High CPU usage by process "System" when downloading

This is freaking driving me crazy. This is the SECOND Windows 7 system I've had this issue on and it completely cripples the computer.

Basically, whenever I downloaded anything, be it via uTorrent, Firebox, even speed tests, my CPU usage goes to 100% and nothing responded until the download it stopped or it finished on it's own.

Both computers lasted about a month before this started, both computers were TOTALLY different hardware. In fact one was a laptop and one was a desktop. Then just one day, poof, 100% cpu when downloading.

I've tested all types of downloads as mentioned above, uTorrent, speed tests, general file downloading, Windows updates, anything that causes bandwidth usage makes the process "System" sky rocket to 100%.

I've tried the normal things. Updating AV software, full system scan. Updated and ran Malwarebytes and ran a full scan. Ran defrag, ran check disc. I've posted HiJackThis logs else where, no ones sees anything out of the norm...

Now if I just format the problems solved for about a month or so then it will just come right back.

This only seems to happen to me with Windows 7. The laptop did it 3 times, each time I got about a month into the Windows 7 install and finally I went back to Windows XP on the laptop, problem solved.

Now my new desktop is running W7, month or so into the install SAME EXACT problem.

PLEASE can anyone tell me anything I haven't thought to try? I don't want to run an OS that requires 12 fresh installs a year.

It would be very difficult to know what the problem is precisely, but I would suspect that the problem is caused by some program that you commonly use (not PE), that is related to internet activity, or more specifically downloading. I would create a list of such programs, disable them all, and see what happens. If the downloads can then be performed normally, reinable each of those programs, one by one, until the culprit is found.

yeah has to be something your installing yourself


I would start by opening the task manager going to processes and out of the watching what is using more cpu than anything while a torrent is running

you should be able to do this

I was having a similar issue. My system kept slowing down just surfing the internet. The CPU usage would jump to 25% (100% on one core) and the video would lag while scrolling webpages. The issue only recently started so I searched online for a solution and it sounded similar to problems a lot of others were having; but I couldn't find a solution that worked for me.

So I tried to troubleshoot a little further and found when I unplugged the network cable the issue disappeared. I then decided to replace my new router with my old one and to my surprise the issue did not happen with the old router. OK, there must be something wrong with the router or its setup.

I hadn't changed anything recently so I searched through the settings on the router and found that the port forwarding was set to what I thought was the IP of my system. I then found out that the system must have renewed the IP and got a different one. Once I changed the port forwarding to the new IP the issue no longer was happening.

I hope this can help some others who are running into this problem.

Rob.

The best I can tell with the process explorer is that something called teefer2.sys, under system is using a lot of threads/cpu when this is happening.

Seems to be something to do with Symantec Endpoint.

Not sure if this is the problem or not though.

teefer2.sys Symantec CMC Firewall Teefer2 Symantec Corporation

My first reaction, anytime that I see the word Symantec, is to uninstall it. This may be somewhat reactionary, but I really dislike their products.

seekermeister said:

My first reaction, anytime that I see the word Symantec, is to uninstall it. This may be somewhat reactionary, but I really dislike their products.

agree. their products are notorious for eating system resources. plus you can get cheaper better products.