NT Kernel & System running at 75%-99%

Hello, I am new here, but I have no where else to go. I am hoping somewhere on here there is someone who can point me in the right direction with the information I can provide. I have been trying to help my brother with his computer lately, as I have a good grasp on the concept. (I'm no expert, but it all makes sense to me) He said he has been having issues with lag, his computer lags REALLY bad when he gives it a task as simple as opening the Start menu....

All I know about the computer is:
2.27GHZ Duo Core Processor
4GB RAM
500GB HDD
I'm not sure on the Graphics Card (I was to lazy to look)
I don't know What the Mother board is either
OS: Windows Vistax64 SP: 1

The first thing I did, was checked Task Manager to find out what is eating up the resources and all I saw was "System" running a process at 75-99% of the CPU the description is "NT Kernel & System". He hasn't downloaded anything new, he hasn't updated anything recently and the problem JUST started yesterday. He was playing a game on his computer (It's been there for a while) shuts his cpu down, then turns it on a few hours later and suddenly it is lagging unbelievably! I disabled indexing, I turned off superfetching and prefetching. I made sure hyper threading was enabled. I disabled all startup items and unfortunately I wasn't able to get any results. I started in safe boot and oddly enough, it was actually running steadily at 99% the entire time. Temperatures look normal, all operating conditions seems to be perfectly normal. I reseated the RAM just to be sure, I dusted off the inside of his tower, and lastly I ran a software called Process Explorer hoping it would give me a better rundown...it didn't. It just says that a process called system is running at 75-90% and system idle is running at 15-25%.



These are two pictures, the first one is the program called Process Explorer, the second is Task Manager in safe mode....ANY tips are greatly appreciated, and if you need any more information feel free to ask.

I suggest that you run an antivirus scan as well as run a scan with malwarabytes. Let us know if they find anything.

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http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free

Alright, so I ran both AVG AND Malwarebytes, neither found anything important(1 Malware, it was resolved with malwarebytes)...I thought that was odd, but my brother said that all he ever uses the computer for is to play a game installed from a CD (EQII). He really has no idea whats going on computer-wise...I asked, just to be sure, what all he does on the computer and he said he really only turns it on to play EQII and nothing else. He claims all his 'facebooking' is done via his 3DS or his iPod touch... :/

I am seriously clueless as to whats going on...I've tried numerous google searches and all I am seeing is a bunch of people who have the VERY same issue and are not getting it resolved in any consistent manner. I read one guy disabled all network devices, rebooted his machine then the issue was fixed, another person said going to the boot options and making sure hyperthreading was on fixed his issue...I can't find a concrete method so I've tried anything I can. It's getting to be a pain to even try to fix because with the CPU running at 90% all the time, simple things take MUCH longer than they should.

If you need any information from me, let me know. I'd be glad to cooperate just as long as we can solve this...

Thanks.

*EDIT*
I am scanning for registry errors...this is gonna take a while, how likely is it that this issue is being caused by a registry error?

(BTW Others steps I've done and didn't mention.: Defragment, Disk Cleanup, Add-Remove Software [The only things I removed were Manufacturer/vendor software])

Hello, any reason for not updating the computer and using SP2 ?

Well, sort of heheh...My brother rarely uses his computer, so when there is an update he ignores it...which gets me to 2. Now that he is having issues, the first thing I said was, check for and run any updates. Sadly though they do not seem to download and I fear it may be due to this issue. I had him start updating, (32 important updates, 24 after getting rid of MS Office updates and stuff like that) and after about 3 hours it was still at 0kb received and 0%. When I started trying to figure things out, I attempted to update while in safe mode...we got the same thing. They just don't appear to be downloading. :/

See if you can run a sfc command , using elevated command prompt, Start button,accessories, right click the Command radio button and select " run as administrator " , then enter sfc /scannow , press enter and allow time for it to run. run it 3 times for maximum effect of the tool. Post back how that went , please.

Ok, can I ask what that does? I'm not familiar with sfc. Also what would I be looking for? Will it give specifics of what it scans or a status/report at the end?

*EDIT*
I see a brief DOS Prompt window, then it goes away, it is only there for a split second... Is that expected? Is something running in the background?

Oops, i forgot to tell you what it does : http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html

Oh, wow! Thanks, I've never seen this, it's a VERY neat tool. It's running now. I must say, it's gonna be a while, it's at 1% and holding there...I'll report back ASAP! Thanks again!

*sorry for the double post*

Ok, so I've run "sfc /scannow" 3 times, and all three times it found 1 error, and it was unable to repair that one error.

I ran a registry scanner to see if there are any bad registry's...I'm sad to admit that I didn't do this sooner. It found 7,358 registry errors, repairing those now. I'm not sure if this will fix the issue, but it's at 4,000 of 7,358 repaired and the fans have stopped running so loudly, and the CPU is holding steady at 50-60%. That's still not good, but the computer is much more responsive and seems to be doing 'better'. "I'll try the updates after this finishes.

Does it sound like this could have been a registry problem, and should I be concerned with that error that was unrepairable by sfc /scannow?

Now you have me going Wow ... really, that many errors. dang .. I know the sidebar has an issue and will not repair, i have that on my SFC scan results. For now. let it repair.. then of course restart it. then see if by chance you can get the needed updates..

Yea, that's the plan. Also windows sidebar is constantly running, if I kill it, it usually comes right back within a few seconds. Any chance SP2 fixes this?

This is why I love Windows 7 so much...

*Repair complete*

Restarted computer and it started out at 60% (average) and then after about 10 minutes it went up to 99% and stayed there. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't his computer until I realized that the date and time were WAAY off, about 6 years and 3 hours off...Fixed that and I began installing updates, after it installed 83% of them the CPU shut off. I restarted it and it configured the updates it had completed (Which it looks like SP2 was installed) however it didn't resolve the issue, I am still downloading the remaining updates, but the only things on the list were Security updates, and 1 definition update.

It's not looking good...If I need to re-install the OS, then my brother is in trouble...He never made a backup, and he doesn't have the restore disc(s). What do you think? Looking like he needs to reinstall to you?

Actually, after you restart, you will see more updates. keep going, but,if you have to quit. do not let it quit in middle of something. Start over next day fresh.. in meantime.keep getting all it has , I recently did a factory default reinstall on mine and i was at updates for hours.

Just to be sure, run Free Malwarebytes , after an update, run full scan, use free, you do not have to buy this . : Malwarebytes : Free anti-malware, anti-virus and spyware removal download

Edit : reason for re-running is the fact you found the date wrong, just wanted to verify you are clean still , also, look in the Task Manager in processes and see what the one that is eating up the resources is and get info on what it is please

Yep, I have been running it as well as AVG after the update sequences. I only do quick scans though, I did a Full Scan when this whole mess started, so in the interest of saving myself some time, I've just done quick scan.

For the updates, I installed those updates that didn't get finished and restarted, it now has A LOT of option SW updates, like Java, Adobe, WMP, MS Office, but there are no updates that look like they pertain to the system. I'm installing the optional ones just to be safe anyway, but does that sound about normal?

Yeah, sounds bout right . have you used Process Explorer to isolate this process taking up the resources. : Process Explorer - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Yea, I said that in my original post. I used process explorer and it shows "System" is using 99% of the cpu. I tried to include a picture but it didn't post for some reason. The other process that is taking up roughly 20% is System Idle...

At the link provided you can see exactly what Process Explorer shows, and what Task Manager shows.

Pictures by Grafeit - Photobucket

If need be I can get more pictures and post them. I personally thought it was odd that Process Explorer didn't show any description really.

Yeah, just wondering if you still had that installed, you can stop that process if you need to . In View tab, if you select Show Lower pane, and then highlight the entry desired, you get full info on it. I have mine open now and see what each process goes to and does.

For "System" the lower pane is completely blank...There were many more updates and I am installing them now, another 158MB, but so far, I'm not having much luck.

Do you think updates will resolve the issue? After running all updates, and a few more registry scans/malware scans I will be out of ideas...