Damascus

Yesterday I reinstalled all the updated drivers (for network adapters, graphic cards, BIOS, etc) one by one and the problem got solved after flashing the BIOS. It's weird, a few days ago I had already updated my BIOS and yet this time the problem got completely solved. Haven't seen a single spike in the entire day. Thanks for the great tutorial though, at least I found out there was something wrong going on.

Yep, I actually installed AVG after it started happening so I could scan for a possible virus or something. I just noticed something interesting though. The 25% CPU usage only happens when I'm connected to my home Internet connection (wireless), if I'm connected at college it doesn't happen at all, it stays at 0% CPU constantly. It's odd and it's driving me insane, since the computer is new I'm considering returning it to its Factory state and see if it helps. I'm not sure if it's possible to save a CPU usage graph using Process Explorer, but I'm attaching a screenshot. All those spikes are from System, they have the same 25 - 28% magnitude and they all last around the same time. EDIT: Just checked System properties using Process Explorer, under Threads it shows that the thread causing the CPU spikes is called "ntoskrnl.exe!KeAcquireInStackQueuedSpinLockAtDpcLevel+0x1e0" Trying to figure out what that means.

Sure, I uploaded it as a .rar on mediafire, here's the link: http://www.mediafire.com/?b3ubxanb895sial

Hello Andre! I actually arrived to this thread after googling why NT Kernel & System was having CPU usage spikes on my new computer (~25% every minute or so, constantly). I just got this Dell laptop a few days ago and CPU usage issues started happening yesterday. I did update several drivers, including those of the graphics cards and the BIOS from the Dell site. I did everything you recommended on your post and I can't figure out what the results mean, could you help me out? I can't relate the results to a specific driver. I'm attaching a screenshot of the Sampling Summary Table showing the culprit (ntoskrnl.exe). If it helps I should tell you this: - The CPU usage spikes won't happen on safe mode. - A few days ago I shut down my computer and it started installing Windows Update files, I was in a hurry so I physically shut it down, next time when I tried to log in it crashed before the Windows start screen. I restarted it and it went fine. Could it be that I have a corrupted ntoskrnl.exe?