"system" process staying over 80% of cpu

[Hall]

My XP Pro system is slow and seems to be continuously busy in the background
doing something I don't know about. Task Manager shows performance running
at 100% all the time and the processes list shows the "system" process
taking up over 80% of the cpu, typically over 90%.

I have an updated Norton antivirus running, a regular ad-aware scan for
spyware, a firewall software, no other user, and no other known application
running.

What in the world can this be?? How do I drill down into it?

 

[gbdav49]

gbdav49...
I had the same problem till a friend told me of a neat little program
called "End It All".when your pc is running,there are numerous
processes running in the background that you don't need.This neat tool
will shut down all the unnecesary processes and won't shut down the
ones your system does need.
It gives you the option to close the process or kill it.
Be sure to read all the tutorials,but mostly it's a simple little
tool,but works wonders.The time I got it ,it was a free download.Try
looking for it at CNET.com Good luck.

 

[Hall]

Task Manager is showing that "system" process is taking up all the cpu
cycles. I don't think I need this utility to kill it. I can just terminate
it using Task Manager.

But how do I know that its ok to do that without harming my system?

End It All is fine to save me time by terminating all non-critical processes
but how do you actually know what's critical, and that they're ok to run
again at the next reboot?

 

[R. McCarty]

Are you speaking about "System Idle Process" ? - that's the computers
way of drumming it's fingers waiting for something to do. It's a normal
function of XP and most times will take 90%+ of CPU time.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My XP Pro system is slow and seems to be continuously busy in the
background doing something I don't know about. Task Manager shows
performance running at 100% all the time and the processes list shows
the "system" process taking up over 80% of the cpu, typically over
90%.

Are you talking about "System Idle Process"? "System Idle Process" is not
any problem at all. That's just the name for what the system is doing when
it's not doing anything. It's there to make the total add up to 100%


If your system is slow, look elsewhere for the cause. This isn't it.

 

[Hall]

No it isn't System Idle Process. If it were, I'd be happy with that. I'm
referring to a process simply called "System".

And its still going on.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

No it isn't System Idle Process. If it were, I'd be happy with that.
I'm referring to a process simply called "System".

And its still going on.

OK, but just to be sure, if I look at Task Manager's "Processes" tab, under
"User Name" I see "System," but under "Image Name" it says "System Idle
Process." Particularly if the "Image Name" field is narrow, you may not see
the full "System Idle Process" name.

Please make sure it's not System Idle Process you're talking about.

 

[Hall]

While logged in as the admin of the system, Task Manager's Processes tab
shows an Image Name called "System" and another Image Name called "System
Idle Process". Both have the User Name "SYSTEM". The "System" process is
over 80% and the "System Idle Process" process is at 0%. This is steady.

The Performance tab shows 100% straight line.

Since the System process is normal, I have no way of knowing what it is
doing. I have also removed all non-essential programs from startup using
msconfig off the Start->Run function.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

While logged in as the admin of the system, Task Manager's Processes
tab shows an Image Name called "System" and another Image Name called
"System Idle Process". Both have the User Name "SYSTEM". The
"System" process is over 80% and the "System Idle Process" process is
at 0%. This is steady.

The Performance tab shows 100% straight line.

Since the System process is normal, I have no way of knowing what it
is doing. I have also removed all non-essential programs from
startup using msconfig off the Start->Run function.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Spyware? What anti-spyware software do you run? Is it up-to-date?

 

[Hall]

Ad-aware, regularly updated.

Sigh. Yes, all the basics, right?

Isn't there a built-in Windows utility that shows each process
hierarchically, indicating which is the parent of which? I wonder if that
would help.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ad-aware, regularly updated.

Sigh. Yes, all the basics, right?

Whether or not spyware is your problem, a single anti-spware program isn't
enough. None of these is perfect and it's a good idea to run at least two or
three. If I were you, I'd add Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search and Destroy,
and the Microsoft Antispyware beta to your arsenal.

 

[Guest]

I am having the exact same problem. The SYSTEM process is constantly running
in excess of 90% when it should be the SYSTEM Idle process. I have run
AdAware, Spybot, SAFEXP, ..... This started happening around 11/11/05.
It just seems to be something in the SYSTEM thread/process/task and not
related to anything else in the TASK list. On my system it is so severe that
the clock looses time.
Occasionally I hear the floppy drive being acessed when I have nothing
running. This may be an Anti Virus scan but I never recall hearing it in the
past.

I do have the following error entries in the event log:

AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO port address
(0x71), which lies in the 0x70 - 0x71 protected address range. This could
lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor for technical
assistance.

The Remote Access Connection Manager service depends on the Telephony
service which failed to start because of the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it
has no enabled devices associated with it.

The RACM I did disable the Tele SVC but the error is occuring at a rate of
1 per min. I can turn tele back on.

 

[Hall]

I've taken the monumental decision to reinstall XP. This is one of several
problems I've built up on the system that seem to hard to make go away.

 

[Guest]

FIXED!!!!!!!!!!
Hold onto your mouse. All I did was unplug my system from AC power, waited 1
min+/- plug in and power up. All is well. It appears it is related to
ACPI/battery/AC.
Regards, Tom

 

[Hall]

That's amazing. It would be wonderful to hear an explanation on this from a
PC engineer.

I'll leave this on file in case it happens again. At this point, I have a
newly rebuilt XP system and this problem has not recurred.

Thanks for the contribution.

 

[Guest]

Holy crap... This has gotta be the dumbest fix I've heard of yet, but I too
had this same issue, and by unplugging my PC for about a minute, then
plugging it back in, suddenly the "System" process usage dropped to nothing...

It works... woo-hoo!

 

[oakenshea]

Damn! I have had the same issue. SETI BOINC wasn't running on my
machene because systm process was taking up all the cpu time on my
laptop. I unpluged it and removed the battery. I then rebooted with the
battery removed. After that everything is running smothly. I was so
stumped when even reinstalling Windows didn't work. Thanks for the TIP
ipublius!! team SETI.USA Rules!