPU

Question

Hi people.

Recently my Dell Inspiron 9100 started using a lot of CPU time for the system process. About every 5-10 minutes, the system process takes about 50% CPU power for a couple of seconds and the fan goes crazy. Rather annoying.

I have tried defragging and reinstalling drivers, but without any effect. I also scanned for adware (using AdAware from Lavasoft), but it found nothing.

Does anybody have a good idea on how to debug such a problem? I do not see anything unusual in the Event viewer. I would like to avoid reinstalling the operating system.

Hope someone has some good advice.

Thomas

mombodog · Answer

Is this the exact name in task manager  'system.exe'?  if it is read here   http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/system.exe.html   PWSteal.Trojan.... start in safe mode and delete it manually.. C:\Windows\system.exe     Message Edited by mombodog on 11-21-200608:00 PM

thshunm · Answer

No, sorry. The exact name is just System. Thomas

mombodog · Answer

You should post this on the hijack this forum for help   http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=si_hijack

mombodog · Answer

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx

RoHe · Answer

XP's Task Manager isn't very informative. Go to www.sysinternals.com and download Process Explorer (free). Run PE and expand list under System. It should show exactly which "System process" is hogging CPU time and that may help you ID the real problem.

Unfortunately Microsoft bought Sysinternals.com so who knows how long their useful apps will be available and/or free.

Ron

thshunm · Answer

I just installed the Process Explorer from Sysinternals. The process taking up CPU power is the System itself. All the items under System are expanded and none of them show anya ctivity during these 50% activity moments. The only thing showing CPU activity is the System process itself.

Any ideas?

Thomas

Delierious · Answer

Sudden bursts of fan and disk activity can sometimes be due to the Hard Drive shifting temp files about when there is little space on the drive. Do a clear-out of all temp files and see if that helps.

kirkd · Answer

SYSTEM is the Windows housekeeper - represents all the background maintenance operations. It usually takes up the most processor time other than the SYSTEM IDLE PROCESSES. Out of about 9 hours on today, SYSTEM took up less than 2 minutes. The only more intrusive program(s) are my browsers. See if you have indexing running. This can be a hog.

Dimension 9100
Windows XP SP2 Home
Intel 630 - 3.0 GHz P4/HT
2.0 GHz DDR 4300 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 6800 – O’Clocked to 425/800 MHz
160 GB Samsung SATA II HD
300 GB Seagate SATA II HD
250 GB SimpleTech External HD (WD Drive)
Sony DVD-ROM, Phillips DVD +/- RW
Dell 1901 FP Monitor

thshunm · Answer

The exact start address of the hog is ntoskrnl.exe!KeRemoveQueue+0x15d

thshunm · Answer

Hi people.

Thanks for all your input. I tried clearing out all tmp files, that didn't help. I checked again in Process Explorer what is hogging the CPU time. It seems to be ntoskrnl.exe. The funny thing is that the problem only seems to exist in my office. At home on a wireless connection there is no problem. The computer is running smoothly and silently at home.

Very strange...

kirkd · Answer

This is the OS Monitorstart-up kernel. If it shows up in the Task Manager, you may hav a virus. See this:

http://www.processlibrary.com/directory?files=ntoskrnl.exe&Submit2=Search+Now%21

Dimension 9100
Windows XP SP2 Home
Intel 630 - 3.0 GHz P4/HT
2.0 GHz DDR 4300 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 6800 – O’Clocked to 425/800 MHz
160 GB Samsung SATA II HD
300 GB Seagate SATA II HD
250 GB SimpleTech External HD (WD Drive)
Sony DVD-ROM, Phillips DVD +/- RW
Dell 1901 FP

Windows General

system.exe hogging up the CPU

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