"System" takes 100% CPU

[Rich Pasco]

On my Windows XP system, every few seconds CPU activity shoots
to 100%, even with no applications running, and stays there for
a second or so.

Task Manager's "Processes" tab identifies the hog as "System".
According to Sysinternals Process Explorer, there is only one
direct subtask to System, and it (smss.exe) and its subtasks
are only responsible for 2% of the activity.

Ideas on how to further identify what's going on?

- Rich

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?_db_=B4=AF`=B7.._=3E=3C=29=29=29=BA]

could be anything..

could be checking your
email, could be a rogue
software checking for
updates, could by your
own system indexing,
could be your antivirals,
etc....

we have absolutely
no idea what all you have
installed or running, therefore
it "could be anything"

what you might want
to try is to disable the
indexing service (admin tools)
temporarily and see if this
is a quick fix.

also, what you could do
is boot into safemode
and see if the system runs
normally.

if it does, then obviously
something is loading
in normal mode and you
would need to use the clean
boot method.

information on this
method is here:

http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?mkt=en-US&form=MSHOME&setlang=en-US&q=what+is+clean+boot

also, what might be helpful
is to download a program
called "autoruns" from microsoft
while your visiting the above.

--

<)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

..

 

[Gerry]

Rich

http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/smss.exe.html

Have you looked further down the tree?

What are your anti-virus and anti-spywage arrangements?

--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[rob]

How about a complete list of all running processes?

 

[Kayman]

How about a complete list of all running processes?

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx

 

[Rich Pasco]

Rich

http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/smss.exe.html

Have you looked further down the tree?

What are your anti-virus and anti-spywage arrangements?

Gerry, thanks for the link.

I looked all the way down the smss tree, and *nothing* there was
taking more than a few percent of CPU. The only item taking a big
amount of CPU was "system" itself.

My anti-virus package is Norton Internet Security 2008. I don't
run any anti-spyware resident utilities (but I do scan from time
to time).

I rebooted my system (which in itself takes quite a while, so I don't
do it any more often than I could) and the problem hasn't recurred
yet. But next time it does, I want to have better diagnosis tools.

- Rich

 

[Rich Pasco]

How about a complete list of all running processes?

Too many to type here, but again, the only one taking more than a
percent or two if CPU is "system". The others are irrelevant.

- Rich

 

[Gerry]

Rich

Norton uses a lot of resources. If the problem occurs again try going
offline and turning off Norton. Observe for affect.

Try some other freeware anti-spyware software:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

--



Hope this helps.

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