Windows XP System Process Slowing Computer Down

[sforget]

The "System" process on my computer is slowing the system down.

It started doing this about a week ago, and I have been unable to find a fix anywhere.

According to taskmanager, it fluctuates between 0% and 30% CPU usage, and sometimes I've seen it jump as high as 99% and stay there - making the system unusable.

I've tried rebooting, chkdsk, defrag, virus scanning (AVG), and adaware scanning - I've done several re-installs of windows XP with no help.

My system specs are as Follows

CPU: Athlon64 3200+
Mobo: MSI - K8T-NEO
RAM: 1GB OCZ DDR-400 matched - pair
HDD: WD 160GB SATA
Video: MSI NX66000GT Nvidia geforce FX
LAN Cards: Realtek 8139 100mbps & Realtek 8169 1gbps
CD/DVD: NEC DVD Writer & Opto-rite Cd Writer (Both set as masters, one on primary IDE, the other on secondary, respectivly)
Sound: SB Live 5.1
PSU: 450Watt Unknown brand - but cost me over $150

All my drivers are updated to the latest revision as of May 5th. I've checked my bios settings and everything appears A-OK in there.

Any advice is welcome.

 

[Ian]

Does it just have "system" as the process name, or does it havea file extension?

 

[sforget]

Just "System"

As I understand it, this is a critical Windows process that controls resource management on a computer.

 

[jasper]

try this and see if it helps, AVG might have missed a virus also?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;331796

 

[muckshifter]

Just "System"

As I understand it, this is a critical Windows process that controls resource management on a computer.

Hmmm, strange, as you have done a re-install, that makes it even stranger ... "System" should not/may not fluctuate as you have reported ... at best on my systems I have only ever seen it at 4% and that was downloading & installing an MS Auto Update. It should not "run" all the time.

I sugest you download/install & run ... MS Anti-Spyware, Ad-Aware and do an 'on-line scan' at HouseCall.

 

[mikeg]

im having problems with my system idle process, im a gamer and i play a game that usually uses about 65-72% of my processor, but the system idle will just take aver and cause my cpu usage to set at 100% for about 2hrs. is there some way that i can disable the idle process? the reason that i ask, i get paid to play and test different games, and when this happens i cant do anything and i lose about 2hrs worth of work every 4hrs or so.