Hi,
This is a copy of a previous post I've made on this subject...
(oh, and this is a different Scott to the one who left the first post! ;-)
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Hello all!
There have been many posts here recently about users experiencing problems
having the CPU usage jammed on 100%, the culprit being a system talk, simple
called "System".
I too experienced the same problem, tried virus scans, spy-ware scans, etc,
but no look.
I believe I've just found the problem. this might not work for everyone,
but it's worked for me.
(NB - This is the problem where the task on 100% is called "System", I doubt
this solution will help people who have the same problem with explorer.exe
or SVCHOST).
1) Do you have a printer attached to your comp?
2) Is it a Parallel port printer? (Ie - not a USB one).
3) Has it got any documents stuck in it's queue that it can't print for
whatever reason?
(You can check the printer queue by going into start menu / settings /
printers and faxes, and the double clicking on your printer).
If so, delete these items from your queue. That's what it was for me, and
after that, SYSTEM is behaving itself again!
Please let me know if this works for anyone else! Also, try looking at any
"old" devices, that use a parallel port, (ie - scanner), or the serial
ports. (old type of mouse, or old type of modem, etc).
For those that are interested, this is my "theory" on the techie reason why
this caused a problem.
These old type of ports. (Serial, parallel, etc), use a technique called
"polling" to talk to the CPU. Modern ports, like USB have an entire
sub-system on the motherboard to handle their data input / output, and
therefore don't bother the CPU as much.
If one of these old deviced gets stuck, it can repetedly hog the CPU. In my
case what I suspect was happening was the CPU repeatedly saying "Are you
ready to print?" as many times a second as it could manage! once I removed
the document from the queue, it stopped asking!
Ok, hope this works for you guys!
Please drop me a line if it does!
Scott
