OK, I have searched the entire internet and no one seems to have a solution to this problem. But i'm going to try and post this anyway maybe it will have a solution one day. My CPU usage keeps spiking from 0-20%, 0-30%, 0-40% and it seems to be the Image Process: System. It does this in 3-4 second intervals. I can't do anything because every time it spikes my CPU usage it slows everything down and my games are unplayable, My games such as Formula 1 2002 will freeze up every 3-4 seconds. I'm running Windows XP Professional with SP1 and with all Windows updates. Please Help

Have you checked your processes to see what you do not need. To find out what each Startup(or Process) item does or means, and any recommendation as to if you should close the process: Task List Programs Also check the Startup tab of msconfig. Click Start, then Run, then type, msconfig

hi, sometimes i have the same problem. usually i haven't this problem and my notebook work well...but some times, expecially after using a lot of programs, my System process spike the CPU usage and for example if it plaay mp3, they sound bad, they scratch, like a LP scratched....if i see the task monitor i see that is the System process that use the 100% of CPU time.... but after restart everithing work well... i don't know what is the problem...maybe a windows process that goes in background and it is not visible by task monitor... if i will find something i will tell you... send me your email... bye Leonardo

I had the same annoying problem and I'm running Windows xp pro service pack 1 with an athlon 2200+. After some research, I've found that many folks are attributing different causes to this problem. In my case turning off Norton anti-virus auto protect brought the system process back under control. I'll update this post if I discover anything else. I'm going to hit Symantec's website and do some hunting around that's for sure.