NT Kernel & System using 100% of CPU

Anonymous
2009-04-02T00:19:32+00:00

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?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2009-07-06T17:17:59+00:00

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
2009-04-02T10:03:09+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2009-10-17T18:34:37+00:00

    After reading this, I noticed that ever since I plugged in my Belkin USB wireless network adapter, I've been getting BSODs and 1 core of my Core i5 sits there maxed out all the time. I unplugged the device, and watched the processor usage plummet back down to normal idling levels (1%-3% usage in each core).

    In case it makes a difference, here's my machine:

    4x2gb OCZ PC3-10666 Platinum (RAM, 8gb)

    Ultra LSP550 550-Watt (power supply)

    Intel DP55WB (motherboard)

    Hitachi Sata 1tb drive (primary hard drive)

    Toshiba sata 200gb drive (secondary hard drive)

    Belkin Wireless G Network Adapter (wireless network adapter)

    Intel 82578DC Gigabit Ethernet connection (wired network adapter)

    Intel Core i5 (CPU)

    ATI Radeon HD 4670 (primary display adapter)

    NVIDIA GeForce 6200 (secondary display adapter)

    Windows 7 RTM (Operating System)

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  2. Anonymous
    2009-10-22T16:14:54+00:00

    Turn off all indexing on your hard drives, both internal and external.  You can do this on Control Panel / Indexing Options / Modify for all your hard drives.  Just uncheck the box beside every drive.  Alternatively, you can do it on a drive by drive basis on the drive's Properties page.  Just uncheck "Index this drive for faster searching".  While it is removing the indexes, you may get some messages that the system is unable to modify some system files.  Respond "Ignore All" to this message and the reset of index reset will proceed.

    Before this, my system was worthless at times, would hang up, and CPU usage would hit 100% for long periods.  Now, the disk activity light rarely comes on and my CPU usage stays below 5% most of the time.  Also, all my programs, particularly Internet access, are just flying.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-03-27T14:47:46+00:00

    Back to School for YOU, ZACH

    System shows up as "NT KERNAL & SYSTEM" in the description line of the TASK MANAGER

    I now have this problem, Image Name = SYSTEM User Name = System Description NT Kernal & System is showing up as taking 6% of all CPU - worse, it is 'circling around' all more cores, taking them to 25% then hopping to the next one - reminds me of an old skool MAC Kernal Panic

    Effects: GUI unresponsive, sound stutters, games pause, cannot open applications for minutes, nasty horrible lag all the time.

    IF I close 'System' from task manager I get a BSOD (In Windows 7 Ultimate!) which Action Centre eventually says

    1 - it does not know what caused it, probably a driver

    2 - it might be that the BIOS does not support the CPU (it does, I checked, ABit IP25 PRO with version 17 BIOS and an Intel 2.4GHz quad is fine

    3 - could be some other driver (well, I checked them all and they are all the latest versions)

    This started happening after latest ATI GPU driver update for 4890 and/or MS Windows Update an/or latest patch to COD:MW2 (the System lock up happens most often in that game, but it also happens at random in any application)

    I think this one is serious, and you are going to see a lot of it!

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