Freeze ups / Process "System" High CPU usage

[mrjoker]

I have an issue where the process “System” will use 25-30% of my CPU(reported by task manager) for 15-60 sec. or (more sometimes) causing my computer to freeze until the CPU usage drops back to normal. This happens primarily when I access a folder from windows explorer or sometimes when exiting a program etc. Sometimes it seems to take forever to show the contents of a folder. Also, when doing this many times the Icons on my desktop will disappear until the system is back to normal. I run webroot spy sweeper and Trend anti virus on my system (they are up to date) also I have scanned with Malwarebytes, SuperAntispyware, Rootkitbuster (Trend) and scanned with Hijackthis and the results were good. So I do not believe that it is malware caused. Any ideas?

I am using Asus Motherboard P5E3 Deluxe, with Intel Quad Core Q6600 CPU, DDR3 Dual Channel Memory (Paitriot Extreme performance 4GB) Tested ok with Memtest, Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 512 Graphics card, 1TB WD HD (237 GB free space) Defrag current, Operating System: Windows XP SP3, all updates are current.

Any suggestions as to what may be causing the problems would be greatly appreciated.

 

[PhilFrisbie]

Could a problem with your virus protection. Are you running just the one?

What you describe is s slowdown accessing files. When you browse a new folder Windows opens up and reads EVERY file to get the embedded icon to display.

If it is not your virus protection then you may have some malware that is hooked into your file system.