System process is using 99% CPU when XP Pro machine is "idle"

Question

Laptop is an AMD Sempron 3000+ (1.8ghz), 512mb ram, running XP Pro SP2. The only applications installed are legitimate image editing applications, chrome, IM clients, textpad, acrobat reader, audio/video codecs, ati stuff (video drivers/config tools), and soundmax stuff (audio drivers/config tools)

System restore is off.

Windows updates get installed weekly.

When the machine is completely idle (directly after a reboot and login), the system process (not system idle) jumps to 99% usage and stays there. there is no heavy/unexpected IO by any process running. memory usage isn't high. (browsers and msn messenger are using a reasonable share, but system processes are using their usual meg or two)

paging is set to 512-1024mb and there is currently 550mb allocated.

the one disk in the machine (formatted at 35gb) has 25gb free.

the machine is connected to a private network via 80211g nic.

this issue started about 10 days ago - the only thing that i KNOW was installed was one or more windows updates.

thoughts/questions anyone?

thanks!

Answer 1

I've seen this in the past too.. Check for malware or virus attack.

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/system/

free utility to check system process.

Answer 2

I would think it would either be a memory leak (Those things are a PAIN to sort out)

Or Malware.

I would ask BOTH of you to scan for malware with this FREE tool:

Hitman Pro is a second opinion scanner, designed to rescue your computer from malware

(viruses, trojans, rootkits, etc.) that have infected your computer despite all the security

measures you have taken (such as anti virus software, firewalls, etc.).

http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro

Also what is the EXACT name of the process taking up the CPU usage?

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Young and learning...Have mercy - Chaos

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Answer 3

I'm seeing the same symptoms, but also, Task Manager is showing sustained PF Delta between 5,000 and 8,000 - over 14,000,000 page faults for the System process in the past hour since I rebooted.