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?

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

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.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

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

0 comments

59 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-08-09T17:39:57+00:00

It's not malware - it seems to be on all my Windows 10 computers.

It comes up as "System" in the Processes Window, but the "Details" window show it as "PID 4", and Description is "NT Kernal & System".

On my newest computer - a laptop with built-in video-card about 6-months old - the NT Kernal & System is running with 1.5 gb of RAM right now. I was curious because my entire system would freeze for seconds then unfreeze here and there.

I started my 2nd laptop which I had used in the Windows 10 Preview. It the "NT Kernal & System" was using 600MB of RAM. Now that the lid has been open for five minutes, it's over a 1GB.

It's upped its usage from 0.6 GB to 1.1 GB in 5 minutes - and I'm not using it - just watching it.

This reminds me of old computers where I left on all file-sharing options. Once I turned them off - the memory destroyer disappeared.

I'll let you know.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2015-08-22T08:48:52+00:00

This is an old thread and likely what forum people call a "bump"? I do not know as I rarely use forums. However today I felt the need to speak up...this issue was killing me, EVERYTHING i tried failed horribly until today. The cullprit for me and likely may others is a very widely used program, ccleaner.

I had mine set to monitor and alert me when it was time to clean. Well as per usual, I got lazy and simply did not want to close chrome (a must to run the program) so I kept closing and ignoring it. Then this started....but I did not realize that until today when I got a prompt to clean and said what the h***....might as well.

Instantly went from 92-95% usage to 5 and under. Hard drive light is silent unless need be, and my fan is not running like an F-16 on take off.

I hope this helps someone...this issue is like back pain, you can live with it, but it is crippling and drives you batty.

Good luck all.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2015-08-22T15:07:36+00:00

I had a problem with my brand new computer that had a 12 gb ram and a core i5 processor. often it would spike to 100% and sometimes crash. I franticly started searching and trying all sorts of things to remedy the problem and eventually found out that one of my ram sticks had died. I would recommend removing any of those "cleaners" because there are some dangerous scams out there and simply check if any of the hardware is broken.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments