It's been about 4 days since I've had this issue. My computer was running really slow, so I checked the Task Manager and saw that a "System" process was running under the name "ntoskrnl.exe". I thought it was a virus or a rootkit. I ran Windows Defender
and nothing was detected. I just did a clean install of my operating system last night, and I'm checking my processes and the same issue is persisting.
I have an HP Pavilion m7 1015-dx.
If the problem is persisting like I think it is, can this be a hardware issue?