There is a guy who I work w/ that really knows very little about his computer at his home, he asked said something to me this morning about his computer being slow. So I asked him to call me after work and describe what was going on. In his task manager the "System" process is always using around 75 percent of his cpu usage all of the time and his CPU is maxed out whenever he does anything. I haven't had a chance to look at it up close but I was just wondering If anyone had any suggestions as to what might cause the System process to spike all the time. He says he hasn't installed anything new lately and he said he had an upto date virus scan.

I told him I might go by his house after work one day this week and look at it (he lives over an hour away from my house).

again, I'm just asking for any suggestions on probable cause, It's pretty hard to seach the data bases for problems with words like "System" and "Task Manager" or "Process". The results are pretty numerous, and most of them have nothing to do w/ what I'm looking for.

Depending on his version of Windows, you want to access his Task Manager.
If he has XP Pro, it will be by typing <Alt><Ctrl>Delete>
If this has Vista, <Alt><Ctrl>Delete> will bring up a page that will display a few choices. Select Task Manager.

Click on the Processes
Click on CPU
You will need to click on it twice, to bring up the highest percentage to the top of the list.
This will tell you what process is hogging the CPU.

Reply to this message with the "Image Name" and the "User Name".
If he has Vista, you can stretch the window, "wide".
The right most listing is "Description".
Relay that information to us as will.
With the data, we should be able to give you a course of action.

Suggest you introduce your friend to our service, so you will not be committed to always having to help him yourself.

Also when he says System I think he is refering to User Name.. As wabeard suggested tell him to read off of the left side..

I thought the same thing when he told me but he was reffering to the one here in this pic (the highlighted process)

edit: I know it was a very vauge question I just was looking for a hint maybe. plus btw it's xp home sp2, 2-3 year old dell laptop, inspiron something or other.

That image shows the system 97 % idle. Where is the problem?
That listing shows only 3% of the CPU is being used.

That was just an example from my pc. his is 75ish on boot up.

Sorry for the late response. Do you still need assistance with this problem?