NT Kernel & System using 100% of CPU

Anonymous

Hi,

I just bought a new laptop with Window Vista Basic. The laptop has 3 Gb ram. I was just reading an article on line and then I start to hear the laptop fan running like crazy. then I went to the Resource Monitor and there was an image/program that was using 95% of my cpu and it was my system with description of "NT Kernel & System". It has been going on for over 30mins. Other than restarting the computer, what can I do about this "NT Kernel & System" eating up 95% of my CPU?

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Anonymous

I've been having the same problem on my HP desktop running Vista home for a couple weeks. I read that someone fixed the same problem by updating some hardware firmware, so I opened Resource Monitor and started unplugging all my hardware one at a time. The instant I unplugged my Belkin USB network adapter, NT Kernel & System dropped down to 0% and my computer unfroze entirely. The same adapter has been causing me a lot of grief for months- it wouldn't respond every time my computer came out of standby. I'll be updating the driver and firmware to see if that helps - otherwise that garbage is going in the trash. I recommend disabling/unplugging hardware (especially if you have any with odd behavior) until the problem stops, then replacing or updating that hardware.

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Anonymous

Hello Dtsai,

Thank you for posting. What you just described seems to be some form of mal-ware trying to mascuerade as a legitimate windows service. Windows does have NT Kernel and also System, but they never show up together as one service, program, or file.

I highly recommend that you use your favorite anti-virus and anti-spyware program and do a full scan of your PC.

Please try the scan and let me know if this helps you

Zack

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

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59 additional answers

Anonymous

2009-04-02T20:21:00+00:00

Hi Zack,

Thank you for the prompt response. This is a brand new computer that I purchased from Bestbuy (1st day out of the box) that is why I did not think it was a malware. As you suggested, I scan it with AVG Anit-virus (Free edition) and there were no virus detected. I simply restarted the computer and the problem went away and has not yet reoccured.

I googled this problem and there was other people citing the identical problem but there was no really solution other than to restart the computer and it goes away.

Thanks again for your help and if the problem reoccurs I will provide a screen print of what I meant.

David
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Anonymous

2009-05-13T06:06:10+00:00

Image nameHello zack,

The same case is there with my system.

I am using Windows vista ultimate SP1 since 2 months.

My pc is having Core i7 processor.

In task manager one process is listed.

Image name:- System (not system.exe)

User name:- SYSTEM

cpu usage:- varying (0-80 %)

memory:- around 2500 K

description:- NT Kernel & System

Can you please tell me that whether this process is a windos service or it is any kind of malware or virus?

When i searched on live about system.exe than it showed that it is somekind of virus.
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Anonymous

2009-05-13T19:35:20+00:00

I have the same problem.

It started today.

I have Vista 64 Enterprise edition on a HP 9930us laptop.

Sophos Antivirus does not detect anythign wrong.

Image Name: System

User Name: SYSTEM

Memory: 2284K

Description: NT Kernal & System
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