I have a laptop (Compaq) with an AMD chip in it. Not sure exact model right now, but this laptop is about a year old and running XP home. Here is the problem and what I've done to diagnose the issue.

1. After Logging in, I noticed that the CPU is at 100% (via task manager) and that doesn't go away. The System process is constantly running close to or at 100%.

2. When I try to shut down, it goes from "Logging of user". to "Sutting down" and stays there. I have to hold down the poser button to turn off the laptop.

3. I ran the performance monitor and noticed that System thread 21 was way higher than the other threads. Looks like ACPI.sys is on that thread.

4. I notice, that the fan spins lightly when the login screen appears, then at high speed soon after logging in, and it doesn't stop. I tried to look for ACPI swith in the BIOS, but couldn't find any. Or any reference to ACPI in the configuration files through MSCONFIG.

5. I read somewhere (not here) that a registry setting has to be made. I made the change, but the issue doesn't go away.

If anybody has any thought or ideas what I should try, please let me know. Thanks.

Conrado

solved

Hi folks. I resolved the issue last night. Don't know what mde me do this, and don't know if this was the true fix but never-the-less, this is what i did to resolve the issue. I simply re-seat the memory cards.

yup as wierd as it sounds. After I reseat the cards it booted up and the hight CPU usage by SYSTEM went away.

I have exactly the same computer and the same problem - what is the registry setting to change? Or is there anything else I can do?

Thanks
Chris

There is no registry setting to reseat the memory

Check if you have a system service for AMD power management. Try disabling it.

Just took out the memory.

Hey Chris,
I did a whole bunch of things to try to resolve the issue, from tweking the configuration files to disabling system processes. Once I even ended the EXPLORER.EXE process and nothing brought down the CPU usage.
What finally did the trick (at least in my case) was when I actually removed the two memory cards on the computer and plugged them both back in. When I rebooted the computer, everthing was back to normal. Hope this helps.
I take that back. Now that I think about it. Before I shut off the computer to reseat the memory, I did a "Disk Cleanup", and in the process, this wierd message popped up that said that I was about to uninstalled the Yahoo installer. I said yeah.
So it was one of these two things that made it work.

Conrado

I tried a disk cleanup then took out all the memory I could find (1 ram card and the hard disk) then put them back but the problem is the same. Thanks for your help anyway. Any other ideas?

I'm having the sam problem kinda,
I own a Dell Dimension 4300, I'm a noob at this tech stuff so pardon me in advance. I bought this used computer from a friend. The computer starts just fine, but i've been having to keep track of the CPU usage on the task manager. If i let the computer run at 100% it will end up staying that way.
ie, browsing the web and having a video running (YouTube). Some videos run just fine , ( i guess depending on the size/length of the vid) If it starts to run at 100% i have to close the tab/page (having problems on both IE & Moz)
or if i'm playing a CD, or have more than 2 programs running at the same time.

My computer seems to act more sensitive now that i installed Norton Internet Security.

My computer also gets stuck at times (more often than not) at the blue screen when trying to turn off or restart my computer.
thanx in advance for any advice...
noob aka Enrique

Get rid of norton, i would bet its the cause if i had any money. Its probably the worst bit of software ever made and causes problems galore!!!

Why would the system shut down anyways??? If it overheats it should shut off but if the cpu is running at 100% and not overheating wy would it shut down?

So i've heard, I've been thinking about giving norton the boot. somone had suggested kaspersky. but that's a whole other issue.

My computer has been running a lot slower sow i'll start with that.

What i meant was norton is probably making it run slow.

I will give you an example. I fixed a pc for a friend of a friend about 3 weeks ago. First boot when i got it took over 25 minutes. All i did was remove norton, next boot took about 3 minutes then 30 odd windows updates that had been sitting waiting for enough processor time were able to run. Processor usage was sitting at 100% with norton on it then went down to 0% without it. I then removed 15 odd viruses and 55 bits of spyware so norton wasn't even protecting the pc anyway!!!

In essence, the pc ran faster with the viruses and spyware on it than it did with norton on it.

If i was to describe just how bad norton is, this post would be removed because of offensive language.

hi all i have the same problem with the ACPI.sys taking up all the System process. I've got a Compaq Laptop (B3800 series) and im having the exact same problem. In process explorer it shows my DPCs and Interrupts are hogging all of the CPU. This has been driving me mad for a couple of months now. I've tried reinstalling and get the same problem, however the problem doesnt occur after i install windows, but only when i start installing drivers and apps.

I tried re-seating my ram and unfortunately that didnt help. I then tried uninstalling the "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System" component in Device Manager. After uninstalling it, i rebooted my system, and found that all my system devices and usb stuff had to be reinstalled (they were automatically picked up by Windows) but the interesting thing was the problem was no longer there. It was only after I rebooted to complete the reinstallation of all the drivers that the problem came back. So i guess this means i will have to try uninstalling my device drivers one at a time and see if the problem goes away. I kind of suspected it would have to be a driver issue but never wanted to face the fact that i'll have to go through this painstaking process.

Anyway, if i can be bothered doing it, i'll let you know on my results. One thing i tried a few weeks ago was to uninstall my drivers for my wireless and wired NICs, which actually appeared to work for a while but then the problem came back.

if anyone finds a driver that is causing this, please post here!

Edit: oh yeah, and i don't use Norton (and never will either) because i can't stand that resource-hogging excuse for a program.

yes actually ive concluded this is too long and arduous a process to do. while looking in process explorer, i found that the ACPI.SYS dll has a whole heap of rubbish strings associated with it...but it also contains this below. Im guessing i should do as it says and contact my vendor ?? Does anyone know if this indicates a problem that could be resolved without a hardware change? Would it be a BIOS update or something? I'm going to keep investigating.

Microsoft Corporation
FileDescription
ACPI Driver for NT
FileVersion
5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
InternalName
ACPI.sys
LegalCopyright
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
OriginalFilename
ACPI.sys
ProductName
Microsoft
Windows
Operating System
ProductVersion
VarFileInfo
Translation
%1: ACPI Name Space Object %2 reports an _ADR (%3) that is already in use.
Such conflicts are not legal. Please contact your system vendor for
technical assistance.
%1: ACPI Name Space Object %2 reports an _HID (%3) that is already in use.
Such conflicts are not legal. Please contact your system vendor for
technical assistance.
%1: ACPI BIOS indicates that the machine has suffered a fatal error and needs to
be shutdown as quickly as possible. Please contact your system vendor for
technical assistance.
%2: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO port address (%3), which lies in the %4 protected
address range. This could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.
%2: ACPI BIOS is attempting to write to an illegal IO port address (%3), which lies in the %4 protected
address range. This could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.
%2: ACPI BIOS does not contain an IRQ for the device in PCI slot %3, function %4.
Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.
%2: ACPI BIOS indicates that a device will generate IRQ %3. ACPI BIOS has also
indicated that the machine has no IRQ %3.
%2: ACPI BIOS indicates that device on slot %4, function %5 is attached to an
IRQ routing device named %3. This device cannot be found.
%2: ACPI BIOS provided an ambiguous entry in the PCI Routing Table (_PRT.) Illegal _PRT
entry is of the form 0x%3%4.
%2: ACPI BIOS is attempting to write to an illegal PCI Operation Region (%3), Please contact
your system vendor for technical assistance.
%2: ACPI BIOS is trying to reference a GPE Index (%3) when there are no GPE
blocks defined by the BIOS. Please contact your system vendor for technical
assistance.
%2: ACPI BIOS is attempting to create an illegal memory OpRegion, starting at address %3,
with a length of %4. This region lies in the Operating system's protected memory address range
(%5 - %6). This could lead to system instability.
Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.

Well i took my battery out of my laptop and all my problems seemed to go away. I guess I had better speak to Compaq support...

OK, the problem came back, but i finally worked it out. My laptop was overheating as i left it on for long periods. When i let it cool down overnight and turned it on the next morning all was fine.