I notice windows modules installer is also using a lot, I believe this is part of the windows update process. There are a lot of people suffering this problem on win 7/8 and the solution was to...

Sailindawg, did Resource Monitor show some silly high % use, in the millions/billions? Does the 'Details' tab in Task Manager show 'System Idle Process' normal? It does sound like you have the same...

In your wake on lan setting, you have magic packet enabled, do you also have pattern matching? I've seen that cause this very issue.

Welcome to the club :)
Removing/disabling stuff is never going to work because the 100% usage reading isn't real.
Are there any BIOS updates for your T5400 motherboard?
Although a BIOS update...

Nice. Unfortunately for me, a newer BIOS isn't an option, this is part of some correspondence I had with Asrock:
In 2011 there has been a recall for Intel 6-series motherboards. The B2 stepping of...

I did have random freezes (hard reboot required) until I did a fresh install, no BSODs tho. I assume yours is also a fresh install?
I'm tempted to download the 7 drivers and see if they actually...

Resource monitor is showing a silly % here too. No Intel drivers to download for me as far as I can tell.
This is a clean install, which I was hoping would solve this issue, but it hasn't :(

Someone here at work has task manager showing the actual clock rate on his laptop, it's changing all the time due to speedstep.
No drivers since 7 for me and the bios situation is bad too.
However,...

I'll have a look at resource monitor when I get home, that's a great find!
I see you have an Asrock P67 Pro, is it the Pro 3 per chance? Guess which mobo I have...
Are you overclocking? I am and...

At last, someone else with the same problem!
I assume the performance tab also shows 100% (including when showing individual cores)? Mine does.
What does your details tab show, does it have system...