Strange CPU Activity

[SMATdaddy]

ok here is my problem. When my computer is in idle my cpu usage jumps between 0-25% every second. This would be ok, but every time it jumps my computer pauses for about 1/4 or a second. This becomes very annoying when playing games or watching video. Even if I just drag a window you can see the pause. The process using up the 25% is "system" nothing else is using the CPU. The only way I can get the problem to go away is to start windows in Safe Mode.

Things I've Tried
-Clean install of Windows XP
-Updated every driver possible
-Flashed bios to latest version
-Turned off indexing
-Turned off all services
-Turned off all startup items
-Updated Norton and scanned computer
-Used Nortons web virus scan
-Scanned with Ad-Aware and Spybot

Here is my setup
-Windows XP Home
-Shuttle Ak39N
-Athlon XP 2500+
-512 DDR SDRAM
-NVidia FX 5200
- 60GB (main)
-120GB (storage)

 

[Aslim]

look in device manager an see if ur usb arent flashin up all the time ive had that problem in the past, the computer usb was ****ed and kept auto detectin an poppin up in dev manager. Tried disablin it in bios?

 

[ekÆsine]

good point. do you have any USB devices like USB mouse or keyboard? test using a PS/ 2 mouse & keyboard

 

[SMATdaddy]

thank you
I have spent quiet some time looking for anyone who could help with this problem. As carmargue found out I have put this on a couple different forums but no one has mentioned anything about usb or parallel ports. i went you your advice and simply unplugged every thing from my computer. This fixed the problem. then I started plugging things back in until the problem started again. It wasn't the usb though, I have an Iomega zip dive hooked up through parrallel that was causeing the problem. I have updated it but the problem is still there unless I simply unplug it. I think for now i'm just going to unplug it unless i need to use it(which isn't often right now). unless someone has an idea on how to fix it this seems like a pretty good fix to me.
Thanks again.

 

[lo_tek]

I have updated it

what have you updated? The driver? Because if you haven't updated the driver, maybe that's a place to find a solution... short of unplugging the drive. Just a thought.

 

[Apokalipse]

maybe a different USB port might work