System process takes 50% of CPU

Vic Russell · External Since: Aug 11, 2006 Posts: 4

Hi,
I have this ongoing problem with the system process taking around 50% of the
CPU time. It went away for a few weeks and now it's back with a vengence! I
have Norton 2006 Anti-Virus, Spy Doctor, Zone Alarm all up to date and
everything fully scanned. I am behind a router and have XP firewall. All
Windows updates applied with SP2.

I have tried stopping all processes that let me but the good old System
process still reports between 49% and 53%. If I go into Safe mode with
Networking all is OK. If I use msconfig and turn everything off and re-boot,
the System process still reports 50% or thereabouts.

I can't find any pattern as to why the problem went away and then came back.

It's a real problem as the PC runs slow and the fan is full blast all the
time.

I read that this is a common problem but no-one reports any solution. I
have uninstalled quite a lot of stuff to no good effect. I don't install too
much anyway and I'm particularly careful not to install dodgy music
downloaders or anything like that.

Any ideas before I reformat the disk and re-install everything?

Regards,

Vic Russell

JS · External Since: Jun 11, 2006 Posts: 2346

You need to find the specific system process that's taking all (there are
lot of sub-processes tied to
the 'System' process) the CPU resources and slowing down your PC.

To do this try Process Explorer:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

Once you have Process Explorer installed and running:
In the taskbar select View and check 'Show Process Tree' and 'Show Lower
Pane' options.
(This will provide the detailed info you need)
Next click on the CPU column to sort processes by %CPU usage.
Then click on and expand the 'System' process and identify the sub-process
that's using most or all the CPU %.
Click on and Highlight the sub-process of interest, right click and from the
options listed select: google,
This should display what's out there on the web about that process.

Note: some entries like Explorer, System process and svchost may need to be
expanded to show the
detail, (sub processes), in this case click on the + located to the left on
the entry.

JS

"Vic Russell" <nospam.TakeThisOut@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:uuMyhdI7GHA.4348@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> I have this ongoing problem with the system process taking around 50% of
> the CPU time. It went away for a few weeks and now it's back with a
> vengence! I have Norton 2006 Anti-Virus, Spy Doctor, Zone Alarm all up to
> date and everything fully scanned. I am behind a router and have XP
> firewall. All Windows updates applied with SP2.
>
> I have tried stopping all processes that let me but the good old System
> process still reports between 49% and 53%. If I go into Safe mode with
> Networking all is OK. If I use msconfig and turn everything off and
> re-boot, the System process still reports 50% or thereabouts.
>
> I can't find any pattern as to why the problem went away and then came
> back.
>
> It's a real problem as the PC runs slow and the fan is full blast all the
> time.
>
> I read that this is a common problem but no-one reports any solution. I
> have uninstalled quite a lot of stuff to no good effect. I don't install
> too much anyway and I'm particularly careful not to install dodgy music
> downloaders or anything like that.
>
> Any ideas before I reformat the disk and re-install everything?
>
> Regards,
>
> Vic Russell
>

tiagoclaus · External Since: Oct 15, 2006 Posts: 2

Additionally, when you find out what is the process that is hanging up
your machine, goes to PROPERTIES in Process Explorer and then in
THREADS.

Put here the process on the top of it. For SVCHOST this is necessary.

Regards.

peter · External Since: Oct 16, 2006 Posts: 2

tiagoclaus.RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:
> Additionally, when you find out what is the process that is hanging up
> your machine, goes to PROPERTIES in Process Explorer and then in
> THREADS.
>
> Put here the process on the top of it. For SVCHOST this is necessary.
>
> Regards.

Odd problem this. I remember having a greedy System Process some months
ago, but the problem seemed to have gone away. Until it came back again
this morning. Not sure what caused it, I got a Norton Software update
this morning, but that might just have been a co-incidence.

I tried using the Process Explorer referred to earlier in the thread,
but all the cpu was being consumed in the system process, not a child.

But the good news is that having been distracted by a howling fan all
morning, after 4 or 5 hours the system process seems to have done what
it needed to, and it is now back to normal.

I have XP Home Edition, all the security updates, Norton AV 2006 fully
up-to-date.

Freeway · External Since: Feb 19, 2007 Posts: 2

Im also having this problem, at random times my CPU usage will spike to
over 50% and stay there for random amounts of time. I looked in process
explorer, and there is no "child process" under the "system" process...
here is a screenshot...

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3682/untitledhk9.png

--
Freeway

gcjc1 · External Since: Jan 30, 2005 Posts: 4684

You might try asking here:
http://forum.sysinternals.com/

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Freeway wrote:
> Im also having this problem, at random times my CPU usage will
> spike to over 50% and stay there for random amounts of time. I
> looked in process explorer, and there is no "child process" under
> the "system" process... here is a screenshot...
>
> http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3682/untitledhk9.png

Freeway · External Since: Feb 19, 2007 Posts: 2

Now two other processes under system idle process are jumping...

Interrups and DPCs, they only spiked for a bit and then stopped but id
still like an explanation, here is a screenshot again

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/8792/untitledtl2.jpg

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Freeway

freedude · External Since: Jul 10, 2009 Posts: 1

Okay, So I registered just to post this.

I DL ed the process tree thing from previous post. At first, it cannot
identify which sub process in my system process that took most of the
CPU %. a few seconds later, I foolishly (and fortunately) decided to
just kill all the system tree, this caused my comp to go BSOD and
blahblahblah. after one restart later, the system CPU usage went down to
5%! I dont know what did it, but it just works like a charm.

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freedude

undisclosed · External Since: Aug 08, 2009 Posts: 32

new HP with XP SP3 workstation
System process takes 50% CPU.

After some research ..... i think it is the screensaver/lock
workstation process that holds 50% cpu, even after unlocking!

What works for me: Just a simple "right-click" on my desktop drops the
CPU usage...

Not solved, but easy to handle.

Hope this could help....

DickDelete

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dickdelete